From 蘑菇影院 Health News - Latest Stories:
蘑菇影院 Health News Original Stories
Medicare鈥檚 Push To Improve Chronic Care Attracts Businesses, but Not Many Doctors
Most Medicare enrollees have two or more chronic health conditions, making them eligible for a federal program that rewards physicians for doing more to manage their care. It shows promise in reducing costs. But not many doctors have joined. (Phil Galewitz and Holly K. Hacker, )
The Path to a Better Tuberculosis Vaccine Runs Through Montana
Researchers at the University of Montana have pitched in to develop a more effective vaccine in the fight against an ancient disease that still kills an estimated 1.6 million people a year worldwide. (Jim Robbins, )
Political Cartoon: 'Disco Fever?'
蘑菇影院 Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'Disco Fever?'" by Dave Coverly.
Here's today's health policy haiku:
TAKE CARE OF YOU
While you read health news
Make sure you check on your own
You are so valued!
- Jocelyn Kuh
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of 蘑菇影院 Health News or 蘑菇影院.
Summaries Of The News:
At Least 4 States Hit By 911 Outages; Services Restored In Some Areas
Landlines and mobile phones were unable to connect to the emergency phone line in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and Nevada on Wednesday, with service now partially restored. The cause is being investigated.
Emergency services on the 911 telephone call line were restored late on Wednesday in parts of the United States, officials said, following a widespread outage across all of South Dakota and in parts of Nebraska, Nevada and Texas. Officials in South Dakota, Nevada and Las Vegas said 911 services had been restored, but without identifying the cause of the failure. (V, 4/18)
The Del Rio Police Department said an unspecified "major cellular carrier" was to blame. Authorities in the South Texas border city emphasized in a Facebook post that the "issue is with the carrier and not the City of Del Rio systems," urging the public to call 911 with a landline or through a functioning carrier if they have an emergency.聽聽(Lynch, 4/17)
In related news about emergency calls 鈥
Emergency medical services providers say they need a lifeline from the state legislature this session to the tune of $120 million to keep answering calls for help, especially in rural parts of Minnesota. But a final deal at the capitol could fall short. DFL leaders in the majority and Gov. Tim Walz in their top-line supplemental spending agreement earmarked $16 million instead. (Cummings, 4/17)
GOP Again Quashes Efforts To Restore Abortion In Arizona
The state Senate might vote in the next few weeks to reverse the near-total abortion ban, but it's not certain the House will approve the measure.
Republicans in the Arizona state House blocked two attempts Wednesday to repeal the state鈥檚 160-year-old near total ban on abortion, despite pressure on the GOP鈥攊ncluding from former President Donald Trump鈥攖o change course on the hot-button issue. But later in the day, two Senate Republicans joined with Democrats鈥攅nough to create a majority鈥攖o move forward on their version of a repeal. A final vote on the bill could be weeks away. If the Senate does ultimately vote to repeal the ban, the measure would go back to the House, where it would still face a difficult path. (Collins, 4/17)
Democrats in the Arizona Senate cleared a path to bring a proposed repeal of the state鈥檚 near-total ban on abortions to a vote after the state鈥檚 highest court concluded the law can be enforced and the state House blocked efforts to undo the long-dormant statute. Although no vote was taken on the repeal itself, Republican Sens. T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick sided with 14 Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday in changing rules to let a repeal proposal advance after the deadline for hearing bills had passed. Proponents say the Senate could vote on the repeal as early as May 1. (Billeaud, 4/17)
The near-total abortion ban set to take effect in the coming months was crafted before Arizona was a state 鈥 and generations of lawmakers have worked to keep it alive ever since. (Boehm, 4/17)
More Americans believe abortion restrictions should be decided by the states rather than the federal government, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek. The results suggest more Americans are coming to share former President Donald Trump's view on the issue. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced last week that he believes abortion limits should be left to the states, declining to endorse a national ban after months of speculation and warning that extreme stances on the issue could lead to Republican losses in November's election. (Rahman, 4/18)
The conservative effort to put an abortion ban on the ballot in Nebraska has been bankrolled entirely to date by Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). Ricketts donated $500,000 in cash on March 26 to the group Protect Women and Children, according to its campaign finance report filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. The group reported no other donations. (Weixel, 4/17)
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago, abortion has become a top campaign issue. Since then, President Biden has vociferously defended the right to choose an abortion and attacked former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, for eroding reproductive rights. It might come as a surprise that Biden once opposed abortion and believed that Roe was wrongly decided. Here is how Biden鈥檚 stance on abortion has evolved over the decades. (Wang and Guild, 4/17)
Report: Every State Shows Racial, Ethnic Inequalities In Health Care
News outlets note that this is true even for states with "robust" health systems, and the best health outcomes, new data from the Commonwealth Fund shows. Also in the news: botched executions for Black prisoners, toxic water supply in a majority Latino city, and more.
Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are evident in every state, even those with robust health systems, according to a new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund. In the analysis from the organization, which is aimed at promoting equitable health care, researchers found health system performance is markedly worse for many people of color compared to white people. (4/18)
鈥淗ealth equity does not exist in any state in the U.S.,鈥 said David Radley, a co-author of the report and senior scientist at the Commonwealth Fund. Analyses of health system performance that average all groups together, he said, mask the gaps that exist within each state. The report also made clear that the health disparities experienced by different racial and ethnic groups were not universal but differed by state: Some, like North Carolina, had better outcomes than other states for Indigenous people, but worse outcomes than other states for Hispanic people. (McFarling, 4/18)
In California, the gap between Asian Americans, the group with the highest health system score, and American Indians, the group with the lowest score, is especially stark 鈥 and wider than in other Western states, the analysis found. 鈥淭he gap in California is particularly large,鈥 said the report鈥檚 co-author Arnav Shah, a senior research associate at the Commonwealth Fund, which tracks health industry trends. (Ho, 4/17)
In related news 鈥
The American Academy of Pediatrics says racism can negatively impact the health of children and adolescents, and the doctor鈥檚 office is one of the places where kids may experience racial bias. A team of Minnesota doctors asked Black and brown kids aged 11 to 18 about their experience in a recent study. Then, the researchers talked to their parents. (Bright and Elder, 4/17)
Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. In an analysis of the more than 1,400 lethal injection executions conducted in the U.S. since 1982, researchers for the nonprofit Reprieve reported that states made significantly more mistakes during the executions of Black people than they did with prisoners of other races. (Eisner, 4/18)
Rosana Monge clutched her husband鈥檚 death certificate and an envelope of his medical records as she approached the microphone and faced members of the water utility board on a recent Monday in this city in southeast New Mexico. 鈥淚 have proof here of arsenic tests 鈥 positive on him, that were done by the Veterans Administration,鈥 she testified about her husband, whose 2023 records show he had been diagnosed with 鈥渆xposure to arsenic鈥 before his death in February at age 79. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 asking is for a health assessment of the community.鈥 (Foster-Frau, 4/18)
Declining confidence in major institutions is driving more people to trust their own ability to assess health information or turn to friends for guidance, indicates a new global Edelman Trust Barometer survey provided exclusively to Axios. (Owens, 4/18)
Texas' Planned Medicaid Changes Could Upend Coverage For 1.8 Million
Under the proposal, three top nonprofit children's health plans would be bounced as the state looks to shift coverage to more for-profit companies.
