Media Coverage

An experimental drug has enabled people with obesity or who are overweight to lose about 22.5 percent of their body weight, about 52 pounds on average, in a large trial, the drug’s makers announced. Dr. Robert F. Kushner, an obesity expert at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the new drug can close a so-called treatment gap. Because obesity is a chronic medical condition, patients would need to take tirzepatide for a lifetime.

In order to better support the mental health needs of its students, Chicago Public Schools says it’s planning to expand a pilot program with Lurie Children’s Hospital into hundreds more schools around the city. According to Dr. Tali Raviv, a psychologist and associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “We know that up to 50 percent of adolescents will experience a mental health concern, but only about 20 percent of these youth get care from a specialized mental health provider – and those that do may only receive that care after their symptoms have reached a crisis point.”

Reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases reached an all-time high for the sixth consecutive year in 2019. Dr. Michael Angarone, an infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine, says “Sexually active individuals with multiple partners per year should talk to their primary providers about getting screened for STIs every six months of every year. And should get screened if a partner tells you they’ve tested positive for an STI. Angarone said reducing the number of cases starts with knowledge and awareness around STIs.

The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a warning that three possible cases of the mysterious liver disease being reported in U.S. children, possibly associated with adenovirus, have been detected in Illinois. According to hepatologist and professor of pediatrics, Estella Alonso, MD, the most common symptoms of acute hepatitis include flu-like symptoms, fever, nausea and/or vomiting, abdominal pain or discomfort, and diarrhea. Later symptoms can include dark-colored urine and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes).

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a nationwide public health alert to physicians nationwide, asking doctors to be on the look out for unusual cases of severe liver disease in children. According to Estella Alonso, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “The symptoms of hepatitis in childhood can be vague at first – abdominal pain, loss of appetite, severe fatigue – but then, as it progresses, the children do start to have dark urine, pale stools, yellowing of the whites of their eyes. These are the first things parents notice. And if parents do notice that they should seek medical attention from their pediatrician or in an emergency or urgent care setting as soon as possible.”

Chronic pain is general defined as pain that has lasted three months or longer. It is one of the leading causes of long-term disability in the world. Virtual reality is emerging as an unlikely tool for solving this intractable problem. Research has shown that chronic pain also changes the central nervous system. A. Vania Apkarian’s pain lab at Northwestern University found that when back pain persists, the activity in the brain shifts from the sensory and motor regions to the areas associated with emotion, which include the amygdala and the hippocampus.

According to the CDC, COVID symptoms can appear anywhere from two to 14 days after someone is exposed. According to Northwestern’s Dr. Michael Angarone, an associate professor of medicine in infectious diseases, “So this is the same virus, so SARS Coronavirus 2, so we’re seeing the same symptoms.” These include cough, fatigue, congestion and runny nose.

Masks may be starting to come off around Lake County, but the number of new COVID-19 cases is growing and healthcare officials are reluctant to say the coronavirus pandemic is a thing of the past. Healthcare professionals around Lake County believe the need for people to wear masks and be aware of their surrounds to curb the spread of COVID-19 is a good idea. “Multiple factors besides total number of cases are involved, including severity of illness, hospitalization numbers, burden on the health care system and the impact on our daily lives and routines, said Dr. Michael Bauer, the medical director at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital and clinical associate professor of pediatrics (community based care) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Although the gadgets are a technical achievement, some cardiologists say the information the devices produce isn’t always useful. “The technology has outpaced us,” said Rod Passman, a cardiologist at Northwestern University who’s assisting with a study examining the Apple Watch’s ability to screen for the heart rhythm condition. “Industry came out with these things because they could. Now we’re playing catch-up and trying to figure out what to do with this information.”

Given that at its peak in January, more than 800,000 people were getting COVID-19 on average each day, questions have swirled about how some people have managed to escape the coronavirus so far. According to Robert Murphy, the executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “Especially early on, there were a lot of asymptomatic cases. They either had very minor symptoms that they didn’t expect anything funny or anything more severe, or they had no symptoms at all.” Further, those who haven’t gotten the coronavirus are “very much at risk” and Murphy believes “every unvaccinated person is going to get it before this is over.”