The University of Kansas Health System reports steady numbers of COVID patients today. 37 patients with the active virus are being treated, down from 38 yesterday. Only seven of those are vaccinated.12 of those patients are in the ICU, down from 15 yesterday. Ten patients are on ventilators, up from nine yesterday. 16 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID but are out of the acute infection phase, up from 14 yesterday. That’s a total of 53 patients, up from 52 yesterday. HaysMed has eight patients today, down from nine yesterday.
On today’s Morning Medical Update, we looked at breakthrough infections. Dr. Micholee Polsak was fully vaccinated yet tested positive for COVID-19. She talked about her breakthrough infection and how it could've been so much worse had she not been vaccinated.
Dr. Polsak is an internal medicine physician at The University of Kansas Health System and was one of the first to get the vaccine when it became available for healthcare workers in January. She was doing great until one day at the end of June, she began to get fatigued and developed a deep cough. She thought it might be bronchitis or even pneumonia, but got a COVID test, just to rule it out. She was shocked when it came back positive. She knew she had not been around anyone with a known case. Her immediate concern was her family, which includes young children. She quarantined herself in an upstairs room in the house for ten days of what she calls being “in jail.” She also discovered back in May that she had developed an autoimmune thyroid condition called Graves Disease, which runs in her family, and which she thinks may have weakened her immune system and made her more susceptible to COVID in June. She does not believe the vaccine caused the Graves Disease. She is grateful that she had the vaccine, saying it made her symptoms much less severe and kept her out of the hospital. Having the disease is helping her identify with her COVID patients, though she says it’s heartbreaking to see some of the younger patients who are unvaccinated get severely ill. Her best advice is don’t ignore your symptoms and get tested. Don’t let it go on for several days thinking it’s just a cold. And most importantly, she strongly urges everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, says one of the big concerns is still that fully vaccinated people can spread the virus, especially the Delta variant, more easily than the original strain. He also says you are most likely to transmit the virus one to two days before symptoms and one to two days after. He feels many people are looking for a reason to blame the vaccine for problems and therefore don’t have to take them. But he says even when the vaccine is fully approved, the vaccine hesitant and resistant will find other reasons, which he says is very unfortunate. For those who like to go to the pool or a water park, he says you don’t need to worry about getting the virus through the water itself, just from those around you, especially if it’s crowded.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, reminded us how potent the Delta variant is compared to the original strain. He says with the original strain, one person could infect one or two others after 10 minutes of exposure. New data suggests one person can infect six to 10 people with the same amount of exposure, making it much more dangerous. He calls the Delta variant, “the greatest challenge to us of the entire pandemic. He adds, “If we’re going to keep each other safe and we’re going to stem this tide here in our community, we’re going to have to put our masks back on and get vaccinated.”
Wednesday, August 4 at 8:00 a.m. is Open Mics With Dr. Stites. Joining him will be Dr. Joseph McGuirk, talking about the incredible new work being done for lymphoma patients.
NOTE: Journalists should rejoin the Morning Medical Update at 8am as doctors are growing too busy again for individual interview requests. Please bring questions or send to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu until further notice. Thanks for all you do and helping to keep the community safe with your reporting.
ATTENTION: media procedure for calling in:
The meeting is available by Zoom, both video and by phone. To join the Zoom Meeting by video, click https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone dial-in Participants: For those without Zoom, call 1-312-626-6799, meeting ID: 782 897 8628.
The feed is also available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all.
