Category: Health

The blood supply in the Kansas City area has dropped to less than a two-day supply, according to the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City.

Chelsey Smith, outreach and communications coordinator for the Community Blood Center, said at Thursday’s news conference at the University of Kansas Health System that the normal supply is about seven days.

“It’s not something we have words for,” Smith said. She hasn’t ever seen the blood supply this low, she said.

Smith said it is safe to donate blood at the Community Blood Center, and safety procedures have been added. They are checking temperatures at the door for staff and donors, she said. They have masks for donors and volunteers at all times. Spacing is at least 6 feet apart, she added. Extra cleaning and disinfecting is taking place. Everything a donor touches is cleaned as they leave, she said.

The blood center currently is operating on an appointment preferred schedule now, she added. The center is requesting donors to make appointments. Walk-ins are accepted as capacity allows, she said.

Prospective donors should check with their doctors or visit the donation guidelines online at https://savealifenow.org/ to see if a medication they are taking would affect their eligibility to donate, she added. Some people who are older than 60 or who have a medical condition could be eligible to donate.

Smith said it usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to donate blood.

Blood drives in the community are open Mondays through Fridays, while the seven CBC donor centers are open seven days a week, she said.

One of the upcoming blood drives will be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, June 24-26, at the KU Medical Center Health Education Building, she said.

Before COVID-19, the Community Blood Center was collecting 70 percent of the donation on blood drives, but many of the blood drives were canceled. They are very limited in the places they are allowed to go now, she said. The seven donor sites are open seven days a week for donations, she added.

“The need is incredibly urgent right now,” Smith said. “Blood donors literally save lives.”

Also at the news conference on Thursday were medical officers and executives from three institutions, Truman Medical Center, Advent Health and Liberty Health.

In general, the three saw a decline in the COVID-19 positive cases, followed by a small uptick in cases last week. The KU Health System also saw a similar pattern.

The three health medical officers, Dr. Mark Steele of Truman, Dr. Larry Botts of Advent, and Dr. Raghu Adiga of Liberty, also said they have noticed fewer people wearing masks in public recently.

Dr. Botts said people need to continue to be vigilant as COVID-19 isn’t going away. Less than 50 percent of the people he sees while out in the community are wearing masks, he said. Masks, hand-washing and social distancing need to be continued, he said.

Dr. Steele said when two infected hair stylists worked on about 140 clients in Springfield, Missouri, the disease didn’t spread because the stylists were wearing masks, which points to the importance of masks.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control with KU Health System, said some people are listening to unproven rumors on social media about COVID-19, while they are not paying as much attention to what the doctors know works, which is physical distancing, proper hygiene and mask wearing.

Dr. Adiga said the trend toward an increase in cases in America is concerning. The nation never flattened to where it wanted to be, he added.

KU Health System reported 19 COVID-19 patients at the hospital on Thursday morning, an increase of one from Wednesday. Seven of the COVID-19 patients were in the intensive care unit, and six were on ventilators. The hospital discharged three patients in the past day, while admitting some new patients.

Wyandotte County reported 1,766 total positive cumulative cases on Thursday at 1 p.m., compared to 1,726 cases on Wednesday at 1 p.m., an increase of 40 cases. There was one more death, for a cumulative total of 77 deaths.

To view the KU doctors’ news conference, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/962736207507435/.

To see upcoming Community Blood Center blood drives and schedule an appointment, visit https://savealifenow.org/ or call 816-753-4040.

Test sites are listed on the Wyandotte County website at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19

The state’s COVID-19 test page is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/280/COVID-19-Testing

The UG’s COVID-19 information page is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.

Wyandotte County is currently under Phase 3. See covid.ks.gov.

The state plan’s frequently asked questions page is at https://covid.ks.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reopening-FAQ_5.19.2020_Final.pdf.

The CDC’s COVID-19 web page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.

Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System repeated at Wednesday’s news conference that COVID-19 is not a hoax.

In answer to a viewer’s question, Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the KU Health System, said that there have been more than 100,000 deaths in the United States from COVID-19, including 24 deaths at KU Health System.

If those 24 persons were alive today, they would tell you it’s not a hoax, Dr. Stites said.

Densely populated areas, such as New York, where people used a lot of mass transit and were indoors a lot, suffered worse from COVID-19, he said. Some communities where people spent more time outside than inside were not as affected, he added. The severity has depended upon how long a person was exposed to the virus, and how much of the virus they got at the time of exposure, he said.

