Health News from KFF: Neglected and Unaddressed, ADHD Goes Undiagnosed and Untreated in Young Black Males
As a kid, Wesley Jackson Wade should have been set up to succeed. His father was a novelist and corporate sales director and his mother was a special education teacher. But Wade said he struggled through school even though he was an exceptional writer and communicator. He played the class clown when he wasn’t feeling challenged. He got in trouble for talking back to teachers. And, the now 40-year-old said, he often felt anger that he couldn’t bottle up. As one of the only Black kids in predominantly white schools in upper-middle-class communities — including the university enclaves of Palo Alto, California, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina — he often got detention for chatting with his white friends during class, while they got only warnings. He chalked it up to his being Black. (Sibonney, 11/9)
Axios: An Unconventional Challenge Arises in the Realm of Drug Shortages
Ongoing shortages of life-saving and essential drugs have largely been tied to the fragility of drug supply chain, but the flip side of the economic equation driving the scarcity — demand — is also a growing problem. (Reed, 11/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Surging Numbers of Children in Mental Health Crisis Seek Treatment in Hospital Emergency Rooms
Dr. Christopher Lucas shuttled from room to room, checking on the children with mental-health troubles who had streamed into his emergency department over the past 12 hours because they had nowhere else to go. There were eight of them that September day at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. In one room, staff tended to a 17-year-old girl with chronic depression who had attempted suicide by overdosing on ibuprofen—her fourth trip to the E.R. for mental-health reasons in two years. Nearby was a 14-year-old girl who had started cutting herself after being bullied over social media. (Frosch and Evans, 11/8)
Health News from KFF: New RSV Vaccine May Safeguard Infants This Winter — Provided Timely Access is Ensured
Emily Bendt was in her third trimester of pregnancy when she first heard the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had approved a new shot for infants to protect them from the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. By Oct. 5, Bendt was cuddling with her new baby, Willow, on the couch at home in Vancouver, Washington. She was excited to get Willow the new therapy for infants, called nirsevimab, which had started shipping in September — but Bendt, a pediatric home health nurse, couldn’t find it anywhere. (Templeton, 11/9)
AP: Surge in Syphilis Cases Among Newborns in the United States in 2022 Prompts Health Officials to Advocate for Increased Testing
Alarmed by yet another jump in syphilis cases in newborns, U.S. health officials are calling for stepped-up prevention measures, including encouraging millions of women of childbearing age and their partners to get tested for the sexually transmitted disease. More than 3,700 babies were born with congenital syphilis in 2022 — 10 times more than a decade ago and a 32% increase from 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Syphilis caused 282 stillbirth and infant deaths, nearly 16 times more than the 2012 deaths. (Stobbe and Hunter, 11/7)
NPR: Persistent Increase in Congenital Syphilis Prompts Calls for Enhanced Pregnancy Treatment
"The situation is very serious," says Dr. Laura Bachmann, chief medical officer for the CDC's Division of STD Prevention. "We need to do things differently." "We have a perfect storm in the United States of funding cutbacks, not enough testing and treatments and a lack of awareness of this out-of-control syphilis epidemic," he says, "And babies are paying the price." (Stone, 11/7)
NPR: Antimicrobial Resistant Infections Pose Challenges for Administering Antibiotics to Infants
The drugs aren't working as well as they used to. That's the sobering takeaway from new research published in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia last week: The most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Southeast Asia are now only 50% effective at treating sepsis and meningitis in newborns. And that's a serious setback. Sepsis kills 1 in 5 patients. Meningitis is responsible for a quarter of million deaths a year – half among children under the age of 5. (Barnhart and Barber, 11/7)
CIDRAP: Shortage of RSV Prevention Injections Emerges as Respiratory Virus Season Commences
Respiratory virus season is only starting, and demand has already outstripped supply for the newly approved and potentially lifesaving monoclonal antibody injection for preventing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children. David Margraf, PharmD, PhD, pharmaceutical research scientist at the Resilient Drug Supply Project (RDSP), said the nirsevimab-alip (Beyfortus) shortage is reminiscent of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. RDSP is part of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), publisher of CIDRAP News. (Van Beusekom, 11/7)
NBC News: Study Reveals Elevated Pain and Psychiatric Disorders in Children Surviving Gun Injuries
Through one year after a firearm injury, children and teens experienced a 117% increase in pain disorders, a 68% increase in psychiatric disorders, including PTSD, anxiety, depression and psychosis, and a 144% increase in substance use disorders relative to the controls. “Our results suggest that the struggles of the survivors on a daily basis to recover, to heal, to get by and make it to the next day is a challenging road,” said Dr. Zirui Song, one of the paper’s authors and a primary care physician and associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School. (Mantel, 11/6)
Health News from KFF: Surviving Shootings Imposes Significant Health Challenges and Costs on Children
Oronde McClain was struck by a stray bullet on a Philadelphia street corner when he was 10.The bullet shattered the back of his skull, splintering it into 36 pieces. McClain’s heart stopped, and he was technically dead for two minutes and 17 seconds. Although a hospital team shocked him back to life, McClain never fully recovered. Doctors removed half his skull, replacing it with a gel plate, but shrapnel remains. (Szabo, 11/6)
The Washington Post: Researchers Discover Childhood Trauma as a Potential Predictor of Adult Headaches
People who experienced trauma as a child or adolescent were found to be 48 percent more likely to have serious and recurrent headaches as an adult than were those who had not experienced trauma in their early years, according to research published in the journal Neurology. The finding stemmed from the analysis of data from 28 studies, involving 154,739 people. The researchers categorized traumatic events as either threat-based (such as physical, sexual or emotional abuse, witnessing or being threatened by violence, and serious family conflicts) or deprivation-based (including neglect, financial adversity, parents’ separation, divorce or death, and living in a household with mental illness, alcohol or substance abuse). (Searing, 11/6)
