Across the globe, more than 39 million people are living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, including more than 1.3 million new HIV diagnoses last year.
Lubbock doctors entered holidays exhausted, worried gatherings could bring another spike
Dr. Ebtesam Islam walked room-to-room through the University Medical Center ICU on Wednesday morning, checking on each COVID-19 patient on the overfilled floor.
She carried an iPad with her, in case she needed to help a patient FaceTime their family to say goodbye at a moment s notice, she had to practically shout through layers of PPE as she spoke to other families, and she had to tell the wife of a man in his 30s that her husband would not make it home from the hospital - all before noon.
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Dr. Ebtesam Islam was answering questions from a group of media members on Friday when she abruptly put her head down and covered her eyes. Everyone went quiet for a short moment.
She took a breath, wiped her eyes and looked back up. I m sorry, she said. I don t know when it s going to come out. And she went on answering questions like she never skipped a beat.
Dr. Islam, a critical care pulmonologist at University Medical Center and a TTUHSC physician, was supposed to be talking about a joyful moment. She, along with many healthcare workers in Lubbock this week, had just received her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope and city healthcare providers held a news panel Wednesday to give the public insight into what they are seeing on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight as the county s case count continues to climb.
The panel featured several physicians who have been working with COVID-19 patients since the start of the pandemic in Lubbock County back in March.
Now, nine months into the pandemic, new cases and hospitalizations have soared - there have been 5,443 new cases confirmed and no less than 249 COVID-19 have been hospitalized so far this month at any one time, with the highest number of COVID-hospitalizations reaching 336 patients.