Page 5 - :: Rashtradarpan Magazine - January 2021 ::

RASHTRA DARPAN

COVID cases in US drop 47 ting at about 800,000 per day over the past Israel Logs First Case The patient is undergoing treat-
percent in a week, according week.It is a sharp drop from the record Of Heart Inflammation ment in intensive care and the doctors
to data 1.4 million new cases reported just one Linked To Omicron Variant are monitoring him, according to Prof.
week earlier on Jan. 10, according to the Of COVID: Shlomi Matetzky. According to the hos-
data.There were 1,122 new deaths record- pital, the COVID-19 patient had re-
ed Monday 1/18/2022 across the coun- ceived a booster dose in August and was
try, the Johns Hopkins data show. And healthy with no health conditions. As per
the number of hospitalizations were at The Times of Israel report, the previous
156,676 as of 1/18/2020,according to De- variants of COVID-19 have caused myo-
partment of Health and Human Services carditis and pericarditis. However, it is
figures.The nationwide decline in cases the first time that a patient infected with
comes as infections in several states have the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has
started to fall — or plateau — in recent caused myocarditis.
days following weeks of Omicron-fueled A hospital in Israel has informed that Amid the surge in COVID-19
surges.New York’s seven-day average of they are treating the first case of heart fueled by the Omicron variant, Isra-
new cases has been on the decline since inflammation in a person infected with the el has started giving the fourth dose of
peaking at at more than 85,000 per day Omicron variant of COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccine to people aged above
on Jan. 9. Israel has been witnessing an increase in 60, health workers and those who are
The Empire State recorded 26,772 new the COVID-19 cases driven by the high- immunosuppressed. According to data
cases, the latest state data show. The sig- ly transmissible Omicron variant. In the released by the health ministry, nearly
nificant daily drop could be explained latest development, a hospital in Israel 254,000 people in Israel have received the
by a lag in reporting over the holiday has informed that they are treating the second booster dose of the COVID-19
weekend.Hospitalizations in New York first case of heart inflammation in a per- vaccine, reported The Times of Israel. In
rose for the first time after dropping for son infected with the Omicron variant of order to contain the spread of COVID-19,
four consecutive days. There were 11,751 COVID-19. Doctors at the Sheba Medical the government has decided to vaccinate
hospitalizations statewide and 152 new Center at Tel Hashomer have confirmed its citizens with the fourth dose of vaccine
deaths.Despite case numbers dropping the development. Doctors at the Sheba against COVID-19.
in states like New York, US Surgeon Gen- Medical Center at Tel Hashomer has re-
eral Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that the vealed that a 43-year-old man has been COVID-19 situation in Israel
nationwide Omicron peak was still yet to hospitalized in the COVID-19 ward and According to statistics provided by the
come.“There are parts of the country — is undergoing treatment for myocarditis, Israel Health Ministry, as of 10 January,
New York, in particular, and other parts which is inflammation of the heart mus- 17,521 new cases of COVID-19 have
of the Northeast — where we are start- cle. Prof. Shlomi Matetzky, a cardiology been reported in the country taking the
Daily COVID-19 cases across the United ing to see a plateau, and in some cases, expert at the hospital has informed that overall tally of active cases to 119,515.
States have dropped 47 percent in the last an early decline in cases,” Murthy said in they have witnessed it for the first time in The total number of fatalities reported
week — offering a glimmer of hope that an interview with CNN on Sunday.“The a person infected with the Omicron vari- due to COVID-19 is 8269. According to
the Omicron winter surge is finally start- challenge is that the entire country is not ant of COVID-19. Matetzky expressed the Israel Health ministry, 6,630,746 peo-
ing to ease.There were about 717,800 new moving at the same pace.“The Omicron concern over the new development and ple have received the first shot of vaccine
cases reported in the US on1/18/2022 wave started later in other parts of the further insisted that they need to “think” while 5,971,181 people have been vacci-
Monday, statistics compiled by Johns country, so we shouldn’t expect a national about it. nated against COVID-19. 4,334,563 peo-
Hopkins University show. peak in the next coming days. The next Patient undergoing treatment in inten- ple have received the booster dose of the
The average infection count has been sit- few weeks will be tough.” sive care vaccine against COVID-19.

