The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 47 COVID patients today, 46 Friday. Other significant numbers:

•  24 with the active virus today, 21 Friday
•  5 in ICU, 5 Friday
•  2 on a ventilator, 2 Friday

Key points from today’s guests:

Brian Hanson, radon programs coordinator, Kansas State University

• Two critical things for any given house can lead to radon. One is the amount of radon directly beneath your foundation.
• The second is the amount of negative vacuum pull that your house generates on that soil when your house is closed.
• We operate the national radon technical assistance hotline by cooperative agreement with EPA in Washington, D.C.
• If you call 800-SOS-RADON for radon questions, you're going to be talking to us.
• We are really one of the first points of contact both at the state and nationally for individuals with questions on radon.

Molly Schreiner, environmental protection specialist, EPA

• With radon, weather definitely plays a role.
• As the weather changes, the radon levels change depending on where you are in the United States and how the strong the radon the levels are.
• Specifically, with severe drought conditions, we recommend you might want to retest your home because your basement floors might see more cracks.
• Drier than normal soil under the homes contributes to those higher levels of radon.

Dr. Mario Castro, pulmonologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• We know radon probably accounts for 10-15 percent of lung cancers that we diagnose.
• It is the leading cause of lung cancer for patients that don't smoke.
• We do have a lung cancer screening device -- anybody that's above age 50 that has smoked one pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years is eligible for lung cancer screening.
• We do a low-dose CAT scan that allows us to detect cancer much earlier.
• When we detect it early like that, we can save up to 20 percent of lives.

Dr. Bill Barkman, pulmonologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• At least one out of five lung cancer cases are non-smokers.
• There are other things that do cause lung cancer -- asbestos is one of the well-known causes, but also air pollution is a contributor.
• Having grown up in a family that smokes, environmental tobacco smoke exposure also raises your risk even if you're a non-smoker.
• We need to be looking harder at radon as a cause and the science is going to improve over time.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System

• There has been a recent recall of artificial tears.
• The CDC found at least 55 cases where bacteria in the eyedrops caused an infection, and this particular strain of bacteria is very drug resistant.
• The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has sent out an alert to providers in Kansas about this.
• This particular infection though has been identified as having multiple antibiotic resistances that makes it very difficult to treat.

Tuesday, February 7, is the next Morning Medical Update. A gruesome accident that made national headlines years ago was just the beginning for 10-year-old Xavier Cunningham. We’ll catch up with the now teenager and hear his prognosis from the doctor who removed a bar-b-que skewer from his face.

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