Poul Birch Eriksen

@[email protected]
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13 Following
5 Posts
Former radio broadcaster (DR P1) 🎙️; Journalist 🖋️on #GlobalHealth 🌐⚕️/Epi- & Pandemics, past & present /Things-That-Go-Wrong ☣️/Science ⚛️ /#scicomm
websitehttps://bircheriksen.org
On Comparing Pandemicshttps://bircheriksen.org/panen
LocationCopenhagen, Denmark
Show threadPoul Birch EriksenNov 24, 2022
In doing so, #CSLBehring follows a trend seen with other new drugs for chronic conditions, whose asking price does not so much reflect the actual costs of development and manufacturing plus a profit, but rather what they expect governments and insurance companies to be willing to pay
Poul Birch EriksenNov 24, 2022
The good news is, the FDA has approved #Hemgenix, an apparently effective treatment for #hemophiliaB - which is characterized by a lack of the clotting factor IX
The not-so-good news is that manufacturer #CSLBehring, after approval, has priced the treatment - a #genetherapy - at $3.5 million a dose, making it the most expensive drug in the world
via #theguardian
https://bit.ly/3tVt0NJ
Gene therapy at $3.5m a dose approved for US adults with hemophilia B

Hemgenix frees patients from repeated treatments but initial cost makes it most expensive medicine in the world

The Guardian
Poul Birch EriksenNov 23, 2022
Low #vitaminD level could pose higher risk of a more severe course of #COVID19, observational study finds, using information from nation-wide health registers in #Denmark
In a cohort of 447 adults, tested #SARSCoV2 positive in the spring of 2020, low levels of 25(OH)D were associated with a higher risk of severe COVID19
The study has been published in Nature Scientific Reports
#COVID19dk #sundpol
https://go.nature.com/3EvGg0E
Vitamin D status and severity of COVID-19 - Scientific Reports

We explored the association between COVID-19 severity and vitamin D status using information from Danish nation-wide health registers, the COVID-19 surveillance database and stored blood samples from the national biobank. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) was measured using tandem mass spectroscopy. The association between 25(OH)D levels and COVID-19 severity, classified hierarchical as non-hospitalized, hospitalized but not admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), admitted to ICU, and death, was evaluated by proportional odds ratios (POR) assuming proportionality between the four degrees of severity. Among 447 adults tested SARS-CoV-2 positive in the spring of 2020, low levels of 25(OH)D were associated with a higher risk of severe COVID-19. Thus, odds of experiencing more severe COVID-19 among individuals with insufficient (25 to < 50 nmol/L) and sufficient (≥ 50 nmol/L) 25(OH)D levels were approximately 50% of that among individuals with deficient levels (< 25 nmol/L) (POR = 0.49 (95% CI 0.25–0.94), POR = 0.51 (95% CI 0.27–0.96), respectively). Dividing sufficient vitamin D levels into 50 to < 75 nmol/L and ≥ 75 nmol/L revealed no additional beneficial effect of higher 25(OH)D levels. In this observational study, low levels of 25(OH)D were associated with a higher risk of severe COVID-19. A possible therapeutic role of vitamin D should be evaluated in well-designed interventional studies.

Nature
Poul Birch EriksenNov 21, 2022
In #Denmark, the amount of #antibiotics prescribed by GPs has seen a significant drop, coinciding with #COVID19. At the same time a drop in the level of antibiotic resistance has been observed
These are some of the main findings from DANMAP 2021, the yearly surveillance report issued by the Danish Technical University and Statens Serum Institut
At hospitals, total consumption of antibiotics remained unchanged during COVID19 compared to preceding years
https://bit.ly/3UWlGNF
Consumption of antibiotics dropped significantly during the pandemic

The number of antibiotics prescribed by general practitioners dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The level of antibiotic resistance dropped jointly. These are some of the main findings from DANMAP 2021, the surveillance report issued by the Danish Technical University and Statens Serum Institut.

Poul Birch EriksenNov 19, 2022
Hi everyone. As newcomer here, let me do a proper #introduction:
My name is Poul Birch Eriksen. I'm a retired radio journalist who in the mid 80's became a special correspondent on HIV/AIDS for Danmarks Radio (Danish Public Radio). Since then I have augmented my repertoire to global health, especially pandemics past and present and things-that-go-wrong.
I live in Copenhagen and as a persistent knowledge journalist still follow my old beat, which I will occasionally write about here