Maryland doctors transplant tient was doing well three days after the But prior attempts at such transplants – or he said in a statement. “As a heart trans-
pig’s heart into human highly experimental surgery, though it xenotransplantation – have failed, largely plant recipient, myself with a genetic
patient in medical first is too soon to know if the operation has because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news
been a success. Nonetheless, the trans- the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby and the hope it gives to my family and
plant marks a step in the decades-long Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a other patients who will eventually be
quest to one day use animal organs for baboon heart. saved by this breakthrough.”
life-saving operations. Doctors said the The Maryland surgeons said the differ- It will be crucial to share the data gath-
transplant showed that a heart from a ge- ence this time was that they had used ered from this transplant before opening
netically modified animal can function in a heart from a pig that had undergone the option to more patients, said Karen
the human body without immediate re- gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells Maschke, a research scholar at the Hast-
jection.The patient, David Bennett, 57, a that is responsible for that hyper-fast or- ings Center, who is helping develop ethics
handyman, knew there was no guarantee gan rejection. “I think you can charac- and policy recommendations for the first
the experiment would work but he was terize it as a watershed event,” Dr David clinical trials under a grant from the Na-
dying, ineligible for a human heart trans- Klassen, Unos’ chief medical officer, said tional Institutes of Health.
plant and had no other option, his son of the Maryland transplant. “Rushing into animal-to-human trans-
said. Still, Klassen cautioned that it was only a plants without this information would
“It was either die or do this transplant. I first tentative step into exploring wheth- not be advisable,” Maschke said.
want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, er this time around, xenotransplantation The surgery last Friday took seven hours
but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day might finally work. at the Baltimore hospital. Dr Bartley Grif-
before the surgery, according to a state- Several biotech companies are developing fith, who performed the surgery, said the
ment provided by the University of Mary- pig organs for human transplant; the one patient’s condition – heart failure and an
land School of Medicine. used for Friday’s operation came from irregular heartbeat – made him ineligible
On 1/10/2021 Monday, Bennett was Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Thera- for a human heart transplant or a heart
breathing on his own while still con- peutics. pump.
nected to a heart-lung machine to help The Food and Drug Administration Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into
his new heart. The next few weeks will (FDA), which oversees xenotransplan- about 50 baboons over five years, before
be critical as Bennett recovers from the tation experiments, allowed the surgery offering the option to Bennett.
surgery and doctors carefully monitor under what’s called a “compassionate use” “We’re learning a lot every day with this
how his heart is faring.The US has a huge emergency authorization, available when gentleman,” Griffith said. “And so far,
shortage of human organs donated for a patient with a life-threatening condition we’re happy with our decision to move
transplant, driving scientists to try to fig- has no other options. forward. And he is as well: big smile on
ure out how to use animal organs instead. Last September, researchers in New York his face today.”
Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart performed an experiment suggesting Pig heart valves also have been used suc-
transplants in the US, a record number, these kinds of pigs might offer promise cessfully for decades in humans, and Ben-
according to the United Network for Or- for animal-to-human transplants. Doc- nett’s son said his father had received one
gan Sharing (Unos), which oversees the tors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney about a decade ago.
nation’s transplant system. to a deceased human body and watched “He realizes the magnitude of what was
In a medical first, doctors in Maryland “If this works, there will be an endless it begin to work. done and he really realizes the impor-
have transplanted a genetically modified supply of these organs for patients who The Maryland transplant takes their ex- tance of it,” David Bennett Jr said of his
pig’s heart into a human patient in a last- are suffering,” said Dr Muhammad Mo- periment to the next level, said Dr Robert father. “He could not live, or he could last
ditch effort to save his life. Doctors at the hiuddin, scientific director of the univer- Montgomery, who led that experiment at a day, or he could last a couple of days. I
University of Maryland medical center sity’s animal-to-human transplant pro- NYU Langone Health. mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.”
said on 1/10/2022 Monday that the pa- gram. “This is a truly remarkable breakthrough,”

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