Why Are Synthetic Opioids so Dangerous? An ER Doc Explains
The U.S. is facing an alarming increase in overdose deaths among young people due to synthetic opioids. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased more than 20-fold between 2013 and 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overdoses and drug poisonings are now the third leading cause of death in people under age 20, behind firearms and motor vehicle crashes. The overdose death counts among U.S. youth ages 15 to 24 rose from 4,652 to 6,723 between 2018 and 2022, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. (A slight decrease occurred between 2021 and 2022.)
The largest increase was seen in deaths involving only synthetic opioids: Since 2020, fatal overdoses involving only these substances were higher than overdoses in which multiple substances were implicated. Overdose rates were nearly 2.5 times higher among male youths compared with female youths and more than two times higher among those ages 20 to 24 compared with those ages 15 to 19.
Grace Schara’s Wrongful Death Trial Against Ascension St. Elizabeth Begins
The jury trial involving the death of Grace Schara, 19, at an Ascension hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic got underway June 3 in Outagamie County Circuit Court. The Freedom teen died Oct. 13, 2021, seven days after she was admitted to Ascension NE Wisconsin-St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton for symptoms of COVID-19 infection. Scott Schara, her dad, sued the hospital a year and a half later in a wrongful death case that includes claims of medical negligence, violation of informed consent and battery.
Dr. Gavin Shokar, who was the primary doctor in charge of Grace’s care, and Hollee McInnis, a registered nurse who provided medications to Grace while she was a patient in the intensive care unit, are also named as defendants in the case. In an approximately 30-minute opening statement, Warner Mendenhall, one of Schara’s attorneys, said Grace’s stay at St. Elizabeth was a precautionary measure to provide her with supplementary oxygen and steroids.
But she quickly began facing issues. On two occasions shortly after she was admitted, on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, Grace was given Precedex, which “dangerously lowered her blood pressure and pulse,” Mendenhall claimed. On both occasions, Grace’s condition improved after medical staff stopped or turned down her dose of the medication, he said.
Trans-Amplifying mRNA Vaccine Effective, Cheap to Develop
Inside Precision Medicine reported:
A new type of mRNA vaccine has been developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University that is more effective and cheaper to develop than vaccines currently on the market.
The vaccine is still at an early stage and is yet to be tested in humans, but the researchers believe their prototype vaccine could help drug developers and health authorities respond more quickly to new pathogens or to new variants of known pathogens such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus or different strains of influenza.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic five different strains of SARS-CoV-2 emerged — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron — making existing vaccines less effective. “The emergence of novel variants that compromise vaccine immunity presents a significant challenge, requiring continuous evaluation of vaccine efficacy, and regular updates to maintain effectiveness,” write lead author Suresh Kuchipudi, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues in npj Vaccines.
Use of GLP-1 Medications for Weight Management Growing Substantially
More than 2% of adult patients now take a GLP-1 drug to treat overweight or obesity, according to newly released FAIR Health data, with much of the increase occurring over the past few years. Among all adult patients, the percentage who had an overweight or obesity diagnosis and were prescribed a GLP-1 drug increased from 0.3% in 2019 to 2.05% in 2024, a relative increase of 586.7%, the white paper found.
The percentage who received an overweight or obesity diagnosis but no type 2 diabetes diagnosis increased 1,960.9%, from 0.03% to 0.67%.
The percentage of all commercially insured adult patients prescribed a GLP-1 drug increased from 0.9% in 2019 to 4% in 2024, a relative increase of 363.7%, with prescriptions for young adults (aged 18-39) increasing 587.8% over that time, from 0.19% to 1.33%. The percentage of adult patients who had bariatric surgery decreased from 0.12% in 2019 to 0.07% in 2024, a relative decrease of 41.8%.
Report Highlights Evidence, Remaining Data Gaps on Vaccines and Antibiotic Resistance
The Wellcome Trust last week released a new report on the role that vaccines can play in tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The report summarizes the findings from 11 Wellcome-funded research projects that aimed to fill critical evidence gaps on vaccines and AMR, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
A World Health Organization modeling study published in 2024 estimated that vaccines could avert more than half a million deaths from drug-resistant infections annually, cut AMR-related healthcare costs and productivity losses by billions of dollars, and reduce the number of antibiotics needed to treat infections by 2.5 billion doses annually. The 11 projects looked at real-world data on how vaccines can combat AMR across different pathogens, settings, and research methods.
The report reveals that the relationship between vaccination and its impact on AMR is “rarely straightforward.” For example, evidence from flu, typhoid, pneumococcal, malaria, and diarrheal disease studies indicate that vaccines can reduce antibiotic use, but inconsistently, with the effects varying by pathogen, settings, and healthcare system. In addition, vaccination affects microbial population dynamics, and the frequency of horizontal gene transfer, in different and unpredictable ways.
