CDC Continues Receiving Reports of MIS-C in Children After COVID Infections
Cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a rare but serious COVID-19 complication in children, have decreased from the earlier pandemic months but continue to be reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The CDC saw a relative increase in MIS-C cases in the fall of 2023, when the United States was experiencing a rise in COVID activity in the general population. (Schnirring, 3/14)
Nature: Examining the Data Behind the Increase in Cancer Rates Among Young People
Of the many young people whom Cathy Eng has treated for cancer, the person who stood out the most was a young woman with a 65-year-old’s disease. The 16-year-old had flown from China to Texas to receive treatment for a gastrointestinal cancer that typically occurs in older adults. Her parents had sold their house to fund her care, but it was already too late. “She had such advanced disease, there was not much that I could do,” says Eng, now an oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. ... Thousands of miles away, in Mumbai, India, surgeon George Barreto had been noticing the same thing. (Ledford, 3/13)
Reuters: UN Reports Slow Progress Despite Global Drop in Child Mortality Rates in 2022
The number of children globally who died before their fifth birthday dropped to a record low of 4.9 million in 2022, but that still represents one death every six seconds, according to new United Nations estimates. While the mortality rate for under-5s has roughly halved since 2000, the world is still behind in the goal of reducing preventable deaths in that age group by 2030, and progress has slowed since 2015, the report, released on Wednesday, found. (3/12)
The Hill: CDC Reports Drastic Spike in ER Visits for Children Accidentally Ingesting Melatonin
The number of kids aged 5 and younger who went to an emergency room for unsupervised melatonin ingestion increased 420 percent from 2009 to 2020, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More recently, melatonin was implicated in approximately 11,000 emergency department visits among infants and young children between 2019–2022. (Weixel, 3/8)
The New York Times: Study Finds Link Between Teen Pregnancy and Premature Death
Teen pregnancy increases the chances that a young woman will drop out of school and struggle with poverty, research has shown. Teenagers are also more likely to develop serious medical complications during pregnancy. Now a large study in Canada reports another disturbing finding: Women who were pregnant as teenagers are more likely to die before their 31st birthday. The trend was observed among women who had carried teen pregnancies to term, as well as among those who had miscarried. (Rabin, 3/14)
The Hill: Study Shows Flawed Data Contributes to High and Rising U.S. Maternal Mortality Rates
A new study has found that high and rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States are due to flawed data. The maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. has shown high rates of maternal deaths compared to other countries – but the study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that data may have been classified incorrectly for two decades. The number of women dying after giving birth has been concerning and raised questions about care in the U.S. While past estimates show the maternal mortality rate has more than doubled in the last two decades, the study found that it has remained steady. (Irwin, 3/13)
Modern Healthcare: Enhancing Access for Patients With Disabilities Through HHS Rule
Healthcare providers must ready themselves to comply with new standards for accommodating patients with disabilities. The Health and Human Services Department issued a proposed rule in September that would require providers to retrofit facilities and medical equipment to meet patients’ physical and sensory needs, ensure websites, mobile apps and virtual care programs are user-friendly for people with disabilities, and remove disability status as a factor in clinical support tools. The final rule could appear within weeks. (Hartnett, 3/14)
KFF Health News: How In-Network Health Coverage Can Disappear Unnoticed
Sarah Feldman, 35, received the first ominous letters from Mount Sinai Medical last November. The New York hospital system warned it was having trouble negotiating a pricing agreement with UnitedHealthcare, which includes Oxford Health Plans, Feldman’s insurer. “We are working in good faith with Oxford to reach a new fair agreement,” the letter said, continuing reassuringly: “Your physicians will remain in-network and you should keep appointments with your providers.” (Rosenthal, 3/15)
KFF Health News: The Unintended Consequences of Copay Assistance for Patients
In early 2019, Jennifer Hepworth and her husband were stunned by a large bill they unexpectedly received for their daughter’s prescription cystic fibrosis medication. Their payment had risen to $3,500 from the usual $30 for a month’s supply. That must be a mistake, she told the pharmacy. But it wasn’t. It turned out that the health insurance plan through her husband’s job had a new program in which it stopped applying any financial assistance they received from drugmakers to the family’s annual deductible. (Appleby, 3/15)
CBS News: Officials Confirm Measles Case in Unvaccinated Child in Stanislaus County
An unvaccinated Central Valley child has a confirmed case of measles, health officials say. Stanislaus County Public Health announced the confirmed case on Thursday. The child had recently traveled out the country, but health officials didn't reveal exactly where. While relatively rare in the US, confirmed cases are often traced back to other parts of the world where measles is still present. Officials noted that all known public exposures related to this new case have occurred in healthcare settings. (Padilla, 3/14)
Los Angeles Times: Pediatricians Express Alarm as More California Parents Delay Children's Vaccines
As measles cases pop up across the country this winter — including several in California — one group of children is stirring deep concerns among pediatricians: the babies and toddlers of vaccine-hesitant parents who are delaying their child's measles-mumps-rubella shots. (Gold, 3/13)
Child in California with Measles Possibly Exposed 300 People: UC Davis Medical Center officials provided new information and called the situation “under control” after the hospital treated an infant with measles last week. Read more from The Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle. The Los Angeles Times details why pediatricians are sounding the alarm as more parents delay vaccinations for their children.
