December 22, 2020
Medical care for newborn infants who were exposed to opioids in the womb varied widely across 30 hospitals nationwide, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study authors say that the findings underscore the need for clinical trials to determine the most effective treatments. The study was conducted by Leslie Young, M.D., of the University of Vermont and colleagues in the Advancing Clinical Trials in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (ACT NOW) Program, part of NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative. It appears in the journal Pediatrics.
Infant opioid withdrawal therapy varies widely by treatment site
December 22, 2020
Pregnant women who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, during the third trimester are unlikely to pass the infection to their newborns, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study followed 127 pregnant women who were admitted to Boston hospitals during the spring of 2020. Among the 64 pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, no newborns tested positive for the virus. NIH support was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Pregnant women in third trimester unlikely to pass SARS-CoV-2 infection to newborns
December 22, 2020
Pandemics such as COVID-19 are gendered with regard to who is infected, who dies, who provides care, who is secured against violence and economic change, and who leads and makes decisions. Vaccines are no different and there is a need to address male bias in vaccine development to make women safe from deadly diseases. For example, clinical trials that are not done in both men and women can raise adverse outcomes during implementation due to sex-based differences in immunological response. The excitement and awe at the speed of COVID-19 vaccine development and delivery needs to be attentive to the social and political dynamics in which the vaccine is delivered—women's work and their security are at the heart of this.
December 21, 2020
With news of a mutant COVID-19 virus dominating headlines, scientists, doctors and virologists say it’s too soon to panic about the potential implications of the new variant identified in the United Kingdom. This isn’t the first time the SARS-2 virus has mutated -- developing small errors that show up and become integrated into its genetic code. And it won’t be the last. But so far, none of those prior mutations have had a major impact when it comes to the severity of the illness, or -- crucially -- when it comes to the vaccine.
Richard Kuhn, WGHI Internal Steering Committee, talks about a mutant COVID-19 virus on ABC News
December 21, 2020
A new study found a specific Alzheimer's treatment is effective in male and not female mice, providing a window into the biology of the disease and the effectiveness of targeted treatments.
Sex-specific Alzheimer's treatment could benefit males over females
December 21, 2020
On January 27, 2021, at 11 a.m. ET, ORWH will launch a new virtual lecture series titled “Diverse Voices: COVID-19, Intersectionality, and the Health of Women.” In the first session of the series, Ana Langer, M.D., the director of the Women and Health Initiative (W&HI) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Jewel Gausman, Sc.D., M.H.S., a research associate at the W&HI, will lead a plain-language discussion of topics explored in their commentary article “Sex and Gender Disparities in the COVID-19 Pandemic ,” recently published in the Journal of Women’s Health.
ORWH Launches New Virtual Lecture Series on COVID-19 and the Health of Women, January 27
December 21, 2020
ORWH recently expanded its e-learning course offerings with “Sex as a Biological Variable: A Primer” and the final two modules of the “Bench to Bedside: Integrating Sex and Gender to Improve Human Health” course. The NIH Policy on Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) articulates NIH’s expectation that sex, as a biological variable, will be factored into research designs, analyses, and reporting in vertebrate animal and human studies. The SABV primer consists of four independent, interactive modules designed to help the research community—including trainees and researchers at all career stages, NIH grant applicants, and those engaged in peer review—account for and appropriately integrate SABV across all phases of biomedical and biobehavioral research.
December 21, 2020
The National Institutes of Health has awarded eight research grants to develop approaches for identifying children at high risk for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a rare and severe after-effect of COVID-19 or exposure to the virus that causes it. Up to $20 million will be provided for the projects over four years, pending the availability of funds. “These awards underscore NIH’s commitment to identifying children at risk for MIS-C, which will inform development of interventions to improve their health outcomes,” said Diana Bianchi, M.D., director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). NICHD and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute lead the NIH-wide effort to understand the SARS-CoV-2 spectrum of illness among children.
December 19, 2020
Pregnant women have historically been excluded from the majority of medical research under the justification of protecting these women and their pregnancies from harm. But when new treatments are not tested in this population, we cannot know whether those treatments are safe and effective.
December 18, 2020
Pregnant women with Covid-19 do not get more sick than the wider population, according to a Singapore study published on Friday, which also found that babies born to infected mothers have antibodies against the novel coronavirus.
Small Singapore study finds pregnant women with Covid do not get more sick than general population
