Bioethics.net

June 7, 2018 9:00 am

What Explains The Rising Overdose Rate Among Latinos? (NPR)

Opioid overdose deaths among Latinos are surging nationwide as well. While the overall death toll is still higher for whites, it’s increasing faster for Latinos and blacks, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Latino fatalities increased 52.5 percent between 2014 and 2016 as compared to 45.8 percent for whites. (Statisticians say counts for Hispanics are typically underestimated by 3 to 5 percent.) The most substantial hike was among blacks — 83.9 percent.

June 6, 2018 9:00 am

To be herself, she needs to change her body. But first, comes the battle with insurers (CNN)

The Trump administration has signaled its intention in recent months to rewrite a federal rule that bars health care discrimination based on gender identity. In its current form, that rule is one of the precious few tools transgender patients have to fight insurance denials for various medical treatments and procedures that fall under the broad umbrella of gender-affirming or transition-related care. Even with the rule in place, Jasmine and four other patients in different states detailed protracted battles for coverage.

May 14, 2018 9:00 am

Fewer African-Americans admitted to ICU for heart failure receive cardiologist care (Reuters)

African-Americans have a higher risk of heart failure and are more likely to die from heart failure than other races, but they are less likely to receive advanced therapies for heart failure.

October 18, 2017 9:00 am

Polluted environments kill 1.7 million children each year, WHO says (CNN)

Each year, environmental pollutants cost an estimated 1.7 million lives among children under 5, according to World Health Organization reports released Monday.

October 13, 2017 9:00 am

Navajo Nation reconsiders ban on genetic research (Nature)

When the Navajo Nation opens its first oncology centre next year in Tuba City, Arizona, clinicians there may be able to offer a service that has been banned on tribal lands for 15 years: analyzing the DNA of Navajo tribe members to guide treatments and study the genetic roots of disease.

September 5, 2017 9:00 am

F.D.A. Approves First Gene-Altering Leukemia Treatment, Costing $475,000 (The New York Times)

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first-ever treatment that genetically alters a patient’s own cells to fight cancer, a milestone that is expected to transform treatment in the coming years.

August 29, 2017 9:00 am

Hunting a Killer: Sex, Drugs and the Return of Syphilis (The New York Times)

OKLAHOMA CITY — For months, health officials in this socially conservative state capital have been staggered by a fast-spreading outbreak of a disease that, for nearly two decades, was considered all but extinguished.

Syphilis, the deadly sexually transmitted infection that can lead to blindness, paralysis and dementia, is returning here and around the country, another consequence of the heroin and methamphetamine epidemics, as users trade sex for drugs.

July 7, 2017 9:00 am

Ebola outbreak in Africa ends — but gaps in public health leave region vulnerable (Nature)

“The response was good, but it would not be valid to say that this shows that we’re ready for a larger response in a bigger context — that remains to be seen,” says Daniel Bausch, director of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, an agency created to fill some of the gaps exposed by the 2014 crisis.

May 15, 2017 9:00 am

Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo (WHO)

On 11 May 2017, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of DRC informed WHO that of the five samples collected from suspected cases, one tested positive by RT-PCR for Ebola virus subtype Zaire at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in Kinshasa. Additional specimens are currently being tested and results, including sequencing, are awaited to describe the outbreak.

March 10, 2017 9:00 am

Drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can’t keep up with the funerals (Washington Post)

Deaths in West Virginia have overwhelmed a state program providing burial assistance for needy families for at least the fifth year in a row, causing the program to be nearly out of money four months before the end of the fiscal year, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR). Funeral directors in West Virginia say the state’s drug overdose epidemic, the worst in the nation, is partly to blame.