KFF Health News: The Anti-Vaccine Movement's Conflict Between Parental Rights and Public Health
Gayle Borne has fostered more than 300 children in Springfield, Tennessee. She’s cared for kids who have rarely seen a doctor — kids so neglected that they cannot speak. Such children are now even more vulnerable because of a law Tennessee passed last year that requires the direct consent of birth parents or legal guardians for every routine childhood vaccination. Foster parents, social workers, and other caregivers cannot provide permission. (Maxmen, 3/12)
The Hill: Measles Outbreak Puts US 'Elimination' Status of Virus at Risk
The rash of measles outbreaks around the country has sparked concerns that the U.S. risks losing its status as a country where the disease has been eliminated, a distinction held since 2000. As of last week, 41 measles cases have been confirmed across 15 states and New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That puts the nation already on track to surpass the 58 total cases that were detected in 2023. (Choi, 3/8)
Stateline: States to Begin Covering Expensive Gene Therapies, Starting with Sickle Cell Disease
The new sickle cell treatments have brought hope to those with the debilitating blood disorder, which is hereditary and disproportionately affects Black people. But the therapies come with a price tag of as much as $3 million for a course of treatment, which can take up to a year. Despite those high upfront costs, cell and gene therapies have the potential to reduce health care spending over time by addressing the underlying cause of the disease. (Hassanein, 3/14)
Los Angeles Times: Report Indicates Some Individuals with Mental Illness Remain Incarcerated in L.A. Jails
People with mental illnesses who are in conservatorships are being held in Los Angeles County jails even after their criminal charges are dropped, according to a report released Tuesday by Disability Rights California. Similarly, they are staying months in county psychiatric hospitals after doctors have agreed that it’s safe for them to leave, the report said. The issue is partly one of capacity. (Cosgrove, 3/13)
Los Angeles Times: Concerns Over Police Response to Individuals with Mental Health Issues Raised by Fatal Shooting of Autistic Teen
Ryan Gainer, a teen with autism, was a cross-country runner who worked out his frustrations with six-mile runs and dreamed of becoming an engineer. On Saturday afternoon, the 15-year-old became upset that his parents had demanded he complete his household chores before he would be allowed to play video games or listen to music on his computer, according to DeWitt Lacy, a civil rights attorney representing Ryan’s family. (Fry, 3/12)
CNN: Study Finds Lower Overall Risk of Death Linked to Medication Treatment in ADHD Patients
People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for premature death and other adverse health outcomes, but a large study out of Sweden suggests that treating the disorder with medication can help reduce the overall mortality risk for patients. (McPhillips, 3/12)
Roll Call: Increasing Teen THC Use Might Complicate Cannabis Policy Further
Adolescents are using an often unregulated, psychoactive derivative of cannabis, according to national data released Wednesday, as the Biden administration deliberates expanding access to marijuana at the federal level. The data could complicate hemp regulation at the state level, as some states move to rein in THC use. It could also have ripple effects around efforts to legalize marijuana, which already operates under an extremely gray patchwork of regulations at the state level, where it’s often legal, and the federal level, where it’s not. (Raman and Clason, 3/14)
NBC News: More Than 10% of High School Seniors Report Using Delta-8 THC
More than 11% of high school seniors report using delta-8 THC — a compound closely related to the psychoactive chemical in marijuana that’s legal in many states thanks to a loophole in the 2018 farm bill — according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, is one of the first to offer a nationwide snapshot of teenage use of delta-8, a little-researched cannabis product with psychoactive effects that has grown in popularity in recent years. (Syal, 3/12)
Politico: Becerra Considers Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday didn’t shut the door to drug testing welfare recipients, a policy San Francisco voters approved earlier this month. Becerra, former California attorney general, said that he didn’t want to tell cities, counties or states what actions they should take but that all options should be on the table when considering how to address the drug crisis facing the nation. (Messerly, 3/13)
The Boston Globe: Pediatricians Miss Opportunities to Prescribe Life-Saving Medications for Opioid Addiction
The summer before Becca Schmill entered her junior year of high school in 2018, she admitted to her parents that she was self-medicating with opioids and cocaine to cope with the trauma of being raped by a boy she met on social media. Becca’s mother, Deb Schmill of Needham, said she immediately notified Becca’s pediatrician and checked her into an outpatient treatment program for adolescents with substance use problems. Yet ... Becca never received a prescription for buprenorphine — a standard medication for treating opioid addictions. (Serres, 3/11)
Modern Healthcare: Patient Safety Concern for 2024: Inexperienced New Clinicians
Medical and nursing school graduates' training issues during the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to major safety challenges in 2024, according to nonprofit patient safety organization ECRI. About 400,000 new nurses passed their licensing examination over the course of the pandemic as the industry grappled with a lack of mentors and training programs, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. ECRI worries inexperienced, ill-prepared clinicians could contribute to cases of preventable patient harm. (Devereaux, 3/12)
The Hill: Understanding the Rampant Burnout Among Female Health Care Workers
Health care workers — and particularly female health care workers — are burning out at alarming rates. A recent survey from nursing marketplace platform ShiftKey shared with The Hill found that 86 percent of women in the field — including nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and technicians — reported experiencing burnout, with 64 percent saying they were at risk of burning out “right now.” The rates were notably lower for men, though still high. (O’Connell-Domenech, 3/8)
CapRadio: Advocates Warn Proposed Foster Care Cuts in California Could Lead to Increased Homelessness
Advocates for California’s foster youth are criticizing Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to cut several programs they say are critical to keeping foster youth from falling into homelessness. Newsom proposed the cuts in January as part of his plan to close the state’s multi-billion budget deficit. (Nichols, 3/13)
Stat: What is the Demand for Gene Therapy Among Hemophilia Patients?
As a boy growing up with hemophilia A, Noah Frederick reserved the end of his annual checkups to talk about new technologies. His doctor walked through various experimental approaches for the bleeding disorder and, invariably, gene therapy. It was coming, he always said, in your lifetime. Last year, it finally arrived. But Frederick, now a 23-year-old software engineer, isn’t sure he’ll get it. (Mast, 3/13)