The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 46 COVID patients today, 45 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 30 with the active virus today, 27 yesterday
- 5 in ICU, 4 yesterday
- 1 on a ventilator, 1 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Morning Rounds – Update on Current Headlines
Dr. Roopa Sethi, addiction psychiatrist, The University of Kansas Health System
- Narcan has been approved nationally for over-the-counter sale, which can provide more access to people to combat overdose deaths.
- Right now we are in an opioid epidemic – more than 100,000 people died of overdose in general in 2021 in United States and about 70,000 or more of these deaths were synthetic opioids or opioids related (mostly fentanyl).
- In Kansas, we have more than 600 overdose deaths, which illustrates how big of a crisis we are in right now.
- Narcan is an antidote to an overdose.
- Addiction is a disease and must be treated like a disease with drugs like this that can help prevent deaths.
Focus Topic
David Rolf, multiple myeloma patient
- David had months of excruciating back pain that his local doctors could not figure out – he was sent for an MRI, sent to a physical therapist and a chiropractor, but nothing helped.
- After severe pain for months, he was diagnosed multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer affecting bone marrow cells.
- David started treatment in 2015, and even with 4-5 months of radiation, was still in excruciating pain.
- Dr. Shune began novel therapy for David, which changed his life, with a “100 percent change” in his physical and mental outlook.
- Wants to help others understand that there is hope.
Dr. Leyla Shune, hematologist & medical oncologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- There is no cure for multiple myeloma, but our goal is to find a cure. We still can treat the pain and provide patients with a better quality of life.
- African Americans have twice the risk of developing multiple myeloma as well as dying from it compared to white patients because they have genetic predisposition, but there are also environmental factors.
- Access to great healthcare is important – so if they were treated the same way, those mortality stats for African Americans would be more equal.
- Doctors and patients have to be educated in diagnosing this rare disease and being aware of new treatments, such as CAR-T therapy, where we collect immune cells from the patient and engineer those cells to fight myeloma. We use a patient's own immune system to overcome myeloma.
COVID Update
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System
- The New England Journal of Medicine published a study of thousands of people and found zero evidence for increased risk for stroke, heart attacks, or pulmonary embolisms for those who received the bivalent COVID booster.
- This adds to overwhelming evidence and clinical data that the vaccines are safe.
- We also have significant data supporting how COVID vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization and severe disease.
Monday, April 3 is the next Morning Medical Update. We are profiling the 100th proton patient at The University of Kansas Cancer Center – a woman who had a complex tumor that was no problem for the new technology.
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