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Wednesday, February 21, 2018
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
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Good morning, folks! I'm here to get you ahead of the day's news in science and medicine. FYI: Voting starts next week in our STAT Madness research bracket! Sign up for updates here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=650d38942e&e=4aad33fd68>.
Oregon weighs making health care a constitutional right
Oregon lawmakers are meeting today to talk about a bill that would change the state’s constitution to cement health care as a right. The measure would tweak Oregon’s constitution to say that it’s “the obligation of the state to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to cost-effective, medically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right."
The Oregon House passed the bill earlier this month and today, the Senate health committee is considering the measure. If the Senate passes the bill, it’ll make its way to the ballot in November. But there are still two big questions looming: How much would it cost, and how would the state be able to foot the bill?
Salmonella outbreak tied to kratom
Health officials say a salmonella outbreak<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=17f0f15b52&e=4aad33fd68> spanning 20 states has been tied to contaminated kratom, a popular herbal supplement that some people use instead of prescription painkillers. The CDC says 28 people have fallen ill with salmonella after using kratom, 11 of whom have been hospitalized. Right now, it’s easy and legal to purchase the herbal supplement, but kratom has come under serious scrutiny by the FDA. Earlier this month, the agency reported<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7e14d26753&e=4aad33fd68> that its research had shown the plant was an opioid and that there was no evidence it was safe or effective for any medical uses.
Newborn deaths are high. What could lower them?
A new UNICEF report<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=e434fb4889&e=4aad33fd68> finds that nearly 1 out of every 22 newborns in Pakistan dies within the first month of life — the highest newborn mortality rate across the globe. That's 50 times higher than the newborn mortality rate in Japan, where infants face the best odds. I asked Stefan Peterson, the health director of UNICEF, what could help. Here’s what he told me:
§ Political will: “First and foremost, you need political will and commitment to the issue of women women and newborns. One of the immediate ways is committing public resources to the health sector.”
§ Quality pregnancy care: “Good antenatal care should be able to cut preterm delivery rates.”
§ Better birth training and equipment: “You need to train enough skilled personnel, you need to deploy them where women are [in both rural and urban areas], and you need to make sure all facilities have proper equipment and lighting. And we need better resuscitation readiness. If the baby comes out and doesn’t breathe, are the people there prepared?”
Inside STAT<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=c1b649293b&e=4aad33fd68>: The challenge of recruiting sickle cell patients for CRISPR treatment trials
[87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3b61904540&e=4aad33fd68>
sickle cell trials using crispr could start as soon as this year. (UCL Medical School/Wellcome Images)
Clinical trials of sickle cell treatments <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9e933107a2&e=4aad33fd68> that use CRISPR could get underway as early as this year. Patients with sickle cell disease, who are predominantly African-American, have been neglected<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d911c18a38&e=4aad33fd68> for decades by the health care system, scientists, and drug companies. The need for a new treatment is significant — but the long and ugly history<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4ae8cac9fa&e=4aad33fd68> of unethical experimentation and mistreatment of black patients could make recruiting volunteers a tough sell. Some scientists are laying the groundwork by creating teaching guides for pastors at black churches and talking with patients, but many say they’ve been too busy working on the treatment to do that kind of urgently needed outreach. STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling has the story here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=fb7012efc7&e=4aad33fd68>.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funds new Alzheimer's grants
The Chan Zuckerberg Intiative is looking for bright ideas and bright minds to better understand diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The initiative will dole out $2.5 million in funding over five years to early career scientists to accelerate their research on neurodegenerative diseases. And in a bid to spur new research that crosses disciplines in science, the CZI is also launching a collaborative science award of more than $1 million over three years, which they're looking to give to small crews of scientists who want to team up to study neurodegeneration. The applications are open now — get the details here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=868dcdc085&e=4aad33fd68>.
Common antidepressants work better than placebo
There’s been a contentious back-and-forth in the scientific community about whether antidepressants work solely through the placebo effect — but a sweeping new study <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=1549ae118a&e=4aad33fd68> suggests that’s not the case for 21 of the most commonly used drugs. Researchers scoured the data from 522 randomized, double-blind clinical trials on 21 antidepressants and found that all of them were better than a placebo at treating acute depression in adults, though some were more effective than others.
The findings were limited to eight weeks of treatment, and the study’s authors say they don’t mean that antidepressants should always be the first line of treatment. But, they say, their paper gives physicians a solid source of evidence if they do prescribe antidepressants for their patients.
What to read around the web today
§ Missouri executed 17 people with drugs from a 'high-risk' pharmacy. Buzzfeed<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=bcc8f7306f&e=4aad33fd68>
§ A biohacker regrets publicly injecting himself with CRISPR. The Atlantic<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=85bc033368&e=4aad33fd68>
§ Anthem calls on eye surgeons to monitor anesthesia themselves during cataract surgery. Kaiser Health News<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7c0008f1de&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
§ Matching DNA to a diet <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7db7fb3b14&e=4aad33fd68> doesn’t work.
§ New study raises questions about early-stage cancer therapies <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=80ca14075b&e=4aad33fd68> for children.
The latest from STAT Plus
§ Caution: Benefits from earlier trials <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2a0732ed22&e=4aad33fd68> may be (a lot) smaller than they later appear.
§ New Medicare rule could limit cancer patients’ access <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6dba10b54f&e=4aad33fd68> to genetic testing, physicians warn.
Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
[Megan]
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