Texas health officials are poised to drop the state鈥檚 three largest nonprofit children鈥檚 health plans from multibillion-dollar Medicaid and children鈥檚 health insurance contracts 鈥 threatening the future of plans run by legacy children鈥檚 hospitals in Fort Worth and South Texas and shaking up health care coverage for low-income families throughout the state. (Harper, 4/18)
A federal judge has scheduled a trial May 13 in a lawsuit over people being dropped from Florida鈥檚 Medicaid program after the end of a federal public health emergency that was declared in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacksonville-based U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard issued an order last week scheduling the trial, according to a court docket. (4/18)
When Helen Zervas was notified in January 2020 that her optometry practice was going to be audited by Connecticut officials, the Bristol eye doctor responded by hiring an attorney and voluntarily repaying nearly $600,000 to the state. In doing so, Zervas, the owner of Family Eye Care, joined a list of more than 45 doctors, pharmacies and other medical providers that willingly returned money to Connecticut in recent years after notifying the state that they had overcharged the Medicaid insurance program. (Brown and Altimari, 4/18)
Elevance Health reported a first quarter profit of $2.2 billion as strong growth in sales of commercial health insurance and healthcare services offset a big decrease in Medicaid enrollment. Elevance, which sells government and commercial health insurance including Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states, Wednesday reported first quarter net income jumped 12.2% to $2.2 billion compared to $2 billion in the year-ago quarter. (Japsen, 4/18)
On Medicare 鈥
A legal fight between four Pennsylvania health systems and Aetna could upend how Medicare Advantage insurers manage costs for supplemental benefits. Bridges Health Partners, a clinically integrated network in western Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit in state court Wednesday alleging CVS Health subsidiary Aetna broke contract terms by categorizing extra benefits such as gym memberships and CVS gift cards as medical expenses. (Tepper, 4/18)
蘑菇影院 Health News:
Medicare鈥檚 Push To Improve Chronic Care Attracts Businesses, But Not Many Doctors
Carrie Lester looks forward to the phone call every Thursday from her doctors鈥 medical assistant, who asks how she鈥檚 doing and if she needs prescription refills. The assistant counsels her on dealing with anxiety and her other health issues. Lester credits the chats for keeping her out of the hospital and reducing the need for clinic visits to manage chronic conditions including depression, fibromyalgia, and hypertension. (Galewitz and Hacker, 4/18)
Hospitals' Trauma Care Prices Differed Wildly In 2023: Study
A new study found prices were so unpredictable between hospitals that some insured patients needing trauma care even ended up with more bills than uninsured people did. Stat, meanwhile, covers tech startups who are making money out of hospital price transparency rules.
Prices for initiating care at hospital trauma centers vary wildly across hospitals, sometimes leading to patients with insurance paying more than those without coverage, according to a new study. Prices associated with readying doctors and other personnel for trauma cases varied 16-fold in 2023 across 761 hospitals studied, according to a peer-reviewed research letter published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Kacik, 4/17)
Federal rules forcing hospitals and insurers to post rates for medical procedures have taken effect, but the data鈥檚 so messy that a crop of new startups is rushing in to make a business out of parsing it for whoever is willing to pay. (Ravindranath, 4/17)
Hospital closings and openings 鈥
The Thomasville Regional Medical Center faces foreclosure and could be sold at auction on May 9, unless a deal to transfer it to new owners goes through, according to court filings and Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day. The facility has been clouded with financial issues since opening in 2020. Earlier this month, attorneys for the mortgagee North Avenue Capital LLC of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., filed a foreclosure notice with a Clarke County court for nearly $40 million owed on the property. (Gray, 4/18)
Santa Clara County officials, doctors and community members are imploring the state to intervene in HCA Healthcare鈥檚 decision to close Regional Medical Center鈥檚 trauma center and other life saving programs later this year 鈥 a move they say will lead to more deaths and worse outcomes for patients. ... The closure will leave residents in the eastern part of the county without a Comprehensive Stroke Center and San Jose will have fewer trauma centers than any other comparably sized city in the nation, according to county officials. (Hase, 4/17)
A psychiatric hospital providing mental health and addiction services to people across 23,000 square miles in western Colorado could shut down within weeks if it can鈥檛 find the funding it needs to stay open. (Flowers, 4/18)
Private equity-owned businesses accounted for a high number of bankruptcies in the health-care sector last year, and another wave of distress looms, according to a new report from an advocacy group that monitors the sector. PE-backed firms accounted for at least 17, or about a fifth, of the 80 bankruptcies of health-care companies last year, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a report due to be released Wednesday. It called 2023 a 鈥渞ecord year鈥 for large health-care bankruptcies. (Coleman-Lochner, 4/17)
