Latest news with #ScottRoberts
Health Line
19-06-2025
- Health
- Health Line
New COVID Variant Nimbus May Cause Painful ‘Razor Blade Throat' Symptom
The Nimbus variant of COVID-19 is on the rise, as many have reported a painful symptom they're calling 'razor blade throat.' If you have a severe sore throat, it's important to get tested to rule out strep throat to avoid severe complications. COVID-19 precautions like masking and vaccination remain important. A newly identified COVID-19 variant called 'Nimbus' is rapidly spreading in the United States and making headlines with a common symptom that's turning heads in exam rooms. People contracting a COVID-19 infection are reporting an unusually intense sore throat, described as feeling like swallowing razor blades. Some think this symptom, dubbed 'razor blade throat,' may set this variant apart from earlier ones. However, experts aren't so sure. Sore throat has long been recognized as a COVID-19 symptom. Early data suggest Nimbus may not cause more severe illness overall, but reports of severe sore throats are raising questions about how this variant might differ from its predecessors. Here's what experts told Healthline about the Nimbus variant — and what you should know. Nimbus is more transmissible, but not as severe According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nimbus, also known as NB.1.8.1, is a subvariant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Yale School of Medicine Assistant Professor Scott Roberts, MD, explained that Nimbus currently accounts for about one-third of COVID-19 cases in the United States. 'It is more transmissible than the current circulating variants because of several mutations in the spike protein that make it distinct from the others,' he told Healthline. 'But, it is still an omicron subvariant related to some variants that were circulating previously, so I suspect there will be an increase in cases, but not a wave to the degree we have had previously.' Kartik Cherabuddi, MD, FIDSA, Chief Hospital Epidemiology Officer at Tampa General Hospital, noted that while Nimbus is currently surging around the world, the public health risk is still low compared to other Omicron lineages. 'Early and limited laboratory data do not show a significant capability to evade the immune system or increased resistance to antiviral treatment,' he told Healthline. Cherabuddi added that no reported studies are currently available on the impact of Nimbus on clinical outcomes. However, '[r]outine surveillance, so far, does not reveal an increase in hospitalization or death,' he said. 'Razor blade throat' may not be a new COVID symptom Roberts said the symptoms of the Nimbus variant are the same as those of prior COVID-19 variants, including fever, cough, and sore throat. 'The 'razor blade throat' is anecdotal and there is no evidence to suggest that this variant leads to more severe sore throat than other variants,' he added. Roberts advised, however, if you do have a sore throat, it would be a good idea to test for COVID-19 to make sure it is not the cause. If your sore throat is severe, he also recommends checking in with your doctor to rule out strep throat. Other common symptoms of COVID-19 include loss of taste or smell and fatigue. Less frequently, individuals may experience: sore throat headaches body aches diarrhea skin rash discoloration of fingers or toes red, irritated eyes Symptoms of strep throat may include: sudden fever sore throat with white patches headache chills loss of appetite swollen lymph nodes problems with swallowing Experts say it's important to distinguish strep throat from COVID-19. Unlike COVID-19, which is caused by a virus, strep throat is a bacterial infection caused by group A Streptococcus. Strep throat often requires antibiotic treatment to prevent potentially serious complications. These may include peritonsillar abscesses (pus-filled infections behind the tonsils), rheumatic fever (which can damage the heart, joints, and skin), post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (a type of kidney inflammation), and, in rare cases, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome or meningitis. How to protect yourself from the Nimbus variant The first thing to know about protecting yourself from the Nimbus variant is that nothing has really changed in this department. 'The same tools that worked before will still work: handwashing, avoiding people who are sick, good ventilation, getting vaccinated, and masking in high risk settings,' said Roberts. The CDC recommends the vaccine for most adults ages 18 and older to maintain protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. Older adults, high risk individuals, and those who've never been vaccinated are especially encouraged to get it. Parents should consult a healthcare professional for kids under 18. The CDC additionally notes that immunity from previous vaccines wanes over time, making updated vaccination important. COVID-19 vaccine recommendations may also change soon, making it more difficult for healthy adults, children, and pregnant people to get one. Cherabuddi added there are certain symptoms that would indicate you need to consult with a physician, such as: severe throat pain throat pain that lasts longer than a week weight loss food sticking in your throat new or worsened shortness of breath 'If any of these red flags occur, have it checked out,' he said.
