Health
Pope Francis Has Bilateral Pneumonia
Pope Francis, who remains hospitalized, has bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
The term simply means pneumonia in both lungs, said Dr. James Musser, director of the center for infectious diseases at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. He added that, without examining a patient, he could not say anything specific about his condition.
In general, pneumonia is an infection of the small airways of the lungs. As the body mounts an inflammatory response, small pockets in the lungs fill with immune cells; symptoms can include fever, cough and shaking chills. To diagnose the illness, a doctor typically asks the patient to say a long “e,” as if the person were singing. Through a stethoscope, the “e” of a pneumonia patient sounds like an “a,” said Dr. Paul Pottinger, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Washington.
Most people with pneumonia recover well at home and do not need to be hospitalized. But for older people, pneumonia can be “a deadly situation,” infectious disease experts said.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, added that “the mortality rate goes up after age 85.” The pope is 88, and is missing part of one lung after pulmonary surgery in 1957.
The most likely cause of pneumonia is an infection caused by a bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, according to Dr. Chin-Hong. “The No. 1, 2 and 3 cause of pneumonia is strep pneumonia,” he said.
The illness can respond to antibiotics, but bacteria can sometimes spill out of the lungs and into the rest of the body, resulting in sepsis, a dangerous situation. A vaccine can help mitigate this sepsis risk but does not prevent the condition, Dr. Chin-Hong said.
Dr. Pottinger noted that, although strep pneumonia can involve both lungs, it usually is confined to one lobe of one lung. Most bilateral pneumonia, he said, is caused by viruses, including influenza, or other bacteria. Other causes include respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., Legionella, mycoplasma and chlamydia, Dr. Pottinger said.
He agreed with Dr. Chin-Hong about the likely gravity of the pope’s condition.
“It is a very scary situation,” Dr. Pottinger said.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first at-home screening test for cervical cancer, the product’s maker announced on Friday.
The DIY test could serve as an alternative to in-person “Pap smears,” which are recommended every three years for women up to age 65.
The self-collection device — the Teal Wand, made by Teal Health in San Francisco — allows women to procure a sample and mail it in for laboratory analysis.
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The test is designed to detect human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes almost all cervical cancer cases.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first at-home screening test for cervical cancer, the product’s maker announced on Friday. (iStock)
The approval comes after a clinical trial including more than 600 women, in which the Teal Wand had a 96% accuracy rate of detecting cervical precancers.
In the study, 86% of participants said they’d be more likely to comply with cervical cancer screening recommendations if they could do it at home, Teal Health reported.
Additionally, 94% said they would prefer to self-collect at home as long as the results were accurate.
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“Cervical cancer is largely preventable, yet screening rates in the U.S. continue to lag, and the FDA approval of this at-home Teal Wand self-collection device is a critical step forward,” said Dr. Christine Conageski, associate professor, OB-GYN and director of the Complex Dysplasia Clinic at the University of Colorado, who was a principal investigator in the SELF-CERV trial.
“It offers an evidence-based way to expand access without compromising accuracy,” she added in a statement.
“Cervical cancer is largely preventable, yet screening rates in the U.S. continue to lag, and the FDA approval of this at-home Teal Wand self-collection device is a critical step forward,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Approximately 11,500 new cervical cancer diagnoses are made in the U.S. each year, and the disease causes 4,000 annual deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to the cervical cancer risk, some higher-risk incidences of HPV can also cause other types of cancers, according to experts.
“Any type of test that helps detect cervical cancer is a win.”
Women between the ages of 25 and 65 who are at average risk of cervical cancer will soon be able to order the at-home test at www.getteal.com, according to the company’s announcement.
Kits are expected to first become available in California starting in June, with plans to expand across the country “as soon as possible,” the company said in its announcement.
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“Teal is working with major insurance providers and plans to have flexible payment options, helping to remove financial concerns and ensuring more women have access to this preferred at-home screening if they want it,” the company stated.
Approximately 11,500 new cervical cancer diagnoses are made in the U.S. each year, and the disease causes 4,000 annual deaths. (iStock)
In addition to the collection kit, the product also includes a telehealth service with support from medical providers throughout the process.
Women who test positive for HPV will be referred for a traditional Pap smear. Those who do not test positive are not considered at risk of cervical cancer and will not need to screen again for three to five years.
“Some women are scared of a traditional Pap smear or find the process uncomfortable — as a result, they put off this vital test,” said Ami Vaidya M.D., co-chief of gynecologic oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center’s John Theurer Cancer Center, in a press release. (She was not involved in the trial.)
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“This could be an important tool in getting more women regularly screened, especially those who don’t have access to a medical provider. Any type of test that helps detect cervical cancer is a win.”
President Trump said on Wednesday that he would nominate Casey Means, a Stanford-educated doctor turned critic of corporate influence on medicine and health, as surgeon general.
Dr. Means, an ally of the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has described becoming disillusioned by establishment medicine. She rose to prominence last year after she and her brother, Calley Means, a White House health adviser and former food industry lobbyist, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show.
What is her field of medicine?
Dr. Means, who trained as an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon, left surgery behind without finishing her training to practice so-called functional medicine, which focuses on addressing the root causes of disease. She published a diet and self-help book last year titled “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.” Before that, she had been best known for founding Levels, a company that offers subscribers wearable glucose monitors to track their health.
She has focused on the prevalence of chronic diseases in the United States and has taken aim at obesity, diabetes and infertility, problems she has attributed to the use of chemicals and medications and Americans’ sedentary lifestyles.
What has she said about vaccines?
Dr. Means has echoed some of Mr. Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines, calling on the new administration to study their “cumulative effects” and to weaken liability protections offered to vaccine makers as a way of encouraging them to develop new shots.
“There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children,” she wrote in an October newsletter.
Child health experts are adamantly opposed to trimming the list of recommended immunizations, warning that such changes would trigger outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases. And they have noted that the government makes available the safety data used to license vaccines and the safety data generated after they are put into use.
What has she said about the food supply?
Dr. Means has also pushed for a concerted campaign to pare back corporate-friendly policies related to the production and sale of food and medicine. For example, she has supported serving more nutritious meals in public schools, investigating the use of chemicals in American food, putting warning labels on ultra-processed foods, forbidding pharmaceutical companies from advertising directly to patients on television and reducing the influence of industry among drug and food regulators.
“American health is getting destroyed,” she said at a Senate round table event on food and nutrition in September. “If the current trends continue, if the graphs continue in the way that they’re going, at best we’re going to face profound societal instability and decreased American competitiveness, and at worst, we’re going to be looking at a genocidal-level health collapse.”
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