Please see #10 and #26. /arlene spark| Sent from my iPhone On Aug 4, 2016, at 12:54 PM, Cindy Lopez <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: DISCLAIMER: This Daily Clips is a comprehensive collection of health-related daily news articles regardless of view. The Health Department does not necessarily endorse or support the opinions expressed in the articles included is this email. The Daily Clips email is optional. Recipients may unsubscribe at any time by emailing: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. I. NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & MENTAL HYGIENE 1. Zika prevention in NYC: Pesticides used to kill mosquitos; AG targets phony prevention products (AMNY) 2. Schneiderman zaps ‘ineffective’ anti-Zika products (New York Post) 3. NY attorney general targets fake Zika products (Metro) 4. These Sketchy Zika Products Are Under Government Scrutiny For False Advertising (Buzzfeed) 5. Warnings over bogus Zika protections (Fox-5) 6. Watch out for companies peddling Zika prevention scams (CBS News) 7. City to Spray Mosquitoes in The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island This Week (DNA Info) 8. Health Dept. to spray parts of Queens for Zika virus (Times Ledger) 9. City Vows To Attack Zika Where It Starts (Queens Gazette) 10. Warning about misleading advertising products to prevent Zika (El Diario NY) 11. Owners of deadly NYC pit bull says dog deserves day in court (San Diego Union Tribune) 12. Owners blame victims, fight order to euthanize pit bull (Staten Island Advance) 13. Free or Low-Cost HIV and STD Testing Now Available for Anyone 12 or Older (DNA Info) 14. NYC Health Department’s Water Lead Testing in Progress 15. Mumps outbreak in NYC: More than two dozen adults in their 20s and 30s diagnosed with the infection (Daily Mail) 16. Shelter Success Behind Surge in Tompkins Sq. Park Panhandling: Advocates II. HEALTH EQUITY AND SERVICES 17. State hospitals celebrate Medicare DSH reprieve (Politico) III. FAMILY AND CHILD HEALTH 18. Pregnancy procedure may be associated with increased risk of premature birth and neonatal loss (Science Daily) IV. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 19. Being vegan isn’t as environmentally friendly as you think (Quartz) 20. NIH considering restarting funding for human-animal chimera research (STAT News) V. PREVENTION AND PRIMARY CARE 21. Exercise May Ease Hot Flashes, Provided It’s Vigorous (New York Times) 22. Women with common ovary problem may not get recommended tests (Fox News) 23. Medicare's hospital ratings are flawed and New Yorkers should view them with caution (Crain’s New York) 24. Read Books, Live Longer? (New York Times) 25. Obamacare’s markets will be less competitive next year. Here’s why. (Vox) 26. When Food Firms Cut The Salt, What Do They Put In Instead? (NPR) VI. DISEASE CONTROL 27. The Government Just Launched Its First Zika Vaccine Trial in Humans (Fortune) VII. MENTAL HYGIENE 28. What can the UK learn from New York's approach to mental health? (The Guardian) 29. The newest threat in the US overdose epidemic is 10,000 times stronger than morphine — and it's typically used on elephants (Business Insider) 30. For Some Rural Teens, Psychiatric Help Is Now Just a TV Screen Away (TIME) 31. Aetna is notifying some doctors about their drug-dispensing habits (Washington Post) ******************************************************************************************************************** I. NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & MENTAL HYGIENE http://www.amny.com/news/zika-prevention-in-nyc-pesticides-used-to-kill-mosquitos-ag-targets-phony-prevention-products-1.12128792<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amny.com_news_zika-2Dprevention-2Din-2Dnyc-2Dpesticides-2Dused-2Dto-2Dkill-2Dmosquitos-2Dag-2Dtargets-2Dphony-2Dprevention-2Dproducts-2D1.12128792&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=bP0HIxtaNYR1_2u4MzmBqxOYQImjDAmli8XaJwj6ZUQ&e=> 1. Zika prevention in NYC: Pesticides used to kill mosquitos; AG targets phony prevention products Sheila Anne Feeney, AMNY August 3, 2016 The New York City Department of Health will spray pesticide from trucks in parts of Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island between 10 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday to reduce mosquito activity and the risk of the Zika and West Nile viruses. In case of bad weather, the application will be delayed until Monday. The spraying schedule can be found on the health department’s website or the @nychealthy account on Twitter. The Staten Island and Bronx neighborhoods are being sprayed with “adulticide” because a large number of Asian Tiger mosquitos have been discovered there. While a cousin mosquito (Aedes Aegypti) is responsible for the current outbreak in Latin and Central America, the Tiger mosquitos are potential carriers. No Zika virus or case of Zika transmission from local mosquitoes has been found in the city, but “we are taking no chances,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement. Other neighborhoods in Staten Island and Queens will be sprayed because they are the sites of increased “West Nile virus activity” and high numbers of bugs from the “Culex family,” that are not known to transmit Zika, but have passed on West Nile in NYC since 1999. In related mosquito news, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has issued “cease and desist” letters to seven companies that he says are falsely claiming their products prevent or protect against Zika. Ultrasonic devices and products impregnated with botanical oils are or Vitamin B-based repellents, are ineffective he said. The only effective products, Bassett noted in a statement, contain “DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus and an insect repellent called IR3535.” http://nypost.com/2016/08/03/schneiderman-zaps-ineffective-anti-zika-products/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__nypost.com_2016_08_03_schneiderman-2Dzaps-2Dineffective-2Danti-2Dzika-2Dproducts_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=qUhEWkH7dWdKv6fk83Ad99uYyZJid89WKkC3J6Lw2zQ&e=> 2. Schneiderman zaps ‘ineffective’ anti-Zika products Stephanie Pagones, New York Post August 3, 2016 Companies that sell mosquito repellants are trying to suck New Yorkers dry by touting “Zika-preventive” products like bracelets, patches and ultrasonic devices that are completely ineffective, officials said Wednesday. The state Attorney General’s Office issued cease-and-desist letters ordering seven companies to stop falsely advertising the ineffective goods. The letters demand they immediately quit running ads for products that are promoted to be “Zika protective” or “Zika-preventive.” “Unfortunately, there are some companies taking advantage of public concern about Zika to peddle other products, such as ultrasound devices, vitamin B products, [which] have proven to be ineffective,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a press conference with city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett and state Sen. Adriano Espaillat. Schneiderman also issued a consumer alert warning about the false advertisements and directed the public to Zika-prevention measures and brands that have been scientifically proven to work and recommended by public-health