Indianapolis-based Eskenazi Health opened its nearly $90 million Eskenazi Health Thomas and Arlene Grande campus in Indianapolis to patients on April 17.聽Services like financial counseling, chiropractic care, podiatry, imaging, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lifestyle medicine, and pharmacy are offered at the 95,000-square-foot-facility, according to an April 17 news release.聽(Ashley, 4/17)
State regulators on Wednesday approved a request from Massachusetts General Hospital to add nearly 100 new beds to its massive downtown construction project, the hospital said. In a statement, Mass. General said the Massachusetts Public Health Council unanimously approved a 鈥渘et increase of 94 licensed inpatient beds鈥 at the hospital. The State House News Service previously reported on the approval. (Andersen and Serres, 4/17)
On staffing and workloads 鈥
Members of the Oregon Nurses Association at Springfield, Ore.-based PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services have voted to authorize an open-ended strike. The union represents more than 90 nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services, according to an ONA news release shared with Becker's. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services is part of PeaceHealth, a Vancouver, Wash.-based nonprofit Catholic health system serving communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. (Gooch, 4/17)
Nursing home workers and educators pushed back on the administration's staffing mandate at a Senate Aging Committee hearing Tuesday, as the industry waits for the final rule to drop. In September, CMS聽proposed staffing ratio requirements for long-term care facilities, which would require them to provide 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day. (DeSilva, 4/17)
The state Department of Public Health is wading through a backlog of 2,400 unaddressed complaints from nursing home residents, their families or others, and another 1,300 complaints related to incidents at hospitals, some which are now five years old, agency data shows. (Carlesso and Altimari, 4/17)
Thomas Eagle鈥檚 heart rate was hovering around 39 beats per minute when his wife, Anna Palmisano, drove him to the emergency department at Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital in October 2022. He had COVID-19 and, while he lifted weights and exercised regularly, he was also 75 years old. Palmisano was worried. But after five hours passed and Eagle still hadn鈥檛 seen a doctor, they left the Bethesda hospital. They couldn鈥檛 wait any longer, they decided. (Roberts, 4/18)
Drug Shortages Hit Record For The First Three Months Of This Year
In the first quarter of this year, 323 drugs were low in supply, according to data from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, compared with 320 in 2014. Meanwhile, reports highlight how prior authorizations are also worsening the growth hormone shortage.
Drug shortages have reached a record high in the first three months of 2024. In the first quarter of the year, 323 drugs were running low, surpassing the 2014 high of 320, according to data provided by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. Since 2001, the groups have tracked shortages using voluntary reports from practitioners and patients that are confirmed by drug makers. (Robledo, 4/17)
Dr. Jennifer Miller has been an author of dozens of studies about rare endocrine diseases over the last two decades. Hundreds of patients fly to Gainesville, Fla., from all over the U.S. to see her for treatment. But now, her office is inundated with faxes, emails, texts and phone calls that have little to do with her life's work. ... A shortage of growth hormone 鈥 as well as how insurance companies are handling the problem 鈥 has consumed nearly every spare minute she has had for the last six months. (Lupkin, 4/17)
Kerry Pearl remembers the pharmacist holding up the medicine her 4-year-old son needed to help him breathe. 鈥淗e was literally holding it, looking at me like: 鈥業 can鈥檛 give you this,鈥 鈥 she recalls. 鈥淢y poor kid is at home not sleeping through the night and waking up coughing, and you鈥檙e holding the answer and the insurance company kind of holds the keys here.鈥 (Tirrell, 4/17)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday classified a recall of Boston Scientific's device used to block blood flow during excessive bleeding or hemorrhaging as "most serious". An investigation showed that Boston's device, Obsidio Embolic, when used with a specific technique posed a higher risk of bowel ischemia during procedures to stop gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, the agency said. (4/17)
蘑菇影院 Health News:
The Path To A Better Tuberculosis Vaccine Runs Through Montana
A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis, an infectious disease that has killed more people than any other. The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Gu茅rin) vaccine, created in 1921, remains the sole TB vaccine. While it is 40% to 80% effective in young children, its efficacy is very low in adolescents and adults, leading to a worldwide push to create a more powerful vaccine. (Robbins, 4/18)
Neurorights Group: In Today's Techy World, Brain Data Needs Protections
Stat reports on efforts to prevent consumer technology companies from Hoovering-up data from users' brains, including a new bill to expand the relevant privacy protections in Colorado. Meanwhile, a dispute between Epic Systems and startup Particle Health over data-sharing is in the news.
