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How a drone saved this Canadian patient’slife, who was waiting for a lung transplant

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It took less than 10 minutes for a drone to make an emergency 1.2 kilometer trip to deliver a set of lungs needed for a life-saving transplant.

This world-first took place at the end of September, in Toronto, Canada, AFP reported.

The drone flew over the skies of the Canadian metropolis in the middle of the night, taking off from the UHN’s Toronto Western Hospital and landing on the roof of the General Hospital.

The operation was made possible due to a refrigerated container in light carbon fibre which maintains the thermal parameters of the organ so that it is viable for transplantation.

Read full story here.

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FDA Greenlights ‘Mix and Match’ COVID Boosters

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“The FDA authorized booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines and also authorized a “mix and match” or heterologous approach to boosters for all three available vaccines (including Pfizer’s) in the indicated populations, the agency announced on Wednesday.

Ultimately, the FDA went with what was recommended by their advisory panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which voted for a half-dose Moderna booster in adults ages 65 and up, adults ages 18-64 at high risk of severe COVID, and adults 18-64 with frequent occupational and institutional exposure to SARS-CoV-2, at least 6 months after completing the primary series.”

Learn more here.

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Donor Kidneys Further Out of Reach for Kids Regardless of Race

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“The revamped U.S. kidney prioritization system appeared to better even the field in pediatric kidney transplant wait times — by making organs similarly harder to get for children across races and ethnicities, according to a study.

Measuring time from dialysis to transplantation, Black, Hispanic, or other children of color had significantly longer wait times compared to white children before the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network’s Kidney Allocation System (KAS) changes in 2014, but these differences were reduced afterward, Jill Krissberg, MD, MS, of Lurie’s Children Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues reported.”

Read more here.

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How Genetically Altered Pigs Could Help Kidney Transplantation

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“Just a year or two from now, patients waiting for a human kidney may be able to participate in a trial for a pig kidney, if a short-term experiment at NYU Langone Health in New York City paves the way for trials in patients with end-stage kidney failure.

The successful result was released October 19 and this experiment is the first of its kind. “

Read more here.

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Preparing for the flu season during COVID-19

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It’s important to get your flu vaccine because the flu and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be circulating at the same time and cause similar symptoms.

Learn more about the similarities and differences of COVID-19 and the flu.

The flu vaccine doesn’t protect you from COVID-19. But the flu vaccine could reduce flu symptoms that could be confused with COVID-19 symptoms. The flu vaccine can also help lessen the impact on health care providers and hospitals by reducing the number of people with severe flu and hospitalized with the flue.

Read more here.

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Bay Area research team wins prize for working prototype of artificial kidney

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“A Bay Area research team is being awarded a major prize for a device they hope will someday free kidney patients from dialysis.

For thousands of kidney patients in the U.S., the only practical hope of getting off dialysis has been waiting for a transplant. But now, a new engineering breakthrough is reigniting hopes for a second option… an implantable artificial kidney.”

Read full story here.

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Trick or Treat Your Kidney with These Kidney Friendly Halloween Candy

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“Halloween is right around the corner, which means one thing: candy! It’s often challenging to resist Halloween candy temptations, so we’ve compiled some tips and tricks for you to treat your body in a safe way..
While living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), it’s important to know which foods are kidney friendly and which foods to avoid especially if you are on a dialysis diet. It’s okay to have a sweet tooth, however, moderation is a must.”

See the full list, here.

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Outbreak Investigation of Salmonella Oranienburg: Whole, Fresh Onions (October 2021)

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“The FDA, along with CDC and state and local partners, is investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg infections linked to whole, fresh onions. FDA’s traceback investigation is ongoing but has identified ProSource Produce, LLC (also known as ProSource Inc.) of Hailey, Idaho, and Keeler Family Farms of Deming, New Mexico, as suppliers of potentially contaminated whole, fresh onions imported from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico.”

Read more here.

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NKF Statement on Key Healthcare Policies to Help Kidney Patients

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“This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is reviewing several policy initiatives in the budget reconciliation process that, if passed, could positively impact patients with kidney disease. The National Kidney Foundation and our advocates nationwide have been working closely with Congress to keep kidney patients and their unique needs front and center and we strongly support the following initiatives:

Lowering the Cost of Prescription Drugs 

NKF is proud to have worked with the Partnership to Protect Coverage in advocating for lower cost prescription drugs for our patients. Among other things, this provision caps Medicare Part D out of pocket costs at $2000 per patient, per year. “

Learn more here.

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In a major scientific advance, a pig kidney is successfully transplanted into a human

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“Scientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.

Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but among the hurdles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign to the human body, causes immediate organ rejection. The kidney for this experiment came from a gene-edited animal, engineered to eliminate that sugar and avoid an immune system attack.”

Read more here.

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