officials. http://www.metro.us/new-york/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-targets-ineffective-zika-preventive-products/zsJphc---zG43amCKneJ2s/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.metro.us_new-2Dyork_new-2Dyork-2Dattorney-2Dgeneral-2Deric-2Dschneiderman-2Dtargets-2Dineffective-2Dzika-2Dpreventive-2Dproducts_zsJphc-2D-2D-2DzG43amCKneJ2s_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=W6Ed2WV8100ayx8jfv3rLx8XYS-Z8d0x8l6bh8tqHAI&e=> 3. NY attorney general targets fake Zika products Jason Nuckolls, Metro August 4, 2016 New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has issued cease-and-desist letters to companies marketing ineffective products that falsely promise protection against the Zika virus. On Wednesday, Schneiderman announced that the letters went to seven companies who advertised ultrasonic devices or botanical oil-based products as “Zika-protective” or “Zika-preventive” because they would repel mosquitoes when, in fact, the products have not been shown to effectively deter the insects. "Unfortunately, some companies are taking advantage of public concern about Zika to peddle products that simply don’t work," Schneiderman said. "My office will not tolerate deceptive advertising of products that provide only a false sense of security against a real threat." The ultrasonic devices claimed to work by emitting a high frequency that supposedly repels mosquitoes, but the attorney general's office stated that such devices do not ward off mosquitoes and may actually attract them. The botanical oil-based products targeted by Schneiderman, which included wristbands, patches and stickers, claimed to contain chemicals effective at deterring mosquitoes, but none of their ingredients were officially registered by the EPA as repellents. "The only products that provide effective protection from mosquito bites contain DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus and an insect repellent called IR3535 — all other products are a waste of money and may put you at risk of being bitten," Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said. The products targeted by Schneiderman that claimed to protect against the Zika virus included the Wildheart Outdoors Natural Mosquito Repellent Bracelet, MosQUITo Repellent Bracelet Wristband, Neor Mosquito Repellent Bracelet, Kenza High Quality Zika Mosquito Repellent Smiley Patch, Mobile Pro Gear ZIKA Shield Mosquito Repellent Bands, STAR Ultrasonic Pest Repeller and iGear iGuard 2.0 Ultrasonic Insect Pest Repellent. "It is completely unacceptable for companies to deceive their customers, and it is particularly heinous when their deception could negatively impact the public's health," state Sen. Adriano Espaillat said. The public should be aware that there is no cure for the Zika virus, which is primarily spread by infected mosquitoes, according to the attorney general’s office, which added that it can also be spread by sexual or blood contact and may cause symptoms including mild fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. As of July 29, there were 406 cases of Zika in New York City, according to the NYC Department of Health https://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/zika-product-scam?utm_term=.xv8n5eq5K4#.phpy5A85wx<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.buzzfeed.com_leticiamiranda_zika-2Dproduct-2Dscam-3Futm-5Fterm-3D.xv8n5eq5K4-23.phpy5A85wx&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=dctfUSAt30R5zzGuWqHY_XFQNBHQ_K8xj-8bq74Nqzs&e=> 4. These Sketchy Zika Products Are Under Government Scrutiny For False Advertising Leticia Miranda, Dan Vergano, Buzzfeed August 3, 2016 New York’s attorney general has ordered seven companies to stop claiming their products can protect people from the Zika virus. The companies, which sell botanical oil-based wrist bands, stickers and ultrasound equipment, have been marketing their products as “Zika-protective” or “Zika-preventive” online and in small stores throughout the state. But New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that simply “none of this stuff works.” “These companies are exploiting fears about a real public health crisis just to make a buck and we’re not going to put up with it,” said Schneiderman in a press conference on Wednesday. No vaccine exists to prevent Zika, according to the Center for Disease Control. But these companies, including Wildheart Outdoors, Neor and Zika Shield, claim their products protect against mosquitoes that carry Zika. Makers of the Kenza High Quality Zika Mosquito Repellent Smiley Patch claim to use “100% natural citronella oil and other natural oils.” They tell consumers to “simply paste anywhere and aroma will deter and remove mosquitoes and insects from coming to you.” But the patch, and other products that use citronella oil, geranium oil, soy and lemongrass, have not been registered by the EPA as insect repellents and the New York State Department of Health has warned that these products have limited effectiveness in repelling mosquitoes. But Michael Landau-Spiers with Wildheart Outdoors insists to BuzzFeed News that the company’s cirtronella oil-based wristband is effective in warding off mosquitoes. “Citronella has been used effectively to ward off mosquitos by millions and millions of people around the world,” Landau-Spiers told BuzzFeed News. “We do not imply that our products act as a vaccine. Such an assumption would be ludicrous. We do, however, stand firmly behind our product as a mosquito repellent.” Studies have shown that citronella is an effective mosquito repellent, but it appears most effective at high concentrations. Even at these higher concentrations in a product, citronella-based brand products have shown to be less effective than other products using ingredients such as DEET. The STAR Ultrasonic Pest Repeller and iGear iGuard 2.0 Ultrasonic Insect Pest Repellent claim to fend off mosquitoes and other pests by emitting a high frequency buzz. But a number of studies have found that ultrasonic devices don’t repel mosquitoes and may even attract them. “There are no magic objects that will keep mosquitoes at bay,” said New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett on Wednesday. “Wrist bands, patches, and ultrasound devices will not protect you from a mosquito bite. Don’t waste your money on these products. Don’t take these unnecessary risks.” A spokesperson for iGear told BuzzFeed News that the company will be “modifying the advertisement” of the product, but stand behind its effectiveness. “Some of our customers bought one of our repellents and after seeing the dynamic results, they purchased more units of the same kind,” said the spokesperson. “This proves that our product does repel mosquitos and insects.” The company said the product covers a 60-80 square meter area with a defective product rate of less than 2%. If a customer isn’t happy with the product, the company will offer their money back within 60 days of the complaint. “It is our utmost importance to keep our customers safe and happy,” said the company. “We are a small family run business and we would never sell fraudulent or defective products.” There are no recorded cases of someone being infected with Zika by a mosquito in New York, said Bassett. But the virus has been spreading across the Caribbean and Florida, where 14 people have been infected by local mosquitoes. There are currently a total of 387 travel-related Zika infection cases in New York. Of those cases, 45 are pregnant women, and four were infected through sexual transmission, said Bassett. Basset advises people traveling to Zika-affected areas to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts and use EPA-registered insect repellents. Stan Cope, the director of entomology and regulatory services with Terminix International, told BuzzFeed News repellants with 30% DEET and mosquito nets in unsealed sleeping areas are sufficient to keep insects away. However mosquito traps are not an effective way for people to get rid of mosquitoes, and most gadgets are of dubious value, he said. “The most important thing they can do is get rid of mosquito breeding sites in their yards,” he said. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention says the most effective repellents contain DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535. http://www.fox5ny.com/news/local-news/184931313-story<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.fox5ny.com_news_local-2Dnews_184931313-2Dstory&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=G9-RwszWC68mNYLYxQtDfH39F-y-cwpRWYVYrt8YhLc&e=> 5. Warnings over bogus Zika protections Michael Virtanen, Fox-5 August 3, 2016 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's attorney general is targeting companies that advertise ineffective insect repellents to cash in on concerns over the Zika virus. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Wednesday his office has sent letters to seven companies, telling them to stop marketing products as "Zika-preventive" or "Zika-protective." He's also issued a consumer alert to state residents about deceptive practices. The companies are located in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, Oregon, England and the Czech Republic. "Our goal is to get this stuff off the market," Schneiderman said. If they persist his office will seek damages, he said. The tropical mosquito that carries Zika is not found in New York yet. But 537 people infected with the virus have been confirmed in the state, all apparently connected to travel to affected areas, New York health officials said Tuesday. Five cases were sexually transmitted. The Zika virus has been coursing through Latin America and the Caribbean. More than a dozen Zika cases in a Miami neighborhood are believed to be the first mosquito-transmitted cases in the mainland U.S. "There're no magic objects that will keep mosquitoes at bay," said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, who joined Schneiderman in discussing the Zika threat. But repellants can provide protection. Those with long-lasting effect contain DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC lists several brand names on its website. Bassett said many of these are available at pharmacies, and in travel size. Bassett urged women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas. She said the risk of serious birth defects is real. People in Zika-affected areas are advised to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts and use insect repellent. The attorney general advised consumers to avoid ultrasonic and botanical mosquito repellents, as well as Vitamin B-based repellents, saying studies have found these to be ineffective. The office listed the Wildheart Outdoors Natural Mosquito Repellent Bracelet, MosQUITo Repellent Bracelet Wristband Band, Neor Mosquito Repellent Bracelet, Kenza High Quality Zika Mosquito Repellent Smiley Patch, Mobile Pro Gear ZIKA Shield Mosquito Repellent Bands, STAR Ultrasonic Pest Repeller and iGear iGuard 2.0 Ultrasonic Insect Pest Repellent. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-out-for-companies-advertising-zika-virus-prevention-scams/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cbsnews.com_news_watch-2Dout-2Dfor-2Dcompanies-2Dadvertising-2Dzika-2Dvirus-2Dprevention-2Dscams_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=jas0rxA022IE7imlzC97BHPYOHTa_dqXl5wgh8pldUE&e=> 6. Watch out for companies peddling Zika prevention scams CBS News August 3, 2016 New York's attorney general is going after companies that advertise ineffective insect repellents to cash in on fears over the Zika virus. State attorney general Eric Schneiderman said Wednesday that his office has sent letters to seven companies telling them to stop marketing products as "Zika-preventive" or "Zika-protective," CBS New York reports. Schneiderman said the products include wristbands, patches and ultrasound devices that "plug into your wall and supposedly it gets rid of mosquitoes, rodents and I don't know what else -- gamma rays coming from Martians." His office has also issued a consumer alert to state residents about deceptive practices. "Our goal is to get this stuff off the market," Schneiderman said, adding that if the companies persist his office will seek damages. New York's attorney general is cracking down on sham Zika prevention products. / Juliet Papa/CBS New York The tropical mosquito that carries Zika is not normally found in New York. But at least 537 people infected with the virus have been confirmed in the state -- all apparently connected with travel to affected areas, state health officials said Tuesday. Five cases were sexually transmitted. The Zika virus has been coursing through Latin America and the Caribbean. More than a dozen Zika cases in a Miami neighborhood are believed to be the first mosquito-transmitted cases in the mainland U.S. "There are no magic objects that will keep mosquitoes at bay," said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, who joined Schneiderman in discussing the Zika threat. "Don't waste your money on these products," she warned. The attorney general advised people to avoid ultrasonic and botanical mosquito repellents, as well as Vitamin B-based repellents, saying studies have found these to be ineffective. The office said the following products do not work and should be avoided: Wildheart Outdoors Natural Mosquito Repellent Bracelet; MosQUITo Repellent Bracelet Wristband Band; Neor Mosquito Repellent Bracelet; Kenza High Quality Zika Mosquito Repellent Smiley Patch; Mobile Pro Gear ZIKA Shield Mosquito Repellent Bands; STAR Ultrasonic Pest Repeller; and iGear iGuard 2.0 Ultrasonic Insect Pest Repellent. The Federal Trade Commission this spring fined one wristband maker $300,000 for falsely claiming its bands create a five-foot mosquito barrier protecting wearers for days. What really works? There are a number of reputable insect repellents that can provide protection, including those that contain DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC lists several brand names on its website. Best bug sprays for fighting Zika Bassett said many of the products are available at pharmacies and in travel size packaging. She urged women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas because the risk of serious birth defects is real. A complete list of those locations can be found on the CDC website. People in Zika-affected areas are advised to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts and use insect repellent. Window and door screens, and staying in places with air conditioning, are advised as well. Home and business owners should be vigilant about getting rid of standing water -- in flower pots, buckets, and old tires, for example -- where mosquitoes might lay eggs. . CBS/AP https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160803/new-york-city/city-spray-mosquitoes-bronx-queens-staten-island-this-week<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.dnainfo.com_new-2Dyork_20160803_new-2Dyork-2Dcity_city-2Dspray-2Dmosquitoes-2Dbronx-2Dqueens-2Dstaten-2Disland-2Dthis-2Dweek&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=h7iO-p5L7xKakJSHiyOkTl6k5YzF4-qQDmABGXrEQ04&e=> 