Media Coverage
The work done by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine faculty members (and even some students) is regularly highlighted in newspapers, online media outlets and more. Below you’ll find links to articles and videos of Feinberg in the news.
-
US News & World Report
–
Kids’ COVID More Dangerous When Co-Infected With RSV, Colds
As colds, flu and COVID continue to circle this winter, a new U.S. government study finds that young children infected with COVID plus a second virus tend to become sicker. While severe COVID is rare among children, kids can and do fall ill enough to end up in the hospital. When youngsters have more than one infection, it’s hard to know what’s “driving” their symptoms, said William Muller, MD, PhD, an infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He also noted that severely ill kids are probably more often tested for multiple bugs. But to Muller, the bottom line is straightforward: “We need to vaccinate more,” he said. That means both COVID vaccination and the yearly flu shot, Muller said. Both can be given to children age 6 months or older, and both slash the risk of severe illness. Both doctors stressed that the point is not to alarm parents: The vast majority of children with COVID or the flu do not land in the hospital. At the same time, there are ways to lower those odds.
-
NPR
–
Can you get COVID and the flu at the same time?
If you’re like most Americans, someone in your family or social circle is sick right now with COVID, flu, a cold or RSV. It is in fact, possible, to catch more than one of these germs at the same time. There’s plenty of evidence of people testing positive for, say, COVID and the flu or flu and RSV simultaneously. “Absolutely, you can catch more than one virus at the same time,” says Tina Tan, MD, professor of pediatrics in infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We’ve had kids that have actually had three different viruses. Some of them come in with RSV. They’ve also had influenza and enterovirus. There have been other kids who have presented with COVID and influenza.” The risk for multiple infections is especially high this year because so many viruses have been surging together. “It’s kind of a perfect storm for co-infections,” Tan says. It’s unclear how often this happens because most of the testing for this sort of thing is done on hospitalized patients, who probably aren’t representative of the general public. But some studies have found co-infections in up to 20% of those patients. The risk, however, doesn’t appear to be the same for everyone. Children appear to be far more likely to get more than one bug on top of the other, especially very young kids, researchers say.
-
New York Times
–
Why Kids’ Medication Shortages Aren’t Going Away
Medication shortages aren’t just an American problem, they aren’t limited to children’s medications, and in some instances were becoming a concern before 2020. In the meantime, we may continue to see medication shortages, which is particularly gutting when it comes to our children. Due to the confluence of the flu, RSVP and Covid, shortages have been common. That’s coupled with the outsourcing of production of most active pharmaceutical ingredients in drugs, something that’s been connected to the current amoxicillin shortage. If there are hold ups in getting those active ingredients into the global supply change, that can lead to shortages of essential medications. Sterling Elliot, a clinical pharmacist and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine who has described the shortages of medications in the United States as “a very ugly scenario” that’s been ongoing for years, said the shortages have bubbled up into our consciousness because seeing little kids in harm’s way is so poignantly awful for parents. “There’s no worse feeling on the planet as a parent than the feeling that I cannot help my kid,” he said.
-
Yahoo! News
–
Vaccination rates for kindergarten students are falling. Here’s why doctors say that’s ‘really bad news.’
Childhood vaccination rates have fallen for the third year in a row, according to the CDC. Experts say there are a few potential factors at play. “During the first year of the pandemic, well child care visits dropped dramatically, starting this downward trend in immunization rates,” said Michael Bauer, MD, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. At the same time, the pandemic became politicized and encouraged “a simultaneous rise in public health policies coming into question and distrust in government decisions – leading to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment,” Bauer says. Along with the distrust, Bauer notes “an increase in the number of states enacting laws allowing patients to refuse to vaccinate their children aside from medical reasons.” He adds that “states that have the strictest laws have the highest rates of vaccine compliance.” Both the unvaccinated and those around them can be at risk for getting sick. “Even a slight drop in vaccination rates can lead to dramatic increases in these preventable illnesses, as evidenced by recent outbreaks of measles, which is highly preventable,” Bauer says.
