As the US population ages, more hospitals are implementing geriatric emergency department (GED) programs with specialized staff focused on transitional care for older adults aimed at reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and improving outcomes for this vulnerable patient population. A new study finds that providing specialized geriatric emergency care results in lower Medicare expenditures up to $3,200 per beneficiary.
Credit: ATS
March 1, 2021 - A new paper published online in the
Annals of the American Thoracic Society discusses how smoking may affect risk for COVID-19 and the types of research that are needed to better understand the link between smoking and COVID-19 risk.
In Smoking and COVID-19: The Real Deal, Enid Neptune, MD, and Michelle N. Eakin, PhD, of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, discuss research to date on this topic and propose areas of research that can help clarify this relationship.
Studies have shown that current smokers with COVID-19 have twice the risk of dying in the hospital as nonsmokers. However, the data on whether tobacco use increases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is mixed.
E-Mail
IMAGE: The SARS-CoV-2 virus inserts itself into the membrane of a host human cell using a small part of its spike protein (yellow), called a fusion peptide. Computer simulations revealed the. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Defne Gorgun.
ROCKVILLE, MD - If the coronavirus were a cargo ship, it would need to deliver its contents to a dock in order to infect the host island. The first step of infection would be anchoring by the dock, and step two would be tethering to the dock to bring the ship close enough that it could set up a gangplank and unload. Most treatments and vaccines have focused on blocking the ability of the ship to anchor, but the next step is another potential target. New research by Defne Gorgun, a graduate student, and colleagues in the lab of Emad Tajkhorshid at the University of Illinois addresses the molecular details of this second step, which could inform the design of drugs that block it. Gorgun will present her research on Thursday,
E-Mail
IMAGE: A structure of an antibody, called Z004 (shown in purple), bound to the envelope domain III protein of Zika virus (shown in gold). view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Shannon Esswein.
ROCKVILLE, MD - The Zika outbreak of 2015 and 2016 is having lasting impacts on children whose mothers became infected with the virus while they were pregnant. Though the numbers of Zika virus infections have dropped, which scientists speculate may be due to herd immunity in some areas, there is still potential for future outbreaks. To prevent such outbreaks, scientists want to understand how the immune system recognizes Zika virus, in hopes of developing vaccines against it. Shannon Esswein, a graduate student, and Pamela Bjorkman, a professor, at the California Institute of Technology, have new insights on how the body s antibodies attach to Zika virus. Esswein will present the work, which was published in PNAS, on Thursday, February 25 at the 65th Biophysical Society Ann