7. City to Spray Mosquitoes in The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island This Week William Mathis, DNA Info August 3, 2016 NEW YORK CITY — The city's health agency will continue to spray for mosquitoes this week after the announcement of the first cases of domestic mosquito-borne Zika virus were found in Miami. The New York City Department of Health will spray a pesticide Thursday, Aug. 4 between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to kill adult mosquitoes that could carry Zika or West Nile Virus in certain neighborhoods in The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. The Bronx: • Baychester •Co-Op City •Eastchester •Edenwald, •Olinville •Wakefield •Williamsbridge •Woodlawn Queens • Elmhurst •Hunters Point •Maspeth, West Maspeth, •Sunnyside •Woodside Staten Island •Arlington, •Bloomfield, •Graniteville, •Mariner's Harbor, •New Springville, •Port Ivory, •Port Richmond, •Travis, •Westerleigh City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Basset stressed that the spraying is a preventative measure and that no mosquitoes carrying Zika have been found in New York City. “While we do not expect to find Zika in New York City’s mosquitoes, we are taking no chances," Dr. Bassett said. "We are moving forward with a safe but aggressive plan to spray pesticide when we find significant numbers of mosquitoes that could possibly carry Zika." The Health Department will use very low concentrations of DUET Dual-Action Adulticide, which it said does not pose a significant risk to human health. However, the agency cautioned people to stay inside during the spraying if possible and bring children's toys inside. Overall, the city has expanded its fight against mosquitoes this year with a three-year, $21 million Zika action plan, announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in April. The state government also announced this week that it will drop larvicide in the subway to prevent mosquito breeding. http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2016/32/zikavirus_2016_08_05_q.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.timesledger.com_stories_2016_32_zikavirus-5F2016-5F08-5F05-5Fq.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=YFyxk-rzE8Vn_CYDw45-r9ZQsDtW8BUdiDPtgnTMFXU&e=> 8. Health Dept. to spray parts of Queens for Zika virus Gina Martinez, Times Ledger August 4, 2016 In an attempt to stop the Zika virus from spreading in Queens, the city Department of Health has scheduled pesticide spraying in parts of Elmhurst, Hunters Point, Masbeth, Sunnyside and Woodside. The agency will spray pesticide from trucks on Thursday, Aug. 4, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning, weather permitting, according to the DOH. Queens neighborhoods are being sprayed because of a significant presence of Aedes Albopicus, also known as Asian Tiger mosquitoes. The Zika virus has not been found in any mosquito in New York City, but the Asian Tiger can carry the virus. The spraying is being used as a preventative measure, although Asian Tiger mosquitoes are not the kind responsible for the current outbreak in Latin and Central America, the DOH said. Health Commissioner Dr.. Mary T. Bassett is confident that the Zika virus will not be found in New York mosquitoes and wants New Yorkers to continue on normally. “While we do not expect to find Zika in New York City’s mosquitoes, we are taking no chances.” she said. “We are moving forward with a safe but aggressive plan to spray pesticide when we find significant numbers of mosquitoes that could possibly carry Zika. New Yorkers should continue to enjoy outdoor activities this summer while taking the usual precautions against mosquitoes, including wearing repellent and reporting standing water to 311.” The city has a three-year, $21 million plan to protect New Yorkers from the Zika virus. The Health Department will spray areas with significant number of Asian Tiger mosquitoes as a precaution. For the spraying of Queens the DOH will use a low concentration of DUET Duel-Action Adulticide, which when used properly, poses no harm to human health, the Health Department said. To avoid direct exposure the DOH recommended staying indoors, if possible during the spraying, and to remove children’s toys and equipment from outdoor areas during the spraying. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also taking action to combat Zika in New York. Cuomo teamed up with the MTA and DOH, which will be deploying larvicide tablets to standing water within the subway system to eliminate breeding grounds for Albopicus mosquito. “At Gov. Cuomo’s direction, we are stepping up our efforts to clear standing water ,which could breed virus-carrying mosquitoes, and to treat areas that might allow breeding so that our passengers can travel the subway system confident that we taking all necessary preventive steps to protect them.” said Tom Prendergast, MTA chairman and CEO. Additional measures include ramping up distribution of larvicide tablets to home owners and providing Zika protection kits to pregnant women at health clinics across the state. “The Zika virus remains a dangerous public health threat, and New York state continues to pursue every possible measure to combat it.” Cuomo said. “By enlisting the cooperation of state agencies and New Yorkers, we are taking aggressive action to help reduce the prevalence of mosquito breeding grounds across the state and stop this disease at its source. As the Zika situation continues to evolve, we will remain vigilant and strengthen our prevention efforts to safeguard the public health and safety of all New Yorkers.” Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or by phone at (718) 260–4566. http://www.qgazette.com/news/2016-08-03/Features/City_Vows_To_Attack_Zika_Where_It_Starts.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.qgazette.com_news_2016-2D08-2D03_Features_City-5FVows-5FTo-5FAttack-5FZika-5FWhere-5FIt-5FStarts.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=ZUbWnL8tJaaMhMIPea51vS6J3Nfu66aRdSzTZykFrvs&e=> 9. City Vows To Attack Zika Where It Starts Richard Gentilviso, Queens Gazette August 3, 2016 Since the first outbreak of West Nile virus in North America was confirmed in Queens back in 1999, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has carefully monitored Culex mosquito activity every summer in all five boroughs. This summer, DOHMH is also monitoring for the presence of the Aedes albopictus, or Asian Tiger mosquito, a species with the capacity to carry the Zika virus. No Zika virus has been found, nor have any Zika transmissions to humans from local mosquitoes been reported, but there have been 376 travel-associated cases of Zika virus reported in New York City, 74 in Queens as of July 22, according to DOHMH. Although no human cases of West Nile virus have been reported so far this season, recent DOHMH surveillance data shows West Nile virus activity in the neighborhoods of Astoria Heights and Blissville (in Long Island City). During warm weather, mosquitoes can breed in any standing water for more than four days, and the existing hot and wet weather conditions are predicted to escalate a rise in mosquito populations. “While we do not expect to find Zika in New York City’s mosquitoes, we are taking no chances,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett in a July 26 