Economic Times
13-06-2025
- Health
- Economic Times
Your Covid vaccination might save your kidneys, reveals UCLA study
A UCLA Health study reveals that Covid-19 vaccination significantly reduces the risk of severe kidney damage in hospitalized patients. Unvaccinated individuals were 16% more likely to require continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) during hospitalization and faced a higher risk of death after discharge. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A new study from UCLA Health has found that being vaccinated against Covid-19 may significantly lower the risk of severe kidney damage among hospitalized patients. The research, which analyzed data from approximately 3,500 patients admitted between March 2020 and March 2022, revealed that those who had been vaccinated were considerably less likely to require continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT)—a form of dialysis used in intensive care settings—compared to their unvaccinated to the findings, unvaccinated Covid patients were 16% more likely to need CRRT during their hospital stay and more than two-and-a-half times as likely to require it after discharge. Additionally, unvaccinated patients faced a higher risk of death following discharge. CRRT, often used in critical care units, helps perform the essential functions of damaged kidneys by continuously filtering waste from the author Dr. Niloofar Nobakht, a nephrology professor at UCLA, explained that this nonstop dialysis is vital for patients in intensive care whose kidneys can no longer function study defined vaccinated individuals as those who had received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine. Its goal was to assess the severity of kidney injury in Covid patients requiring CRRT during and after some experts caution against overinterpreting the results due to a major limitation: the study lacked data on the patients' baseline kidney health prior to infection. Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, told NBC News that it's unclear how well the kidneys were functioning before Covid, making it difficult to fully determine how much of the benefit was due to vaccination alone. He also explained that Covid can damage the kidneys directly or indirectly—through harm to other organs such as the lungs or heart—with disease severity being the main factor in kidney Chen, a biostatistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, added that serious kidney complications are typically associated with severe Covid cases and are rare among those with mild or asymptomatic infections. He emphasized that the risk of post-Covid kidney complications is especially high for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.A nephrologist at Yale University, Dr. F. Perry Wilson told NBC that the primary reason vaccinated individuals have lower kidney injury rates is because they tend to experience less severe illness. He pointed out that while vaccines don't directly protect kidney cells, they reduce the severity of disease, which in turn helps prevent systemic complications like multi-organ medical professionals also raised concerns about individuals with glomerulonephritis, a kidney condition affecting the organ's filtering units. Dr. Jeffrey S. Berns, a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC that reports of both adults and children experiencing relapses or new onset of glomerulonephritis after Covid infection and, in some cases, following vaccination. Although he was not involved in the UCLA study, Berns urged caution for this subset of the research focused on adults, children may also face kidney risks from Covid. Chen highlighted findings from his team's separate study showing that children with prior Covid infections had a 35% higher risk of developing new chronic kidney disease within six months.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Covid study shows another reason to get vaccinated: Protecting the kidneys
Complications from a Covid infection can harm the heart, brain, lungs and kidneys. A new study finds that patients hospitalized for Covid were less likely to suffer severe kidney damage if they were vaccinated. Researchers at UCLA Health analyzed electronic medical records at a large academic hospital between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022, of approximately 3,500 hospitalized patients, ages 18 and older, and compared hospitalized patients who got at least two primary doses of the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine for Covid with hospitalized patients who had not been vaccinated. The researchers examined which participants developed kidney disease severe enough to require a type of dialysis known as CRRT, or continuous renal replacement therapy. The nonstop dialysis therapy does the work of the kidneys by filtering and removing waste from the blood. It's typically used when a patient is in intensive care, said lead author Dr. Niloofar Nobakht, health sciences clinical associate professor of medicine in nephrology at UCLA Health. The study found that 16% of unvaccinated patients with Covid were more likely to need CRRT, compared with 11% of vaccinated patients during their hospital admission. Unvaccinated patients were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to need CRRT after leaving the hospital — and also had a much higher risk of dying after being discharged, compared with vaccinated patients. In a 2021 study, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine found that among hospitalized patients with Covid, approximately 30% develop acute kidney injury — an abrupt, usually reversible form of kidney dysfunction. Patients hospitalized with Covid were twice as likely to need dialysis than patients hospitalized for other reasons. There is a major limitation in the new study. The researchers did not have the full data on baseline kidney status for the patients —meaning, it's not known how well their kidneys were functioning before the infection — so the benefits of the vaccine may be overestimated or underestimated, said Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, who was not part of the new study. Covid can injure the kidneys either directly or by damaging other organs such as the heart and lungs, Roberts said. The more severe the symptoms, the greater the risk. 