Nursing homes, with a large number of vulnerable people, also had a high mortality rate, he said.

“It is most definitely not a hoax,” he said. He added that doctors from here who went to help in New York can tell them that, as well as doctors in other countries.

“Don’t believe that (statement that it is a hoax). That will only lead to your own challenges, because if you think it’s a hoax and you go out and act like life is normal, life will humble you,” Dr. Stites said.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at KU Health System, noted a critical care doctor from KU Health System went to New York to help and saw the devastation first-hand. New York has had over 30,000 total COVID-19 deaths. “Look what has happened to our economy, and our world economy and our local economy,” he said. “That is not anything anybody would want.”

Influenza usually takes about 20,000 lives a year, and COVID-19 took more than 100,000 lives in about three months, Dr. Stites said.

Dr. Hawkinson reported 18 COVID-19 patients at KU Health System on Wednesday morning, a decrease of one from Tuesday. Six were in the intensive care unit and also were on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 ICU patients was down one from Tuesday and the number on ventilators was up one from Tuesday.

Wyandotte County recorded 34 new positive cases of COVID-19 as of 1 p.m. June 17, as compared to 1 p.m. June 16, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 website.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 11,681 total cumulative COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, June 17. It was an increase of 262 cases since Monday. There were 247 total cumulative deaths, an increase of two deaths since Monday.

According to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center, there were 445,993 cumulative total COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday in the world, and 8.2 million total confirmed cases. The United States had 2.15 million cumulative total COVID-19 cases, according to the website.

Dr. Hawkinson discussed news out of England that lower doses of a steroid medication, dexamethasone, has reduced the rate of deaths by about one-third among seriously ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Earlier, studies found that high-dose steroids were causing more mortality, he said. Now it has been found that low-dose steroids can help critically ill patients, reducing deaths by about one-third.

Dr. Hawkinson said KU Health System has had steroids as part of its treatment for some COVID-19 patients who qualify since it first started treating them. Steroids have tamped down inflammatory processes in general, he said. It’s important for doctors to know what drugs are given, how much, and when in the disease process the patient receives them.

COVID-19 has affected the homeless population in Greater Kansas City.

Bryan Meyer, founder and chief executive officer of the Veterans Community Project (https://www.veteranscommunityproject.org/), which has built 49 tiny transitional houses in Kansas City, Missouri, for homeless veterans, said it was difficult for some veterans to self-isolate in group shelter settings or in homeless camps in the woods. That adds more risk for them to catch COVID-19.

Meyer said one of the problems with testing the homeless is they may have a lot of underlying conditions. Health care workers aren’t always able to tell if the person is running a temperature for a different condition, or if it’s a new development, he said. It’s sometimes hard to locate a person after a test has been given, he added.

His organization has worked with Kansas City, Missouri, to secure hotel rooms for homeless persons with symptoms, until the test results come in, he said.

Dr. Nicole Yedlinksy, assistant professor with the KU Medical School Department of Family Medicine, who works with veterans, said there is now a delay between testing and results, and in the population of homeless persons it can be very difficult to determine the disease’s prevalence.

Dr. Stites said it is a challenge to figure out how many people are homeless and whether they have already had COVID-19. Some health departments have made an effort to test the homeless, he added.

Dr. Hawkinson said an easier, accurate and faster test for COVID-19 could help.

Dr. Yedlinsky said one of the struggles for the organizations that provide services for veterans is that they rely on social connections, and during the COVID-19 pandemic they can’t meet in person any more. Some veterans organizations don’t have access to technology and have had difficulty reaching veterans where they are, she said. In addition, a high number of veterans are unhoused and are unable to distance themselves, she added.

About half the population of veterans are 65 or older, and are at risk for complications to COVID-19, according to Dr. Yedlinsky.

“We can’t neglect the medical effects on our veteran population,” she said.

To view the KU doctors’ news conference, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/290481152143034/

The state’s COVID-19 test page is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/280/COVID-19-Testing

The UG’s COVID-19 information page is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.

Wyandotte County is currently under Phase 3. See covid.ks.gov.

The state plan’s frequently asked questions page is at https://covid.ks.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reopening-FAQ_5.19.2020_Final.pdf.

Test sites are listed on the Wyandotte County website at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19

The CDC’s COVID-19 web page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.