press release in which Dr. Bassett outlined “a safe but aggressive ($21 million) plan to spray pesticide” in areas with significant numbers of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that could possibly carry the Zika virus. The Aedes albopictus mosquito is not responsible for the current outbreak in Latin and Central America caused by its cousin, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a species that has never been found in New York City. Since significant numbers of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes were found in parts of College Point, Flushing and Whitestone, those areas were sprayed with a very low concentration of DUET Dual Action Adulticide from trucks on August 1, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Specifically, sprayed areas include Flushing Bay to the west, Northern Boulevard to the south, Union Street, 143rd Street, 147th Street and Whitestone Expressway to the east, and East River to the north, in parts of zip codes 11354, 11356 and 11357. Marshlands and non-residential areas of Alley Pond Park, Linden Hill/College Point, Edgemere, Somerville, Brookville Park and Kissena Park were sprayed by helicopter with aerial larvicide from July 26 through July 28 using natural and environmentally safe larvicide to kill infant mosquito eggs before they grow into adults. “New Yorkers should continue to enjoy outdoor activities this summer while taking the usual precautions against mosquitoes, including wearing repellant and reporting standing water to 311,” said Dr. Barrett. For more information on mosquito spraying, visit www1.nyc.gov/nycresources/<http://www1.nyc.gov/nycresources/> service/2046/mosquito-spraying schedule http://www.eldiariony.com/2016/08/03/alertan-sobre-publicidad-enganosa-en-productos-para-prevenir-el-zika/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.eldiariony.com_2016_08_03_alertan-2Dsobre-2Dpublicidad-2Denganosa-2Den-2Dproductos-2Dpara-2Dprevenir-2Del-2Dzika_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=BYQTgMX2zq3v7QW00nymEzNE7Qk8IMRzYv6_jABaDHA&e=> 10. Warning about misleading advertising products to prevent Zika El Diario NY A new front anti Zika opened in New York, but this time against unscrupulous companies that sell products claiming to prevent or protect against the virus even though it is known that such products are ineffective for this purpose. The announcement was made by the state attorney general Eric Schneiderman , who warned New Yorkers about misleading ads and encouraged to take measures to prevent zika based on evidence that have been recommended by public health authorities. In a press conference where he was accompanied by the Commissioner of Health of New York , Dr. Mary T. Bassett, and State Senator Adriano Espaillat , Schneiderman said it has issued letters to at least seven companies urging them to cease and desist marketing of products with misleading advertising, claiming that prevent or protect against Zika virus . "New Yorkers are justifiably concerned about the Zika virus and look for ways to protect themselves and their families," Schneiderman said. "Unfortunately, some companies are taking advantage of public concern Zika to sell products that simply do not work." The attorney general said his office will not tolerate misleading advertising of products that provide only a false sense of security against a real threat. Meanwhile, Espaillat said that it is completely unacceptable that companies mislead their customers and is particularly egregious when his deception could negatively impact public health. For his part, Health Commissioner warned that the only products that provide effective protection against mosquito bites contain DEET, picaridin , lemon eucalyptus oil and insect repellent called IR3535 . According to information provided by the office of the attorney general, the products that advertise and sell the enterprises notified do not contain insect repellents registered by the US Agency for Environmental Protection (EPA by its acronym in English). In the case of ultrasonic devices manufacturers who claim that repel mosquitoes by emitting a high frequency hum, numerous scientific studies have found that ultrasonic devices do not repel mosquitoes, and may even attract mosquitoes. Zika virus is mainly spread by infected mosquitoes, but can also be transmitted by sexual contact or contact with blood. The virus can cause mild symptoms including fever , rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. The zika poses a serious threat to women who are pregnant, or are trying to become pregnant, as it may cause microcephaly, a serious birth defect that affects brain development. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/02/owners-of-deadly-nyc-pit-bull-says-dog-deserves/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sandiegouniontribune.com_news_2016_aug_02_owners-2Dof-2Ddeadly-2Dnyc-2Dpit-2Dbull-2Dsays-2Ddog-2Ddeserves_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=ekcwfQbevkDhzM7u34Q0VEi7lVGhO_DwxTkgaUIEWS0&e=> 11. Owners of deadly NYC pit bull says dog deserves day in court Associated Press, San Diego Union Tribune August 2, 2016 NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City owners of a pit bull officials say has killed two other dogs and a cat want a hearing before their beloved pet is put down by the authorities. The New York Post reports Tuesday (http://nyp.st/2ajQfGu ) that city officials want to euthanize the 70-pound canine named Caesar. But an attorney for a Staten Island couple that owns the 7-year-old dog tells the newspaper officials are denying his clients due process rights. A hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 15. City officials say in court papers that since 2010 Caesar has killed a Chihuahua named Charlie, a Maltese and a cat. They say Caesar also attacked Charlie's owner on May 17. An administrative judge advices the health department on whether a dog is too dangerous. http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/08/owners_fight_order_to_kill_pit.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.silive.com_news_index.ssf_2016_08_owners-5Ffight-5Forder-5Fto-5Fkill-5Fpit.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=Y_8jXDJ8lmGxxBGrK_cJfsi_QG3JLiVdM-c0lhHLQik&e=> 12. Owners blame victims, fight order to euthanize pit bull Maura Grunlund, Staten Island Advance August 3, 2016 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The owners of Caesar, a pit bull from Staten Island who is accused of fatally mauling a Chihuahua and injuring the dog's owner, are blaming the victims in a lawsuit aimed at preventing euthanasia of the attack dog. Owners Kristina and Douglas Panattieri want their 7-year-old pit bull returned home and are fighting a city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene decision that Caesar should be euthanized. Eugene Charles, who is in his late 70s, suffered deep wounds when he was bitten on May 17 while unsuccessfully trying to save the life of his beloved chihuahua, Charlie. Caesar, who lived nearby, allegedly attacked the dog and owner while they were walking near the Charles family home in Grant City. "The dog Caesar did not cause serious bodily injury to a person and in fact any bites alleged were caused by the complainant's own dog biting him after he picked him up to take him to the vet after the incident," according to a lawsuit filed by Kristina and Douglas Panattieri in Manhattan Supreme Court. The