'Conversely, mild or asymptomatic infections rarely cause significant kidney harm,' said Yong Chen, a professor of biostatistics and director of the Center for Health AI and Synthesis of Evidence at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not associated with the new study. Chen researches Covid complications, including kidney problems, in children and adolescents. The risk of post-Covid kidney complications is especially high in older people or the immunocompromised, but it's likely connected to the severity of the initial infection, rather than the virus itself, experts say. 'Comparing Covid to people hospitalized with flu, for example, shows that both have an elevated risk of kidney injury, and it seems to track with how sick they were during their hospitalization,' said Dr. F. Perry Wilson, associate professor of medicine and public health at Yale University School of Medicine who has studied kidney injury in Covid patients. 'Among people with Covid, I would expect that, all else being equal, the vaccinated group just has less severe disease and thus less kidney trouble.' 'Vaccination protects kidneys mainly by preventing the severe forms of Covid that cause kidney injury,' Chen said. 'While vaccines don't directly shield kidney cells, they blunt the systemic illness that otherwise leads to multi-organ failure.' However, both Covid infection and the vaccines may be risky for people with glomerulonephritis, a type of kidney disease where the filtering units known as glomeruli get damaged Dr. Jeffrey S. Berns, clinical nephrologist and professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said there are reports of adults and children with glomerulonephritis having a relapse of the condition or developing the condition for the first time following Covid infection and also vaccination. Berns was not part of the study. The study only applied to people 18 and older, but experts say children with Covid can get acute kidney injury and some of them may have permanent kidney damage. 'In a study led by our team, the results also showed that children with prior Covid had a 35% higher risk of new-onset chronic kidney disease over six months,' Chen said. In late May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend routine Covid shots for healthy children and pregnant women. Doctors say it's too soon to know whether the revised guidelines would contribute to unvaccinated children's increased risk of kidney injury. Even as a new variant of the Covid virus is gaining momentum in the United States, there are fewer cases of acute kidney injury associated with the illness than in the early years of the pandemic. 'As more and more people got vaccinated and or had some degree of immunity from prior infection, disease severity was not as bad and AKI became much less common,' Berns said. This article was originally published on
Time of India
13-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Your Covid vaccination might save your kidneys, reveals UCLA study
A new study from UCLA Health has found that being vaccinated against Covid-19 may significantly lower the risk of severe kidney damage among hospitalized patients. The research, which analyzed data from approximately 3,500 patients admitted between March 2020 and March 2022, revealed that those who had been vaccinated were considerably less likely to require continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT)—a form of dialysis used in intensive care settings—compared to their unvaccinated counterparts. According to the findings, unvaccinated Covid patients were 16% more likely to need CRRT during their hospital stay and more than two-and-a-half times as likely to require it after discharge. Additionally, unvaccinated patients faced a higher risk of death following discharge. CRRT, often used in critical care units, helps perform the essential functions of damaged kidneys by continuously filtering waste from the blood. Lead author Dr. Niloofar Nobakht, a nephrology professor at UCLA, explained that this nonstop dialysis is vital for patients in intensive care whose kidneys can no longer function properly. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Neuropathy & Nerve Damage? Do This Immediately Health Journal Britain Learn More Undo The study defined vaccinated individuals as those who had received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine. Its goal was to assess the severity of kidney injury in Covid patients requiring CRRT during and after hospitalization. However, some experts caution against overinterpreting the results due to a major limitation: the study lacked data on the patients' baseline kidney health prior to infection. Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, told NBC News that it's unclear how well the kidneys were functioning before Covid, making it difficult to fully determine how much of the benefit was due to vaccination alone. He also explained that Covid can damage the kidneys directly or indirectly—through harm to other organs such as the lungs or heart—with disease severity being the main factor in kidney injury. Live Events Yong Chen, a biostatistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, added that serious kidney complications are typically associated with severe Covid cases and are rare among those with mild or asymptomatic infections. He emphasized that the risk of post-Covid kidney complications is especially high for older adults and people with weakened immune systems. A nephrologist at Yale University, Dr. F. Perry Wilson told NBC that the primary reason vaccinated individuals have lower kidney injury rates is because they tend to experience less severe illness. He pointed out that while vaccines don't directly protect kidney cells, they reduce the severity of disease, which in turn helps prevent systemic complications like multi-organ failure. Some medical professionals also raised concerns about individuals with glomerulonephritis, a kidney condition affecting the organ's filtering units. Dr. Jeffrey S. Berns, a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC that reports of both adults and children experiencing relapses or new onset of glomerulonephritis after Covid infection and, in some cases, following vaccination. Although he was not involved in the UCLA study, Berns urged caution for this subset of patients. While the research focused on adults, children may also face kidney risks from Covid. Chen highlighted findings from his team's separate study showing that children with prior Covid infections had a 35% higher risk of developing new chronic kidney disease within six months.
