The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 27 COVID patients today, 23 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 11 with the active virus today, 12 yesterday
- 5 in ICU, 4 yesterday
- 1 on a ventilator, 1 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System
- The suffix “-itis” means inflammation. Words like bronchitis, hepatitis, and arthritis means something is inflamed.
- Generally speaking, inflammation is a good thing because your immune system is at work responding to a trigger,
- Inflammation is the body's first line of defense against germs, bacteria, and viruses, where your white blood cells try to defend itself from these pathogens and quell the invasion.
- But too much inflammation can hurt and even kill you.
- Our bodies change over time and how we respond to those things change over time. Listen to your body. Listen to the science. Listen to hope and faith. And together you can feel pretty darn good. Because inflammation is an important part of your life and you don't want to have to be dominating your life because that's when you feel really terrible. So listen to those good folks who are trying to give you the messages.
Dr. Selina Gierer, allergist & immunologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- The immune response that you get could be due to an infection, but it could also be due to an allergic reaction -- you'll get the inflammation in your skin, your eyes, your nose and even in your lungs where you have an inflammatory response generated by your immune system in response to an allergic trigger.
- The same can happen for foods or other things you might be allergic to. Your body is reacting to the exposure.
- Acute inflammation would be something from an injury that happens very quickly. Let's say you twist your ankle and you suddenly get that redness, warmth and swelling in that area. That is because of the acute injury.
Dr. Winston Dunn, gastroenterologist & transplant hepatologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- Inflammation in the liver is very common. And often the inflammation is silent and left untreated, it can be dangerous.
- The most common cause of inflammation is caused by metabolic conditions and we call this a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and it affects about 25 population of the population
- The second most common cause of inflammation in the liver is caused by alcohol. About 5 percent of the populations in the United States have alcohol use disorder, but interestingly, only 15 percent of the population develop cirrhosis.
Dr. Matt Shoemaker, infectious disease specialist, The University of Kansas Health System
- We have lots of medication options to help calm down inflammation, including things like steroids.
- We have a whole line of products called monoclonal antibodies that we use in severe cases of inflammation that can focus on one small piece of your immune system and help bring that back into check so that the inflammation is regulated.
- We're very fortunate to practice medicine in a day where we have these monoclonal antibodies that can very narrowly improve our immune system response, bringing that over excessive inflammation back into a regulated state.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System
- What we are really seeing now is the continued progress of COVID becoming more a disease of those people with a significant risk factors such as age and being immune compromised.
- Since the masking policy has been relaxed at the Health System, we have not seen any rise – or really any cases that we know of – in hospital-acquired COVID.
- It has been safe, and he has talked with other CMOs as well and they haven't seen that rise.
Thursday, April 27 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. What do you do when you’re being treated for cancer and find out you also need a new heart? You’ll meet that man and the medical team that pulled off the feat.
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