lawsuit disputes the health department finding that Caesar is a dangerous dog, despite media reports that Caesar has killed a total of two dogs and one cat and also has mauled two pet owners. The lawsuit claims that Caesar "does not have a known vicious propensity and has no previous unjustified attack on a person which caused serious physical injury or death." The owners have offered to not walk Caesar, but instead allow him to exercise in their fenced-in yard. When Caesar is outside of the house or yard, he will wear a muzzle and harness until he has received proper training and certification to ensure that he is not a risk to public safety, according to the lawsuit. Anne Charles, the wife of Eugene, decried a media account "blaming my Charlie." In emails to the Advance, she maintained that Caesar "killed Charlie." Parents have asked her if the dog is back home and said if so, they would be afraid to let their children walk down the block, she said. The woman questioned whether her husband or a child walking by would have to be "murdered" for the dog to be euthanized. She urged the judge to "remove that dog from our community." Caesar, a 7-year-old pit bull mix, currently is being held at a city Animal Care and Control shelter illegally and against the wishes of his owners, according to the pit bull owners' attorney, Richard Bruce Rosenthal of Queens. "No dog does well in solitary," said Rosenthal, whose internet moniker is "The Dog Lawyer." Rosenthal said of Caesar, "This a beloved family pet who all of the sudden was taken from them and placed in a cell." The lawsuit claims that "Caesar, due to the circumstances and manner of his solitary confinement and isolation and lack of human handling and interaction, has not been doing well" at the city shelter. Caesar has been in a city shelter since May 17. Once the 10-day rabies quarantine expired, his owners asked to take Caesar home. The city health department "continued to hold Caesar and made a determination that Caesar was a dangerous dog and determined that they would execute him and refused to allow Respondent New York City Animal Care and Control Inc. to release Caesar," the lawsuit said. https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160803/midtown/city-offer-hiv-std-testing-anyone-12-or-older<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.dnainfo.com_new-2Dyork_20160803_midtown_city-2Doffer-2Dhiv-2Dstd-2Dtesting-2Danyone-2D12-2Dor-2Dolder&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=NENqPAVXRhg8nImID4lKrNIZG4k6jV-__RWvlTOj5uI&e=> 13. Free or Low-Cost HIV and STD Testing Now Available for Anyone 12 or Older Ben Fractenberg, DNA Info August 3, 2016 NEW YORK CITY — City clinics will offer free or low-cost HIV and STD screenings for anyone aged 12 or older, the Health Department announced Wednesday. Residents can visit one of the eight STD clinics across the city without an appointment Mondays through Fridays, as well as on Saturdays at its Upper West Side and Fort Greene locations, according to the agency. “This expansion of services will connect more New Yorkers to care and is one component of our citywide effort to reduce health disparities,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett in a statement. “This City remains committed to providing affordable STD services and promoting safer sex for all. Being sure of your status is an essential part of a healthy and happy sex life. The only STD test you should worry about is the one you don’t take.” The program is part of the city’s Plan to End the AIDS Epidemic, which dedicated $23 million for prevention and health care programs, according to officials. People can get tested for diseases including gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis. Officials expect a 30 to 50 percent increase in screenings. Clinic locations and hours can be found on the Health Department’s website. People younger than 19 do not have to pay a fee for the tests, the department said. Older people will be assessed a fee based on a sliding scale that takes into account medical insurance and their ability to pay. http://www.ourtimepress.com/?p=18512<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ourtimepress.com_-3Fp-3D18512&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=JmX0rCfW8HPSO3G72lVAv-w1-mKG5E7x-HDs-ID7FoQ&e=> 14. NYC Health Department’s Water Lead Testing in Progress Akosua K. Albritton, Out Time Press August 3, 2016 In the wake of the NYC Comptroller’s Office’s June 24, 2016 audit that uncovered the Health Department’s Bureau of Child Care (BCC) flouted the permit application requirement to submit water lead testing results, the Health Department assured the public in the same week of the audit’s release that all 2,279 center-based group day care (GDC) programs operating throughout the five boroughs would have true information about their water lead testing in the CCATS system for July 2016. The Our Time Press article, NYC Dept. of Health Flouting Its Own Lead Test Requirements, described the NYC Comptroller audit department’s procedure of selecting for review 119 permit applications from group day care centers in the five boroughs that were submitted between August 29, 2012 and August 29, 2014. On July 20, 2016, the BCC’s Child Care Connect website was visited to review data for GDCs in “Bedford-Stuyvesant”. Without specifying zip codes, Child Care Connect provided 34 records located in the 11216 zip code which covers parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Northern Crown Heights. Data on 15 of 34 GDCs were studied. Our Time Press readership can benefit from this data; therefore, the results are below: Bambi Day Care Center, 138 Hancock Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-230-3487 Inspected 9/18/15, passed initial annual inspection. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. Bedford-Stuyvesant Early Childhood Development Center, 262 Lexington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-453-0760 Inspected 4/15/16, passed initial annual inspection. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. CAMBA Elite Summer Camp, 50 Jefferson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 347-598-1448 Inspected 8/19/15, passed inspection with no violations. No statement about water lead test. ConstructionKids, Inc. Summer Camp, 40 Brevoort Place, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-522-2902 No inspection date given, no statement about water lead test. Dr. C.R. Johnson Christian Day Care, 600 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-732-1531 Inspected 7/6/16, passed initial annual inspection. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. Little Sun People, Inc., 1360 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-789-7330 Inspected 4/8/16, passed with no violations, monitoring inspection non-routine. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. MOVE, Inc., 141 Macon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 917-600-9632 Inspected 7/31/15, monitoring nonroutine, re-inspection is required. The violations requiring immediate correction were corrected. No statement on water lead test. Reach for the Stars Academy, Inc., 1200 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718 773-4600 Inspected 7/8/16, reinspection required, fines pending. