Key points from today’s guests:
Morning Rounds – Updates on Latest News
Chelsey Smith, director of public relations, Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City
- The area is in a critical blood shortage situation.
- We have a one-day supply of O negative and O positive blood right now. B negative is at a two-day supply.
- January is National Blood Donor Month for a strategic reason. Because of the holidays, there is traditionally a shortage of donors.
- Winter weather can also negatively affect blood donations.
- Scheduling a donation is very easy at www.SaveALifeNow.org.
Focus Topic
Brooke Endsley, cervical cancer survivor
- In 2020, at 29, Brooke’s PAP smear came back as abnormal. Further tests showed cervical cancer.
- She had surgery and is now cancer free.
- She credits her husband and her son for providing great support throughout.
- She wants to be an advocate for cervical cancer education because HPV and issues are a lot more common than people think.
Dr. Andrea Jewell, division director, gynecologic oncology, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
- Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and now that we have a vaccine for HPV, there is hope of effectively eliminating cervical cancer in the next century. But until that day, women and their doctors, they just simply need to be vigilant and on the lookout.
- If Brooke had not gotten regular checkups, the cancer would not have been caught until much later.
- There are typically two standard treatments. For early stage cancers, we want to consider surgery as one of the treatments.
- If we can’t do that, we do a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. They’re both equally effective so the can both be equally curative.
- That’s why it is important to see an oncologist who can get the right imaging and exams to help dictate the treatment next steps.
- Women should start getting PAP smears at age 21.
- We need to do better as a country and as a region in administering more HPV vaccines, because it can prevent this type of cancer.
COVID Updates
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- The COVID inpatient count is 33 this week, with 6 patients in the ICU.
- We are seeing people needing hospital care for respiratory viral illnesses starting to peak.
- A recent study links nearly 17,000 deaths to the use of hydroxychloroquine in the pandemic’s first wave.
- It’s a meta analysis, which looks at 44 different studies.
- It does illustrate the risks of repurposing one drug for a different treatment.
Wednesday, January 10 at 8 a.m. is the next Open Mics with Dr. Stites. What happens when high blood pressure reaches inside your lungs? Learn more about the changing treatments for pulmonary hypertension and hear from one young woman hoping new medicine will help reclaim her life.
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