ew vaccines are being developed all the time, as witnessed by the COVID vaccines and the just released Prevnar 20 for prevention of pneumococcal pneumonia and a PCV 15 for kids. While it is a “one-and-done” vaccines, boosters are needed for other vaccines such as COVID. Dr. Victor S. Sierpina writes about it in his column.

At morning lectures, many students in the lecture hall have an energy drink in front of them. But a report that one young man may have developed heart failure from his habit of consuming an average of four energy drinks per day may cause concern. Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel discuss this case. Fill those water bottles.

A 14th-century pandemic may have started in Central Asia. New findings suggest that the ancestor of the Black Death strain showed up considerably later than previous work has indicated, said Vladimir Motin, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who studies Y. pestis. Earlier studies suggested it caused local outbreaks in Asia for at least a century, he said. “Right now it’s a good hypothesis; is it true or not, I don’t know,” he said. “But it’s definitely an interesting question which we should take into consideration.”

Hospitalizations in Galveston County have gone up in the past month, but aren’t anywhere near an unmanageable level, said Dr. Janak Patel, director of infection control and health care epidemiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. It's not time to worry, but Patel said people should take proper precautions. “Let’s just live for the moment, do the best practices that we already know.”

“The first rule is making sure the boundaries are secure and hopefully fenced,” wrote Dr. Sally Robinson. “Children should be taught to stay within the boundaries and not to wander off, but children also need a responsible person to supervise outdoor play so they don’t get hurt. Always supervise children on trampolines and provide constant touch supervision around pools and other bodies of water.”

“Our concept of metastasis has changed over the years,” wrote Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. “Not long ago, doctors and scientists thought metastasis was a natural stage of the cancer that happened as tumors grew. Treatment relied on removing the primary tumor by surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.”

“As adults, if we allow ourselves, we might also wish to recapture such light joy to balance the heaviness of our daily stress and gloomy news reports,” wrote Dr. Victor S. Sierpina. Meditate this weekend by blowing bubbles.