Publications by authors named "Laurie Orell"

Background: Adults aged ≥65 years, adults with certain underlying medical conditions, and persons experiencing homelessness are at increased risk for invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Two new pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV15) and 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20), were recently approved for use in US adults. We describe the epidemiology of IPD among Alaska adults and estimate the proportion of IPD cases potentially preventable by new vaccines.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines patients in Alaska with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) who also tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between January 2020 and December 2021, finding 20% of IPD patients had a concurrent COVID-19 infection.
  • No significant differences were found in demographics or health conditions between IPD patients with and without SARS-CoV-2; however, a higher mortality rate was observed in those with both infections (16% vs. 4%).
  • The research underscores the importance of vaccination for pneumococcal disease and COVID-19, particularly in vulnerable groups such as those experiencing homelessness.
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Most occupational and environmental research describes associations between specific occupational and environmental hazards and health outcomes, with little information available on population-level exposure, especially among unique subpopulations. The authors describe the prevalence of self-reported lifetime exposure to nine occupational and environmental hazards among 11,326 American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults enrolled in the Education and Research Towards Health (EARTH) Study in the Southwest U.S.

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This study describes the lifetime prevalence of self-reported asthma among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people who participated in the Education and Research Towards Health (EARTH) study in Alaska. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of asthma prevalence by sex and its associations with sociodemographic, health, and environmental factors. Among 3,828 AI/AN adults, we found a higher age-sex adjusted prevalence of asthma (15.

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