NBC News
13-06-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Covid vaccination protects against severe kidney damage, study suggests
Complications from a Covid infection can harm the heart, brain, lungs and kidneys. A new study finds that patients hospitalized for Covid were less likely to suffer severe kidney damage if they were vaccinated. Researchers at UCLA Health analyzed electronic medical records at a large academic hospital between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022, of approximately 3,500 hospitalized patients, ages 18 and older, and compared hospitalized patients who got at least two primary doses of the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine for Covid with hospitalized patients who had not been vaccinated. The researchers examined which participants developed kidney disease severe enough to require a type of dialysis known as CRRT, or continuous renal replacement therapy. The nonstop dialysis therapy does the work of the kidneys by filtering and removing waste from the blood. It's typically used when a patient is in intensive care, said lead author Dr. Niloofar Nobakht, health sciences clinical associate professor of medicine in nephrology at UCLA Health. The study found that 16% of unvaccinated patients with Covid were more likely to need CRRT, compared with 11% of vaccinated patients during their hospital admission. Unvaccinated patients were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to need CRRT after leaving the hospital — and also had a much higher risk of dying after being discharged, compared with vaccinated patients. In a 2021 study, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine found that among hospitalized patients with Covid, approximately 30% develop acute kidney injury — an abrupt, usually reversible form of kidney dysfunction. Patients hospitalized with Covid were twice as likely to need dialysis than patients hospitalized for other reasons. There is a major limitation in the new study. The researchers did not have the full data on baseline kidney status for the patients —meaning, it's not known how well their kidneys were functioning before the infection — so the benefits of the vaccine may be overestimated or underestimated, said Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, who was not part of the new study. How Covid can damage the kidneys Covid can injure the kidneys either directly or by damaging other organs such as the heart and lungs, Roberts said. The more severe the symptoms, the greater the risk. 'Conversely, mild or asymptomatic infections rarely cause significant kidney harm,' said Yong Chen, a professor of biostatistics and director of the Center for Health AI and Synthesis of Evidence at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not associated with the new study. Chen researches Covid complications, including kidney problems, in children and adolescents. The risk of post-Covid kidney complications is especially high in older people or the immunocompromised, but it's likely connected to the severity of the initial infection, rather than the virus itself, experts say. 'Comparing Covid to people hospitalized with flu, for example, shows that both have an elevated risk of kidney injury, and it seems to track with how sick they were during their hospitalization,' said Dr. F. Perry Wilson, associate professor of medicine and public health at Yale University School of Medicine who has studied kidney injury in Covid patients. 'Among people with Covid, I would expect that, all else being equal, the vaccinated group just has less severe disease and thus less kidney trouble.' Why vaccination may protect the kidneys 'Vaccination protects kidneys mainly by preventing the severe forms of Covid that cause kidney injury,' Chen said. 'While vaccines don't directly shield kidney cells, they blunt the systemic illness that otherwise leads to multi-organ failure.' However, both Covid infection and the vaccines may be risky for people with glomerulonephritis, a type of kidney disease where the filtering units known as glomeruli get damaged Dr. Jeffrey S. Berns, clinical nephrologist and professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said there are reports of adults and children with glomerulonephritis having a relapse of the condition or developing the condition for the first time following Covid infection and also vaccination. Berns was not part of the study. Risks for children The study only applied to people 18 and older, but experts say children with Covid can get acute kidney injury and some of them may have permanent kidney damage. 'In a study led by our team, the results also showed that children with prior Covid had a 35% higher risk of new-onset chronic kidney disease over six months,' Chen said. In late May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend routine Covid shots for healthy children and pregnant women. Doctors say it's too soon to know whether the revised guidelines would contribute to unvaccinated children's increased risk of kidney injury. Even as a new variant of the Covid virus is gaining momentum in the United States, there are fewer cases of acute kidney injury associated with the illness than in the early years of the pandemic. 'As more and more people got vaccinated and or had some degree of immunity from prior infection, disease severity was not as bad and AKI became much less common,' Berns said.