Consumer neurotechnology is booming. You can buy a funky-looking headband for $500 on the internet if you want your own personal EEG to track your brain data. But before you click purchase, you might want to check out the device鈥檚 privacy policy. (Broderick, 4/17)
Consumers have grown accustomed to the prospect that their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, are being collected and often resold by the apps and the digital services they use. With the advent of consumer neurotechnologies, the data being collected is becoming ever more intimate. One headband serves as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user鈥檚 brain activity. Another purports to help treat anxiety and symptoms of depression. Another reads and interprets brain signals while the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. (鈥溾楲isten to your heart鈥 is not enough,鈥 the manufacturer says on its website.) (Moens, 4/17)
A dispute between electronic health record giant Epic Systems and a startup gives a glimpse at the larger data-sharing challenges healthcare faces. The dispute between Epic and Particle Health, a startup that helps providers and health tech companies aggregate and share data, exposes how a lack of trust has hampered larger interoperability efforts.聽(Perna, 4/17)
For a company moving as quickly as possible to build artificial intelligence into everything 鈥 including health care 鈥 Microsoft spends a lot of time talking about how to regulate it. (Ross and Trang, 4/18)
Also 鈥
Genealogy companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe have to get your permission before they store, use, or share your DNA, under the Genetic Information Privacy Act. However, the California Department of Public Health doesn't have to. In fact, the agency has been storing DNA samples from every baby born in California since the 1980s. Researchers can purchase those samples for state-approved studies and law enforcement can access them with a court order. (Watts, 4/17)
Anne Wojcicki is seeking to take her DNA-testing company 23andMe private after three years in public markets that saw the once-hot company鈥檚 valuation collapse from a high of $6 billion. Her intentions were revealed in a public filing late Wednesday, which stated that she is working with advisers to help craft a potential deal and intends to speak with potential partners and financing sources. The filing said she would oppose any other buyer taking over the company. (Winkler, 4/17)
Some Doctors Add Gun Safety Questions To Wellness Visit Checklist
During a doctor visit, patients are accustomed to lifestyle questions regarding exercise or substance use that can impact overall health. Now some physicians are adding gun safety to that list. Also: the long road to recovery for gun violence survivors.
