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ASHEVILLE, NC – June 1, 2022 – The Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on May 21 indicate:

• There are 306 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 7 days up 14% from the previous week.
• 66% of the total population have received their full primary vaccination series. This is unchanged for over 2 months
• 62% of people with full primary vaccination series have had at least one booster. This has unchanged over 2 weeks.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased by 45% over the past week and of ICU patients have increased by 1 adult over the previous week.
• The CDC reports that the risk level for Buncombe County is low for the week ending May 26^th.
• Wastewater surveillance may provide an early warning before individual testing shows that COVID-19 is spreading. The state dashboard reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load for the Metropolitan Sewer District for Buncombe County is moderately decreasing for the time period ending May18^th. The CDC website reports that the rate of change is also moderately decreasing for the time period ending May 24^th.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Get vaccinated and boosted when eligible.
• People with any COVID symptoms or exposure to someone with COVID should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

Vaccination sites and testing sites can be located through the North Carolina and Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

Save your face masks:

• The risk level may rise with a new variant
• A person at high risk for severe illness should speak with their health care provider
• Mask wearing is recommended for persons with a positive test, having symptoms, or exposure to someone with COVID-19
• Effective May 4, 2022, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services and the CDC recommend wearing masks in health care and long-term care settings. The N95 or KN95 mask offers the best protection. Wear a mask that is well-fitting.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

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

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

SYDNEY – May 7, 2022 – This week researchers from Sydney released the results of a study that confirmed a blood test to identify infants at risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). SIDS accounts for about 37% of sudden unexpected infant deaths a year in the U.S. The cause is unknown.

SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old while sleeping. Parents are told that SIDS could be prevented if they take proper precautions such as: laying babies on their backs, not letting them overheat and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib. However, many children still die from SIDS despite parents following these precautions. Therefore, parents are left with immense guilt.

One of these parents, Dr. Carmel Harrington is the lead researcher for the study. Her infant son died 29 years ago. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Harrington said, “These families can now live with the knowledge that this was not their fault.”

The Sydney researchers found the activity of an enzyme that plays a major role in the brain’s sleep arousal pathway was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS. According to the Mayo Clinic, SIDS could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep. If an infant with this defect stopped breathing during sleep, then the child may be unable to wake up. The study analyzed dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other causes and blood taken from healthy babies.

The researchers opined, “This finding represents the possibility for the identification of infants at risk for SIDS prior to death and opens new avenues for future research into specific interventions.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

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

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

WASHINGTON – May 12, 2022 – White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha recently forecast that Americans will be increasingly vulnerable to the coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress doesn’t quickly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments. In an Associated Press interview, Jha said Americans’ immune protection from the virus is waning, the virus is adapting to be more contagious and booster doses for most people will be necessary. Jha said most deaths from the virus now are preventable with vaccinations, boosters, and therapeutics so they need to be readily available.

The White House said there could be up to 100 million COVID infections later this year – and there have already been 1 million deaths. Jha said, “As we get to the fall, we are all going to have a lot more vulnerability to a virus that has a lot more immune escape than even it does today and certainly than it did six months ago.” Jha predicted that the next generation of vaccines, which are likely to be targeted at the currently prevailing omicron strain, “are going to provide a much, much higher degree of protection against the virus that we will encounter in the fall and winter.”

Biden requested $22.5 billion in emergency funding for the virus response in March, but the money has been held up by sticker shock in Congress, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and the expiring Trump administration’s migrant restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border. Jha said he’s been making the case to lawmakers for additional funding for weeks. He opines that there is “no viable alternative path” right now than to have the U.S. government take the lead in securing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

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

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

ASHEVILLE, NC – May 3, 2022 – The Buncombe County COVID-19 Community & Media Update has been posted to county website. Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on May 14 indicate:

• There are 268 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 7 days up 14% from the previous week.
• 66% of the total population have received their full primary vaccination series. This is unchanged for over 2 months
• 62% of people with full primary vaccination series have had at least one booster. This has unchanged since last week.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased by 53% over the past week and of ICU patients have decreased by 1 adult over the previous week.
• The CDC reports that the risk level for Buncombe County is low for the week ending May 12^th.
• Wastewater surveillance may provide an early warning before individual testing shows that COVID-19 is spreading. The state dashboard reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load for the Metropolitan Sewer District for Buncombe County is moderately increasing for the time period ending May11^th. The CDC website reports that the rate of change is moderately decreasing for the time period ending May 14^th.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Get vaccinated and boosted when eligible.
• People with any COVID symptoms or exposure to someone with COVID should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

Vaccination sites and testing sites can be located through the North Carolina and Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

Save your face masks:

• The risk level may rise with a new variant
• A person at high risk for severe illness should speak with their health care provider
• Mask wearing is recommended for persons with a positive test, having symptoms, or exposure to someone with COVID-19
• Effective May 4, 2022, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services and the CDC recommends wearing masks in health care and long-term care settings. The N95 or KN95 mask offers the best protection. Wear a mask that is well-fitting.

There are rising COVID-19 infections nationwide spurred by the more transmissible omicron variants, waning immunity from vaccines and fewer people wearing face masks. One third of Americans live in an area with medium or high COVID risk. There are rising cases and hospitalizations although death rates remain low. Areas of increased infection risk, as defined by the CDC, are in the Northeast and parts of the Upper Midwest. Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, recommends that people living in those regions should consider wearing face masks in indoor public settings and adopt public health measures of protection and testing before going to indoor gatherings. Public health experts feel that people who test positive for COVID-19 should see a health care provider as soon as possible to find out if they are candidates for early treatment to prevent severe illness because treatments only work if begun quickly.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

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

 

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

ST LOUIS, MO – April 27, 2022 – New research found that a blood biomarker test may detect Alzheimer’s disease in older adults with memory problems. In two studies published April 21 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, showed that a blood test accurately detected the protein amyloid in 81% of samples when compared with an imaging scan of the brain. Amyloid accumulates and forms clumps in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Experts say the tests are important because they would be easier, cheaper and available to more people than brain imaging scans or spinal taps which are now used to detect biological hallmarks of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease afflicts an estimated 6.5 million Americans. This blood test, which is not yet covered by Medicare or private insurers, costs $1,250.

Blood tests represent “a very early start to a new era of diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Doctor Stephen Salloway, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Brown University who directs a memory and aging program at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. “I see them as being transformative for Alzheimer’s, because once we validate them a little bit further, and hopefully get coverage for them, we can use them both to screen for clinical trials and to screen for treatment.”

It is hope that a blood test would be a biomarker that would detect early Alzheimer’s disease, informing individuals of their risk years before memory and thinking problems occur, and measure the effectiveness of treatment for early disease too. Researchers and drug companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two decades on the theory that drugs clearing amyloid from the brain could slow memory decline.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

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

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour