Evusheld approved to prevent COVID-19 in people whose immune response is poor #Covid19RftLks

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency | March 2022 | Evusheld approved to prevent COVID-19 in people whose immune response is poor

In a clinical trial in adults, Evusheld was found to reduce the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77 per cent, with protection from the virus continuing for at least 6 months following a single dose.

Developed by AstraZeneca, Evusheld is a combination of two long-acting antibodies that works by binding to the spike protein on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19. This in turn prevents the virus from attaching to and entering human cells.

Evusheld is authorised to be used before being exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection in order to prevent disease (known as ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’).

There is not yet enough data to know how effective Evusheld is against Omicron or the duration of its effect against this variant, and the MHRA will work with the company to establish this.

In a clinical trial in adults, Evusheld was found to reduce the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77 per cent, with protection from the virus continuing for at least 6 months following a single dose.

A single dose of the two medicines, tixagevimab and cilgavimab, should be given as two injections into a muscle by a healthcare professional.

Evusheld approved to prevent COVID-19 in people whose immune response is poor

Ukrainian refugee children to begin lifesaving NHS cancer care

NHS England | March 2022 | Ukrainian refugee children to begin lifesaving NHS cancer care

The 21 Ukrainian children who were evacuated to England, are now all under the care of NHS specialist hospital services and are starting their package of cancer treatment.

Following their arrival on Sunday night, all children have received health assessments from NHS staff and have now been triaged to seven hospitals across England, getting the very best clinical support to meet each patient’s specific needs.

NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard has thanked NHS staff for their efforts to quickly and efficiently protect some of Ukraine’s youngest and most vulnerable young people, and welcomed the latest milestone in the families’ journey.

A team of NHS doctors, nurses and technicians from Southampton Children’s Hospital and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust travelled to Poland at the weekend to provide the children and their families medical support as they flew out of the war-hit region (Source: NHS England).

NHS England Ukrainian refugee children to begin lifesaving NHS cancer care

Two years on: How has the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic changed people’s daily lives? #Covid19RftLks

Office for National Statistics | March 2022 | Two years on: How has the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic changed people’s daily lives?

These releases from the ONS explore the attitudes and behaviours of different social groups in relation to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and feelings of returning to normal.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): disabled people are more likely to feel life will never return to normal

With most restrictions lifted, over half of people in Great Britain were avoiding crowded places and spending more time at home in February 2

Data on coronavirus (COVID-19) and the impacts on behaviours and attitudes to normal life

Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) data on public attitudes and behaviours relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Great Britain: February 2022

Inhaled corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID‐19 #Covid19RftLks

Griesel, M. et al (2022). Inhaled corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID‐19. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Issue 3. Art. No.: CD015125. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD015125. Accessed 17 March 2022.

Inhaled corticosteroids are well established for the long‐term treatment of inflammatory respiratory diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They have been investigated for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). The anti‐inflammatory action of inhaled corticosteroids might have the potential to reduce the risk of severe illness resulting from hyperinflammation in COVID‐19.

The reviewers set out to to assess whether inhaled corticosteroids are effective and safe in the treatment of COVID‐19; and to maintain the currency of the evidence, using a living systematic review approach.

In people with confirmed COVID‐19 and mild symptoms who are able to use inhaler devices, we found moderate‐certainty evidence that inhaled corticosteroids probably reduce the combined endpoint of admission to hospital or death and increase the resolution of all initial symptoms at day 14

In line with Cochrane’s living approach to this work, Cochrane will monitor newly published results of RCTs on inhaled corticosteroids on a monthly basis and will update the review when the evidence or our confidence in the evidence changes.

Read the SR in full from Cochrane

Record 4.3 million referrals to specialist mental health services in 2021

Royal College of Psychiatrists | March 2022 | Record 4.3 million referrals to specialist mental health services in 2021

Mental health services received a record 4.3 million referrals during 2021 as the pandemic continued to take a toll on people’s mental health, according to research by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Analysis of new NHS Digital data shows there were 3.3 million referrals to adult services and 1.025 million referrals of under-18s in England between January and December 2021.

When the Omicron variant of Covid-19 arrived in December, a record one million people were receiving specialist treatment for conditions including addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The NHS is working hard to respond to the unprecedented demand for specialist mental health care delivering 1.8 million consultations in December alone:

• 424,963 children and young people (0 to 18 years) were in contact with mental health services in December 2021 compared with 367,403 in December 2019 (15.7 per cent increase)
• 642,303 adults (19 to 64 years) were in contact with mental health services in December 2021 compared with 612,222 in December 2019 (4.9 per cent increase)
• 1,834,137 appointments attended across mental health, learning disability and autism services compared with 1,599,584 in December 2019 (14.7 per cent increase). (Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists).

Full details from the Royal College of Psychiatrists

In the news:

BBC News NHS struggling with ‘long tail’ of pandemic mental ill health

Royal Osteoperosis Society

Royal Osteoporosis Society | March 2022 | Breaking the silence Strategy 2022-2026

This document sets out the Society’s new strategy, Breaking the silence Strategy 2022-2026. It outlines the visions purposes, values and goals.

Image source: strwebprdmedia.blob.core.windows.net

Breaking the silence Strategy 2022-2026

Antigenic evolution will lead to new SARS-CoV-2 variants with unpredictable severity #Covid19RftLks

Markov, P.V., Katzourakis, A. & Stilianakis, N.I. (2022) Antigenic evolution will lead to new SARS-CoV-2 variants with unpredictable severity. Nat Rev Microbiol . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00722-z

Within this comment published in the Nature Reviews Microbiology the authors argue that the lower severity of Omicron is a coincidence and that ongoing rapid antigenic evolution is likely to produce new variants that may escape immunity and be more severe.

Comment available from Nature Reviews Mircobiology Antigenic evolution will lead to new SARS-CoV-2 variants with unpredictable severity

Building public understanding of health and health inequalities

The Health Foundation | March 2022 | Building public understanding of health and health inequalities

This long read explores reasons behind current public attitudes towards health and inequalities in health outcomes, drawing on polling and public attitudes research by the Health Foundation and others. It considers the role of communication approaches in bringing closer alignment between public understanding and the evidence, referencing findings from the Health Foundation’s ‘Thinking differently about health’ project with the FrameWorks Institute, full findings of which will publish later this month.

Key points

• There is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of what influences health (namely individual behaviour and access to care) and the clear evidence base demonstrating the significance of wider determinants of health.
• In this long read we draw on polling and recent research to explore the reasons behind public attitudes towards health and health inequalities. We look at how public health professionals can use communications techniques to improve public understanding of evidence about health inequalities.
• Research shows that people tend to filter nuanced messages about health through either an individualistic or ecological (structural) lens. Understanding how these different mindsets can promote – or obscure – people’s awareness of the significance of social determinants is an important first step in developing effective ways of framing the evidence.
• We should be aiming to shift more people towards the ecological mindset, while also being wary of a possible sense of inevitability or disempowerment at the scale of complex systemic challenges. To achieve this, we can learn from the recent change in dialogue on climate, and use tangible examples showing structural inequalities (relatable case studies cut through).
• Anyone delivering public health messages must take time to understand how their messages land with the public. With health in the public eye like never before, the forthcoming outputs of the foundation’s  ‘Thinking differently about health’ project (with the FrameWorks Institute) will help public health professionals build better public understanding of health inequalities (Source: The Health Foundation).

Health Foundation Building public understanding of health and health inequalities [long read]

[NICE Guideline Update] Otitis media (acute): antimicrobial prescribing

NICE guideline [NG91] | Published: 28 March 2018 | Last updated: 11 March 2022 | Otitis media (acute): antimicrobial prescribing

This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute otitis media (ear infection). It aims to limit antibiotic use and reduce antimicrobial resistance. Acute otitis media can be caused by viruses or bacteria. It lasts for about a week, and most children get better in 3 days without antibiotics. Serious complications are rare.

NG91 visual summary

Full details are available from NICE