In wellness visits, primary care doctors have a few minutes with patients to check in about various issues related to their health, including smoking, drinking, medications and exercise. Some physicians have added gun safety to the list. The move stems from the perspective, shared by the Minnesota Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups, that gun violence is a public health crisis. (Wurzer and Elder, 4/15)
Aaron Hunter was 13 when he woke up in the hospital after being shot in the head while playing with friends. The shooting happened June 22, 2023 in Sarasota, Florida. The bullet entered just above his right ear and lodged halfway into his brain. He doesn't recall the shooting, or even remember being around a gun, he said. "All I remember is I was picking mangoes with a friend, and then I went to another friend's house, and then I remember waking up in the hospital." (Colombini, 4/18)
In a disturbing worldwide trend, new cancer cases among young people have been increasing sharply. Early-onset cancers, defined as cancer cases diagnosed in people under 50, increased globally by a staggering聽79%. (Hetter, 4/18)
As rates of smoking decline worldwide, and some countries even try to ban it, tobacco companies have found other ways to make money by satisfying people鈥檚 hankering for nicotine, the addictive stimulant found in tobacco. Sales of 鈥渟moke-free鈥 nicotine products are eating into those of cigarettes and other combustibles. Yet health officials are divided as to whether they should condone these products. While less deadly than cigarettes, they can hook users just as easily and may also have harmful effects. (Ekblom, 4/17)
There are a lot of risks when it comes to adolescents using screens 鈥 and a new multinational study shows weight-related bullying may be among them. The more time adolescents spend on screens and social media, the greater the likelihood that they will be bullied about their weight, according to the study. (Holcombe, 4/17)
High Brain Cancer Rates Found In Kids At New Mexico Air Force Base
Military.com reports on a new Air Force study that seems to point to a higher-than-normal rate for rare brain and spinal cord cancer among service members' children at Cannon Air Force Base. Separately, more communities across the U.S. are removing fluoride from water.
A new Air Force study has found what appears to be a higher rate of a rare brain and spinal cord cancer among children of service members stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. The nearly two-year study examined pediatric brain cancers at the base after concerns about a possible cancer cluster were raised in 2022. The Air Force found three cases of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, and the closely related diffuse midline glioma, or DMG -- rare, aggressive and possibly fatal tumors -- among children with parents stationed at Cannon over a 10-year period. (Novelly, 4/17)
Fluoride, the tooth health-boosting mineral that conjures images of dentists' offices for many, has been a standard additive to municipal water sources since the 1940s. ... The Flouride Action Network, an anti-fluoride group, has tracked the ongoing battle in U.S. communities. As of 2023, the network says, more than 240 communities in the world have rejected the use of fluoridated water since 2010, more than 170 of which are in the U.S. (Walrath-Holdridge, 4/17)
Michigan health experts are warning residents about the risks of consuming raw milk as the highly pathogenic avian influenza continues to affect dairy herds in the state.聽The virus can spread to humans through the consumption of unpasteurized milk products. "Anyone can get sick from drinking raw milk, but children under age 5, adults over age 65 and those with weakened immune systems are more at risk for getting sick," said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive. (Powers, 4/17)
Mental health news from California, Florida, and Minnesota 鈥
The state moved in 2021 to phase in higher reimbursement rates for the services provided to the developmentally disabled. This year, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to delay the final increase to help reduce the state鈥檚 budget deficit. Advocates and families say such a delay would only leave essential services further out of families鈥 reach. (Garcia, 4/17)
The 988 Suicide and Crisis hotline was launched in 2022 to provide people in a mental health crisis with another hotline to call other than 911. Starting this summer, staff from the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay will work in Tampa's police dispatch center to further refine 911 calls that don't need police involvement. Police Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson says when officers have to respond to mental health crisis calls, it can be very difficult for them. (Lebron, 4/16)
Principals have an outsized impact on their schools. Research shows effective school leaders have a big impact on student achievement, teacher retention and other outcomes important for kids.聽Many, though, are overwhelmed. A newly released University of Minnesota report on Minnesota K-12 school principals found school leaders struggling for traction on instructional leadership and community engagement as they deal with their single greatest challenge, student mental health. (Shockman, 4/18)
More health news from across the U.S. 鈥
The Mississippi Delta makes a fitting setting for an ambitious research project testing the premise that promoting access to fresh, nutritious food can improve health for people with chronic disease. It was there -- in Mound Bayou -- where the godfather of the food is medicine movement, the late public health advocate Dr. Jack Geiger, co-founded the historic Delta Health Center in 1967, one of the first community health centers to open under President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. (Hartnett, 4/17)
For years, the women housed at the low-security federal prison in Northern California said they were victims of sexual assault at the hands of staff. There were harrowing accounts of rape, sexual touching and voyeurism at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin. Some inmates said they were forced to strip naked, while others recounted being made to serve as lookouts while staff members brutalized their cellmates. The abuse was so persistent, one investigation found, that prison employees called the facility 鈥渢he rape club.鈥 (Knight, 4/15)
Lawrence and Methuen have, for now, salvaged a partnership to provide public health services to their residents after a rift nearly cost both cities almost $2 million in state grant money. Just a few weeks ago, Lawrence and Methuen were on the cusp of a messy breakup after Methuen officials complained Lawrence had not met standards needed to maintain a functional collaboration. To repair the relationship, Lawrence officials have agreed to fill some key public health positions and reform its public health service. (Laughlin, 4/17)
Research Roundup: TB; Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria; Covid
Each week, 蘑菇影院 Health News compiles a selection of health policy studies and briefs.
