St. Patrick's Day Parade 2024
The New York City St Patrick’s Day Parade has been marching since 1762, which was a few years before the official beginning of the United States. This year the parade was held on Saturday March 16, 2024 instead of on March 17th, since it is tradition the parade not take place on Sunday. The weather was fine with temperatures in the low 60's with a little bit of a breeze. Fifty one alumnae proudly marched up 5th avenue, once again led by The Richmond County Pipe Band from Staten Island. Six alumnae in full uniform carried the St. Vincent's Hospital School of Nursing Banner. The minute we stepped on to 5th Avenue the applause started and continued all the way up 5th Avenue. The New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade is a fun, heart warming, wonderful experience to participate in. Think about coming next year. The parade witll be on Monday March 17, 2024. Sláinte!
Long Covid
Dr. Sritha Rajupet the Director of the Stony Brook Medicine Post-COVID Clinic led a zoom presentation about Long COVID. Her talk was titled: Long COVID: It has been 4 years, where are we now? In this enlightening talk, Dr. Rajupet covered the definition of long covid, explored its symptoms, and discussed general approaches to managing this condition. She also discussed caring for patients in the Post-COVID clinic as well as resources that are available to people suffering from Long COVID.
Dr. Rajupet defined Post-COVID, also known as Long Covid, (sometimes referred to as Post-COVID Conditions, post-acute COVID-19 and chronic COVID, among others) as what the CDC considers to be a wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems that people experience after being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Usually, these symptoms appear at least four weeks after a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Dr. Rajupet explained that Long COVID is now considered a new chronic illness. Approximately one in 13 people who have had COVID-19 will go on to develop long COVID symptoms. There are over 100 different symptoms that are associated with long COVID, and there’s still a lot to learn about it. With approximately 50% of patients having at least one long COVID symptom six months after their original diagnosis, this can have a significant impact on their physical and mental well-being.
Dr. Rajupet described her design the of the Post-COVID clinic with an eye to what would be most helpful for patients. She modeled the clinic after the World Trade Center Health Program with a focus on patient-centered care. She brings resources to the patients, including clinical care, research information, mental health services, and many other specialties to provide a holistic and comprehensive approach. She spoke about her Post-COVID Clinic team which is composed of physicians who were on the front lines caring for patients with COVID-19 which gave them a unique depth of knowledge and experience in knowing how to provide appropriate and effective follow-up care.
Dr. Rajupet spoke about the most common symptoms associated with long COVID, which have been documented nationally and include shortness of breath, fatigue, brain fog, mental health issues, body aches and pains.
Dr. Rajupet spoke about vaccination, and options including the new Novavax COVID vaccine which may be an option for patients with concerns about MRNA vaccines and side effects. She completed her talk by providing some resources available in the community and answering questions from the group.