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ASHEVILLE, NC –  September 6, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard.

• For the week ending on August 19^th, hospital admissions are at a low level in every county in North Carolina and more than 96% of the counties in the U.S. Buncombe County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are low and have increased from the previous week.
• For the week ending on August 26^th, about 3% of the deaths in North Carolina last week were due to COVID, the 3^rd lowest level of 6 groups.
• Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are low in North Carolina for the week ending on August 26^th. This represents about 2% of all ER visits, the 2^nd lowest of 5 levels.

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on August 23^rd is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

• The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a red level representing the highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 80^th and 100^th percentile relative to the past level measured at the same site.
• The 15-day rate of change of number of viral gene copies in each water sample is increasing from the previous week, at 100% or greater, the highest of the 3 groups for positive rate of change.

In summary, wastewater levels, emergency department visits, and deaths are up from the previous week.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

• COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
• Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized. The CDC recommends that people in these groups get an updated COVID-19 bivalent booster because it gives added protection.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
• For extra protection, wear an efficient medical grade mask
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

More and more Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

GERMANY – August 11, 2023 –  Does it make any difference if a series of vaccinations are in the same arm or different arms? According to a study from Germany that was recently published in eBioMedicine (a peer-reviewed journal from The Lancet Discovery Science series), the first vaccination of the 2-dose COVID-19 series can produce a strong immune response and the 2^nd shot induces a stronger response if it was in the same arm than if it was in the other arm. Therefore, this study supports having all vaccinations from the series in the same arm to achieve the highest protection against getting infected and severe disease.

More than 300 hundred immunocompetent persons without a history of COVID-19 were enrolled in this observational study. They were randomized so that about half had both COVID-19 shots in the same arm and the other half had them in different arms. The 2 groups were similar in age and sex distribution and with blood test evaluation between the number of white blood cells and its cells that fight infection and make antibodies to fight infection.

Some vaccine-sensitive diseases require more than one shot to achieve a good immunization response that is essential in fighting infections. Examples are COVID-19, rabies, tetanus and haemophilus influenza type b (h. flu.) diseases. Many people can’t remember which arm had the first shot. They may get the shots in their non-dominant arm to avoid soreness in their dominant arm.

The immune response after sequential vaccinations has been previously studied by injection site. There was one study of adults after a 4-dose rabies vaccination series and one British study for infants after a 3-dose h. flu regimen, a 3-dose tetanus regimen, and a 3-dose pneumococcal series. In the adult study, there was a higher immune response with injections to the same arm. In the study of children, there was no difference in site-specificity for the pneumococcal and tetanus cohort. In contrast, the h. flu group showed a higher immune response after the second injection in the different leg group than in the same leg.

The vaccine is administered in adults via injection into the deep part of the thick deltoid muscle which surrounds the shoulder. The vaccine is drained into the lymph nodes within the axillary region of the same side, at the junction between the upper arm and the chest wall. These lymph nodes become larger than the other side indicating a higher metabolic activity in response to the shot. Previous studies have shown that the white blood cells responsible for the immune response are stimulated after one vaccination and multiply after a second shot in the same arm. People who had injections into the same arms had a stronger immunogenic response after the subsequent shots than persons injected into different arms.

In contrast to adults, children are injected into the upper thigh region. In children, the upper thigh region does not drain into lymph nodes specific to the same side of the body. Each side merges in the pelvis. The children who had repeat shots on the same side did not have a stronger immune response than if they had their shots in different legs.

Choosing which arm to have the second or sequential vaccination has never been felt to be important. This study shows that adults have a higher immune response following a series of COVID-19 vaccinations if they are in the same arm. Having a higher immune response should be more effective in preventing COVID infection and severe disease. This may be very important for elderly and immunocompromised people who do not usually mount a strong immune response. Injections in the same arm may also be more protective against other vaccine-specific disease that requires more than one vaccination.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC – August 30, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard.

• For the week ending on August 12^th, hospital admissions are at a low level in every county in North Carolina and more than 97% of the counties in the U.S. Buncombe County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have decreased
• For the week ending on August 19^th, between 2-4% of the deaths in North Carolina last week were due to COVID, the 3^rd lowest level of 6 groups.
• Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are low in North Carolina for the week ending on August 19^th, the 2^nd lowest level of 5 groups.

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on August 16^th is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

• The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a red level representing the highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 80^th and 100^th percentile relative to the past level measured at the same site.
• The 15-day rate of change of number of viral gene copies in each water sample is increasing from the previous week, between 10 to 99%, the 2^nd of the 3 groups for positive rate of change.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

• COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
• Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
• For extra protection, wear an efficient medical grade mask
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

Most Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

An updated COVID-19 vaccine will be available at the end of September which targets one of the current versions of the omicron strain. This may be the first of the annual fall shots for COVID-19, similar to the yearly fall shots available for the flu. Most respiratory viral infections, like the flu and COVID-19, increase in the winter when people are indoors and travel during the holiday season. Covid-19 can also spike during the warmer summer months because people head indoors to air-conditioned spaces. Dr. Mandy Cohen, the new Director of the CDC, expects that people will get their annual COVID-19 shot at the same time as their annual flu shot.

As told to the Asheville Citizen-Times on August 10^th, Dr. Jennifer Mullendore, the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Medical Director, said, “COVID is part of our lives. It’s not going away any time in the near future. We just need to have a healthy respect for it and take appropriate action.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour