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FRIDAY, Dec.31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- When a sick child spends time in the intensive care unit, the impact lasts even after the hospital stay is over.Added to it are days, weeks, sometimes months out of school for the young patient and extended work absences for their primary caregivers. "Pediatric critical illness impacts a family’s health and well-being not only during the child’s treatment but after they leave the hospital and go home," said lead author Dr. Erin Carlton, a pediatric intensivist at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.About two-thirds of young children who had ICU care for a critical illness missed school during the six months after discharge -- an average of two weeks and sometimes more, the study found. About half of primary...

FRIDAY, Dec. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A certain gene mutation known as APOE4 has long been known to raise the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Now, researchers report it may also predispose people to increased susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and severe symptoms, including small brain bleeds.Researchers in Finland, where about one-third of people carry the APOE4 mutation, studied the link between the mutation and severe COVID-19. They also studied microscopic brain changes in the cadavers of people who died from COVID-19 and looked at symptoms of long-term mental fatigue experienced by some survivors."The common ε4 allele of the APOE gene appears to be associated with a heightened risk of severe COVID-19 in the Finnish population. The significance of APOE4 is emphasized in the...

FRIDAY, Dec. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- By now, most folks know obesity is a leading risk factor for severe COVID-19, but a new study suggests that losing a significant amount of weight can reduce that risk."The research findings show that patients with obesity who achieved substantial and sustained weight loss with bariatric [weight-loss] surgery prior to a COVID-19 infection reduced their risk of developing severe illness by 60%," said lead study author Dr. Ali Aminian, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Bariatric and Metabolic Institute. "Our study provides strong evidence that obesity is a modifiable risk factor for COVID-19 that can be improved through a successful weight-loss intervention," Aminian said in a Cleveland Clinic news release.The researchers included more than...

THURSDAY, Dec. 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- New U.S. data based on nearly 9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine delivered to kids ages 5 to 11 shows no major safety issues, according to researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The vaccine was first authorized for use in this age group in October. Now the new study shows that these "preliminary safety findings are similar to those described in the clinical trials" that led to the vaccine's emergency approval, according to a team led by Anne Hause of the CDC's COVID-19 Response Team.The report was based on data collected by the agency's Vaccine Adverse Reporting System (VAERS). It relies on smartphone messages from parents and other guardians of children to alert the CDC of any health "events"...