During this month's annual European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Global) conference in Spain, UK researchers will present evidence that patients successfully treated for tuberculosis (TB) have lasting lung damage, including smaller lungs with narrower airways and slower air flow. (Soucheray, 4/15)
The results of new research to be presented later this month at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Global Congress suggest companion animals could play a role in the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. ... In five households in Portugal and two in the United Kingdom, whole-genome sequencing showed that both the pet and the owner were carrying the same strain of ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacterales. (Dall, 4/15)
In the 30 days after COVID-19 infection, total sperm count, sperm concentration, total sperm motility (movement), and progressive motility were significantly reduced in a cohort of Chinese men, with the most severe effects in those with moderate to high fever, researchers from Sichuan Provincial Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital聽report in Scientific Reports.聽(Van Beusekom, 4/15)
Black and non-Hispanic healthcare professionals (HCPs) of other races and those without graduate degrees were more likely than their White peers and clinical HCPs with graduate degrees to experience delayed COVID-19 testing in the first 2 years of the pandemic, finds a multicenter, test-negative case-control聽study. (Van Beusekom, 4/11)
Editorial writers discuss H5N1, donor breast milk, American life expectancy, and more
With growing evidence of potential mammal-to-mammal spread just weeks after the new bird flu was detected in cows, many of us in the biosecurity and pandemic preparedness community believe that leaders in capitals around the globe should be working to get ahead of this new public health threat in case the H5N1 flu virus gains the ability to spread among humans. (Jaime M. Yassif, 4/17)
Each day, more than 1,000 babies are born prematurely in America. Born before 37 weeks and often weighing less than five pounds, these infants are at greater risk for a suite of serious health problems, including life-threatening infections, chronic lung disease, blindness, and death. (Sionika Thayagabalu and Dominick Lemas, 4/18)
American life expectancy started dropping even before the pandemic. It鈥檚 a critical barometer of our nation鈥檚 health and a sign that all is not well in the U.S. Much of the increase in preventable, premature death is attributable to drug overdose, which increased five-fold over the last couple decades. But this malaise is far broader, driven largely by growing chronic illness. (Celine Gounder and Craig Spencer, 4/16)
For most Americans, the name Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller doesn鈥檛 ring a bell. Yet, over 70 years ago, this pioneering African American psychiatrist delivered a groundbreaking review of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Today, the shadow of his underappreciated work looms large, a stark reminder of the ongoing fight for equity in scientific research, particularly in a disease that disproportionately affects Black communities. (Sid O'Bryant, 4/17)
鈥淐avities are a communicable disease, and if you鈥檙e among the 90 percent of Americans who鈥檚 ever had one, you probably got them from your mother.鈥 (David Wallace-Wells, 4/17)
As two former secretaries of Health and Human Services, we are all too familiar with the struggle of finding narrow openings for bipartisanship. Despite our different approaches, we believe that addressing health care costs is a truly bipartisan issue. To be serious about creating access for people to the best possible care, that care must be affordable for patients and taxpayers. One issue that is particularly ripe for bipartisan compromise is site-neutral payments. (Alex Azar and Kathleen G. Sebelius, 4/18)