Los Angeles Times: Physicians in L.A. County Consider the Possibility of a Strike
Physicians and dentists who work for hospitals and clinics run by Los Angeles County and who care for patients in its jails and juvenile facilities are weighing a possible strike over what union officials argue are inadequate benefits that have hampered employee retention and led to alarming levels of vacancies. The Union of American Physicians and Dentists said its members will begin voting Tuesday on whether to authorize a strike after more than two years of negotiations with the county failed to address their concerns. (Reyes, 11/7)
The Washington Post: Increasing Number of Doctors Charging for Responding to a Surge of Patient Emails
Not that many years ago, when Philadelphia internist Michael Stillman’s patients wanted to discuss some concern or renew a prescription, they would call and his staff would handle most of the requests. Today, those calls have morphed into a relentless 24/7 torrent of emails that he finds almost impossible to keep up with. “I spend over two hours/day (in addition to patient care) responding to computer messages,” Stillman recently wrote in an email to his patients after one particularly demanding night responding to dozens of patient missives. “Some are simple, but some are hugely complex.” If he doesn’t clear out his inbox each night by the next day, he’ll have so many more that “I’ll drown.” (Kritz, 11/4)
Los Angeles Times: Projected $4 Billion Cost for Healthcare Minimum Wage in the First Year as California Faces Budget Deficit
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that set a first-in-the-nation minimum wage for healthcare workers, three words in a bill analysis foretold potential concerns about its cost: “Fiscal impact unknown.” Now, three weeks after Newsom signed SB 525 into law — giving medical employees at least $25 an hour, including support staff such as cleaners and security guards — his administration has an estimated price tag: $4 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone. (Mays, 11/4)
Anticipated Cost of $4 Billion in the First Year for Minimum Wage in Healthcare:
Three weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 525 into law — giving medical employees at least $25 an hour, including support staff such as cleaners and security guards — his administration has an estimated price tag: $4 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Stat: Senate Confirms Monica Bertagnolli as NIH Director
Longtime cancer doctor Monica Bertagnolli is finally heading to the National Institutes of Health director’s office after a nearly two-year effort to install a permanent leader atop the $48 billion science agency. (Owermohle, 11/7)
The Washington Post: Confirmation of Bertagnolli as the New Leader of the National Institutes of Health
Bertagnolli will be the second woman ever to lead the nearly $48 billion agency, which plays a central role in the U.S. scientific agenda by funding grants to hundreds of thousands of researchers, overseeing clinical trials on its Maryland campus, and supporting other endeavors to develop drugs and therapeutics. NIH has not had a permanent director since December 2021, with Lawrence A. Tabak, a longtime NIH official, serving as the agency’s acting leader. (Diamond, 11/7)
Axios: NIH's New Director Confronts Challenges in Virus and Drug Research Arenas
Newly confirmed National Institutes of Health director Monica Bertagnolli is taking the helm of the biomedical research agency at a critical moment, with budgets tightening and lingering questions about its stewardship of high-risk virus research and role in keeping drugs affordable. (Bettelheim and Millman, 11/8)
Reuters: Biden Administration Calls on Court to Permit Confidential Contraceptive Access for Adolescents
The Biden administration on Monday urged a federal appeals court to allow minors in Texas to access birth control through clinics funded by a federal program without having their parents notified. The administration is asking a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who last December ruled in favor of Alexander Deanda, a man who claimed that the so-called Title X family planning clinic program removed his right to direct his daughters' upbringing. (Pierson, 11/6)
Health News from KFF: Scientific Evidence Supports the Need for More Sleep in Teens. Why is Delaying School Start Times Still a Challenge?
High school classes start so early around this city that some kids get on buses at 5:30 in the morning. Just 10% of public schools nationwide start before 7:30 a.m., according to federal statistics. But in Nashville, classes start at 7:05 — a fact the new mayor, Freddie O’Connell, has been criticizing for years. “It’s not a badge of honor,” he said when he was still a city council member. (Sweeney, 11/6)
The Washington Post: Abortion Debate Impacts Availability of Medication Used Following Miscarriages
Since losing her first pregnancy four months earlier, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since. Such disruptions aren’t uncommon after miscarriage, which affects roughly 1 in 10 known pregnancies. But for Lulu, they’ve also served as a persistent reminder that she couldn’t access the drug mifepristone — her preferred method of care — to help her body pass the miscarriage. Instead, her doctor prescribed a drug called misoprostol, which on its own is less effective. (Dewey, 11/5)
Stat: Medicaid Enrollment Drops by 10 Million in the Last Six Months
More than 10 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid over the past six months, according to the latest data published by a KFF tracker. The tracker has collected data on Medicaid enrollment since the first states began redetermining eligibility in April, after the expiration of the federal requirement of continuous coverage during the Covid-19 public health emergency. (Merelli, 11/3)
The Washington Post: Documentation from the Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study Now Accessible Online
A cache of documents related to the Tuskegee syphilis study — a 40-year experiment that tracked infected Black men without treating them — has now been digitized for public use, the National Library of Medicine announced. The documents concern one of medical history’s bleakest chapters. In 1932, officials from the U.S. Public Health Service recruited 600 impoverished Black men in Macon County, Ala., promising them years of free medical care, burial insurance and treatment for an ailment known as “bad blood.” (Blakemore, 11/5)