-
US News & World Report
–
Appendicitis Often Spotted Later in Black Patients
While appendicitis is a common emergency, Black people experiencing its symptoms often have a delayed diagnosis. But that doesn’t happen in lower-quality hospitals that serve more Black patients, according to new research. There, Black people are diagnosed more quickly. “There is clearly a benefit to patients being treated in predominantly minority-serving hospitals when they are having symptoms of appendicitis,” said senior author Anne Stey, MD, surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. Symptoms of appendicitis include sudden pain that begins on the right side of the lower abdomen; pain that worsens if you cough, walk or make other jarring movements; nausea and vomiting; and loss of appetite. The researchers found that diagnosis delays were less common in hospitals serving populations that were greater than 50% Black or Hispanic people compared to those where they represented less than 25%. “It may be hospitals that are more used to serving racial-ethnic minority patients are better at diagnosing them, because they’re more culturally informed and have a better understanding of these patients,” Stey said.
-
Yahoo! News
–
As a parent, how worried should I be about my gas stove? Experts weigh in.
Gas stoves have come under scrutiny after a new study linked the common appliance to nearly 13% of cases of childhood asthma. The latest study’s finding that 12.7% of current childhood asthma nationwide is attributed to gas stove use seems extreme – it’s similar to the childhood asthma burden linked to secondhand smoke exposure. “This may not be a true representation of what is happening, and there is uncertainty around how many children with asthma are truly because of those emissions,” said Dr. Deeba Maswood, health system clinician of allergy and immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She further says, “Asthma is a multifactorial disease.”
-
WebMD
–
Raise Your Voice About Your Metastatic Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is a common diagnosis for women of all races. But there are differences along racial lines when it comes to early detection, treatment and survival rates. The disease is deadliest for non-Hispanic Black women. They’re more likely than women of other races or ethnicities to get diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, and they have higher odds of having triple=negative breast cancer, which is a hard-to-treat form of the disease that spreads fast. In order to prevent this it is important for patients to ask about national treatment guidelines. Grace Suh, MD, health system clinician of hematology and oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says she understands why people are worried their race or ethnicity might affect their treatment. Studies show people of color often get a lower quality of care compared to other races. “I try to bring in objective treatment guidelines that are accessible to everybody, not just doctors or people who have money,” Suh says, “so they feel comfortable that they’re receiving the proper care that’s expected for their condition.”
-
The Washington Post
–
Seasonal affective disorder can last for months. Here are the signs.
For millions of Americans, the winter months – when the days get shorter and the nights grow colder – are a time of sadness and struggle. It’s called winter-pattern seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Signs of SAD include excessive sleep, overeating and avoiding social activities. Sunlight is so important to our brain and body that the retinas in our eyes have specialized photoreceptors that send signals to the brain’s perihabenular nucleus, which regulates mood. These receptors also send signals to our central circadian clock, which regulates our circadian cycles in behavior and physiology, said Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a neurologist and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Scientists do not know for certain why some people are more susceptible to SAD, but one theory is that they may have less-sensitive photoreceptors in their eyes, meaning they are not taking in enough sunlight to keep these clocks aligned
-
Chicago Tribune
–
New ‘kraken’ mutation is most contagious subvariant of COVID yet. Here’s what the Chicago area needs to know.
Medical experts say the new COVID-19 mutation dubbed “kraken” is the most contagious subvariant of the virus to emerge since the pandemic began – and it’s becoming the dominant strain in the United States. While the so-called kraken subvariant only accounts for about 7% of cases in Chicago, the city’s top doctor forecast that its prevalence will likely be increasing here in the coming weeks. But Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Genetic Medicine, had a generally optimistic outlook about the COVID landscape, noting that “things look much better this year than they did last year at this same time.” Further she says, “I don’t think we need to be pressing the panic button since case numbers over the last 14 days have been only modestly up or steady,” McNally said. “It’s true we each may know people who got COVID recently, but many of these people had only mild cold symptoms.”
-
NBC 5 Chicago
–
Dr. Jill Biden Just Had It and Many Others Have Too. So What is Mohs Surgery?
Jill Biden underwent a common outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery to remove and examine cancerous lesions, but what exactly is the procedure and who needs it? The procedure she underwent is a common one, typically performed on basal or squamous cell carcinomas. “Mohs surgery sounds very complicated, but Mohs surgery is a very simple procedure that is designed to take out small non-melanoma skin cancers, and sometimes melanoma, in a way that will ensure that all of the cancer cells are out, but as much normal skin as possible is preserved,” said Murad Alam, MD, professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer, but also the most curable form. It’s considered highly treatable, especially when caught early. With six million cases of skin cancer diagnosed every year in the U.S., Alam says it’s important to know that skin cancer is often curable when treated early. “Squamous cell carcinomas absolutely can move to other parts, they can go to other organs cause grave harm,” Alam said. “It’s really important to catch these things when they’re small.”