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. The Salvation Army Bedford Day Care Center, 110 Kosciuszko Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-552-2690 Inspected 7/12/16, previously cited violations were corrected. Water lead test completed; no elevated lead levels in water. Stuyvesant Heights Christian Church, 69 MacDonough Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-783-5383 Inspected 2/4/16, reinspection required, violations corrected. Water lead test completed; elevated levels of lead found in water. St. George Day Camp, 800 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-789-6036 Inspected 7/15/16, passed initial annual inspection. No statement on water lead testing. Woodwind Your Family Camp, 344 Monroe Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-783-0842 Inspected 8/12/15, previously cited violations corrected. No statement on water lead testing. Wynn Center Day Camp, 495 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 718-230-8477 Inspected 6/10/16, no comment on inspection results. No statement on water lead testing. YMCA Bedford Academy, 1119 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216; 212-912-2284 No inspection found. No statement on water lead testing. This small sample of 15 GDCs reveals six have not tested the drinking water for lead. Two GDCs had not been inspected by BCC, two others require re-inspection and one GDC has no comment on the inspection results. In zip code 11207, which covers parts of East New York, for one GDC no inspection is noted and for another one, neither an inspection date or permit number is given. These findings support NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer’s statement: “It should not take an audit to ensure that a city agency is doing its job to protect our kids.” Parents and guardians of preschool-age children are urged to visit the Child Care Connect web page within the NYC DOH website to know whether the GDCs their children attend have permits, the drinking water has been tested for lead and the other nine points required for permit issuance are in order. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3722300/Mumps-outbreak-NYC-two-dozen-adults-20s-30s-diagnosed-infection.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.dailymail.co.uk_health_article-2D3722300_Mumps-2Doutbreak-2DNYC-2Dtwo-2Ddozen-2Dadults-2D20s-2D30s-2Ddiagnosed-2Dinfection.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=HxrSWOfKn5KLgVgqQOo6nE_8RJDhXdkMjO_MZEqq1Mc&e=> 15. Mumps outbreak in NYC: More than two dozen adults in their 20s and 30s diagnosed with the infection Mia de Graaf, Daily Mail August 3, 2016 More than two dozen adults have contracted mumps in New York City, health officials fear. There are at least 18 people in their 20s and 30s currently being treated for the highly infectious virus in Long Beach - and medics believe there are as many as 25. The sudden outbreak has shocked the medical community, since 97 per cent of New Yorkers have received the mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. It sparks fears of that there may be a new strain of the disease. Residents on Long Island have been warned to wash all glasses, plates and cutlery in a hot dishwasher to blitz the highly infectious virus, which is spread through saliva. And anyone who thinks they may have symptoms should self-quarantine for at least five days and seek medical help. 'If you know you're sick please stay home and don't transmit this,' Nassau County Health Commissioner, Dr Lawrence Eisentein, said. 'It is highly contagious, and even those who were vaccinated can get mumps.' He said anyone who has only received one MMR jab should consider getting a top-up booster to protect against mumps. Mumps is a virus of the salivary gland. The infection is incurable and can lead to devastating health concerns in adults. Sufferers have lost their hearing, become infertile, and had swollen brains. Some people do not experience any symptoms. Typically, symptoms include swollen glands, headaches, a fever, chills, fatigue, and a lack of appetite. Sufferers have described feeling pain in their stomach, neck, pelvis, and testicles. The virus was rife in New York during the 1970s. Since widespread implementation of the MMR jab, it is now barely reported. As these maps (below) show, incidents of mumps are few and vaccinations rates are high. A mumps infection can also travel to and infect other parts of the body. The virus was rife in New York during the 1970s. Since widespread implementation of the MMR jab, it is now barely reported. As these maps (below) show, incidents of mumps are few and vaccinations rates are high. A mumps infection can also travel to and infect other parts of the body. When this occurs it often causes swelling and discomfort in the affected area. One of those developments is orchitis, a swelling infections in the testicles which affects around 25% of post-pubescent males. Roughly half the time it also causes the affected testicle to shrink in size. Mumps can also lead to viral meningitis, acute pancreatitis, and oophoritis (swelling of one or both ovaries). In very rare cases (around 0.1 per cent) mumps can cause encephalitis, a life-threatening inflammation of the brain. Symptoms of encephalitis include flu-like symptoms, headache, confusion, dizziness, change in personality, change in behavior, drowsiness, disorientation, seizures, and loss of consciousness. Anyone suffering these symptoms after contracting mumps should call 911 immediately. This condition requires emergency treatment in a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160803/east-village/shelter-success-behind-surge-tompkins-sq-park-panhandling-advocates<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.dnainfo.com_new-2Dyork_20160803_east-2Dvillage_shelter-2Dsuccess-2Dbehind-2Dsurge-2Dtompkins-2Dsq-2Dpark-2Dpanhandling-2Dadvocates&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=TsriovoN5CtI50pFB-5wTaNH0GEW8DJ0r_zjumI6ZPU&e=> 16. Shelter Success Behind Surge in Tompkins Sq. Park Panhandling: Advocates Allegra Hobbs, DNA Info August 3, 2016 EAST VILLAGE — Homeless activity and panhandling has spiked in and around Tompkins Square Park — and some advocates are saying the change is a sign of success in moving the city's street homelessness population into neighboring shelters. Over the past two years, outreach organizers working directly with the city’s Department of Homeless Services have seen a noticeable increase in homeless activity in the park, along with more instances of aggressive panhandling, according to a director of local outreach. But the director said the rise is actually an indication of more effective homeless outreach, as more people have been successfully placed in surrounding shelters. “It’s a fair assessment that the amount of activity and aggressive panhandling has been increasing, and I do really feel that it’s because the shelter system is on the rise and this is a place for folks to hang out in the day,” said Joe Hallmark, associate director of the Goddard Riverside Community Center, which works in partnership with DHS to provide services to the homeless. The East Village and Lower East Side are saturated with homeless shelters, Hallmark said. There are two Nazareth Housing shelters on either side of the park, with one on Fourth Street and one on 11th Street, while the Third Street Men’s Shelter and two Bowery Mission facilities are also nearby. Earlier this year, the annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate found a 12 percent decrease in people living on the streets citywide in 2016 than in 2015. A similar effect has been