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TUESDAY, Aug. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Monoclonal antibody infusions can help prevent severe COVID-19, but the best protection is to get vaccinated, experts say.Antibodies are made by the immune system to fight infections."The problem is that our immune system takes two to three weeks to make good antibodies," said Dr. Turner Overton, co-director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)."Monoclonal antibodies are supplemental antibodies that can be administered early in the course of infection -- the first 10 days after symptoms commence -- to rapidly bind and kill the COVID virus," he said in a university news release. "This infusion can be lifesaving if given in the first 10 days of symptoms."Monoclonal antibody infusion lowers the...

TUESDAY, Aug. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- You caught a case of COVID-19 and then you got your first dose of a vaccine. Maybe you now think you are protected from coronavirus infections in the future. Think again: New research shows that prior COVID-19 infection alone doesn't guarantee a high level of antibodies against the coronavirus or a strong response after just one dose of two-dose vaccines.The new study included 27 vaccinated Chicago-area adults; some had previously tested positive with the coronavirus. They submitted blood samples two to three weeks after their first and second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and two months after the second dose.Northwestern University researchers analyzed the blood samples for antibodies against the coronavirus."When we tested...

TUESDAY, Aug. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A high amount of coronavirus in the lungs is a major contributor to death in COVID-19 patients, new research shows.The findings challenge previous theories that simultaneous infections such as pneumonia or an overreaction of the body's immune system are significant factors in COVID-19 deaths, the researchers noted.To come to that conclusion, the investigators analyzed bacterial and fungal samples from the lungs of 589 hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were severely ill and required mechanical ventilation.On average, patients who died had 10 times the amount of virus in their lower airways than those who survived their illness."Our findings suggest that the body's failure to cope with the large numbers of virus infecting the lungs is largely...

TUESDAY, Aug. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Many parts of the United States saw a significant drop in breast cancer screening of older low-income women during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows.The analysis of data from 32 community health centers that serve low-income people found that breast cancer screening for 50- to 74-year-old women dropped 8% between July 2019 and July 2020. That wiped out an 18% increase between July 2018 and July 2019."This study is important because these populations have long-standing barriers to accessing care, lower breast screening rates, higher breast cancer [death] rates, and are especially vulnerable to health care disruptions," said study leader Stacey Fedewa of the American Cancer Society.If the 2018 to 2019 trend had continued through 2020,...