Welcome to the January newsletter. This newsletter aims to provide information and analysis of timely topics from recent articles published in the medical literature. I hope you find this information useful and helpful in your health journey. If you have comments or questions, please let us know!
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The Omicron variant is the dominant variant here in Wisconsin making up virtually 100% of cases currently according to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. The onset of symptoms of Omicron is faster and the period of contagiousness appears to be reduced, which has led the CDC to reduce isolation times for infected individuals. It also does not seem to have the pulmonary affinity (1/10) that Delta had. Our hospitalizations with and from Covid here in Wisconsin peaked on January 12th and since that time both hospitalizations and ICU admissions are down 25%, so we appear to be trending in a good direction.
Vaccines and previous infections continue to be quite beneficial in the prevention of severe outcomes but many more vaccinated and even boosted people are contracting this variant. What I have been seeing in my practice is a lot of typical cold symptoms (nasal congestion, mild cough, sore throat, low-grade fever, fatigue, headaches) lasting 3-5 days.
The first article this month shows that as expected, the combination of vaccination immunity with acquired immunity from even a mild infection provides excellent protection from severe outcomes for most people. It still appears that we will all likely acquire or reacquire a COVID infection, but we may not know the difference between this and any other cold virus (unless we are testing for it). Our memory B cells are able to produce high levels of antibodies if we see it again and these memory B cells produce antibodies adapted against any variants! Memory B cells are like blueprints for making antibodies but can be modified on the fly. Additionally, exposure to the virus generates T-cell memory even without a detectable viral infection.
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I am happy to announce that I have one of the newest diagnostic tests available. The Galleri test is a blood test that can detect over 50 types of cancer before they are apparent through regular screening testing (and many cancers don't have a screening test). The test detects methylation patterns of cell-free DNA which can indicate cancer and thus has the potential to detect cancers at the earliest stages. If you are interested in learning more about this test please let us know. I'm constantly on the lookout for cutting-edge tests and procedures for my patients and I have a few more things on the horizon that I am evaluating.