seen in the East Village, Hallmark said, with more homeless individuals both in and out of the neighborhood taking to shelters. And during the daytime, those living in shelters are likely flocking to the park, said Hallmark. Hallmark’s findings line up with observations from longtime locals, who have noticed a recent surge in homeless hangouts and panhandling in and around Tompkins Square Park. “In the past year and a half, two years, it has gotten markedly worse,” said Neil Magnuson, an actor and bartender who has lived in the area for 21 years. “I’m thick-skinned and I’m a man, so I rarely get aggressively harassed, but it’s uncomfortable for people who are just trying to go to work." A representative for Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh confirmed the politician’s office has been receiving calls from constituents who complain of being hassled near the park — in response, reps for Kavanagh have joined other officials, city agencies and law enforcement to develop a joint approach to the problem. The NYPD’s 9th Precinct on July 26 hosted a meeting with Community Board 3, DHS, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and elected officials in an effort to coordinate efforts and work towards a comprehensive, interagency response, said CB3’s district manager Susan Stetzer. “I think coordination is really key, because you don’t want to just duplicate efforts — you want to have a plan,” said Stetzer. And Hallmark said the interagency approach is working — lately, his organization has more regularly been communicating with other agencies and working alongside police officers while canvassing Tompkins Square Park. Having police on hand means more effectively surpassing certain behavior, such as panhandling and sleeping on park benches, noted Hallmark, while efficient communication with city agencies means quickly providing the health and housing services people need. Hallmark also noted that many aggressive panhandlers in the neighborhood are not staying in shelters, but are temporarily homeless people Local who usually camp out in the summer before clearing out — outreach teams still offer them services, he said. A DHS rep said outreach teams canvas Tompkins Square Park roughly three to four times per week, and have placed 13 individuals previously living in the park in shelters within the last three to four months. But the park is just a microcosm of larger issue, said Stetzer — the number of people living on the street may have fallen, she noted, but homelessness is still very much a problem that must be addressed citywide. “We have a crisis in homelessness that needs to be resolved — this is the larger issue, and this is reflected in the park,” she said. II. HEALTH EQUITY AND SERVICES https://www.politicopro.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/08/state-hospitals-celebrate-medicare-dsh-reprieve-104497<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.politicopro.com_states_new-2Dyork_city-2Dhall_story_2016_08_state-2Dhospitals-2Dcelebrate-2Dmedicare-2Ddsh-2Dreprieve-2D104497&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=oEEnQJwFT8mwRzsMv9qlhyrcrvNUzRhYCix6LKrLsFY&e=> 17. State hospitals celebrate Medicare DSH reprieve Dan Goldberg, Politico August 3, 2016 New York hospitals received a reprieve of sorts from the federal government this week when the Obama administration announced it would delay changes in how a portion of Medicare funding was allocated, a move that saves the state $500 million per year. The issue centered around Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, which provide cash from the Medicare pot to hospitals for their uncompensated care, sometimes thought of as charity care. The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, requires that 75 percent of the funds hospitals receive from this pot be reduced as the percentage of the nation’s uninsured declines. The theory was that the law would increase insurance coverage so hospitals wouldn’t need as much money from the federal government for uncompensated care, and the cuts helped pay for the law’s subsidies, which in turn help people buy health insurance. Hospitals weren’t thrilled that the baseline was being cut but what particularly irked New York’s hospitals was that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was changing the definition of uncompensated care, meaning how the dollars would be distributed. Specifically, it wasn’t going to count the difference between what Medicaid pays and what a service costs as uncompensated. Instead, the new definition would rely on the uninsured that a hospital treats, which is claimed on its Medicare cost reports. While there may be some merit to that system, it provided a huge advantage to hospitals in states that did not expand their Medicaid program as part of the Affordable Care Act because those states have far more uninsured and fewer Medicaid patients. New York, which has always had one of the nation’s most generous Medicaid programs in terms of benefits, has roughly one-third of its population — and half of all children — on Medicaid. Trade groups such as the Healthcare Association of New York State and the Greater New York Hospital Association argued that the Supreme Court’s decision, which said the Affordable Care Act could not compel states to expand their Medicaid programs, altered the equation upon which the DSH cuts were based when Congress wrote the law. It makes little sense, the hospital groups argued, to give states more money because they didn’t expand their Medicaid programs and left more people uninsured. “HANYS fought aggressively against the CMS proposal … and will continue to argue against the agency's narrow definition of uncompensated care that fails to include Medicaid losses or acknowledge teaching costs,” the trade group wrote to its members. Hospitals were also concerned about how the uncompensated care data would be collected, specifically with the S-10, a worksheet that is submitted to the CMS, which they argued is too vague and does not get audited. The instructions for filling out the form aren’t clear, they say, meaning hospitals in Texas, California, New York and elsewhere can submit data that is untrustworthy and hard to verify. In a 2,434-page rule, the CMS agreed, saying, “in light of the significant concerns expressed by commenters, we are postponing the decision regarding when to begin incorporating data from Worksheet S-10 and proceeding with revisions to the cost report instructions to address the commenters' concerns in an appropriate manner.” The CMS will distribute nearly $6 billion in DSH payments in the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, about $400 million less than in fiscal year 2016, and it will continue to use the same distribution methodology as before. Had the changes gone through, HANYS and GNYHA estimate that $500 million would have been shifted out of the state, nearly half of what New York receives from the program. The changes would have particularly hurt hospitals with large Medicaid populations such as Montefiore, which estimated it could lose 6 percent of its total Medicare revenue, roughly $67 million per year. “This change would destabilize Montefiore, undermine our success in value-based payments, and, moreover, threaten decades of achievement in building a community-based system of care that provides quality and access to one of the poorest and most health challenged counties in the United States and, in doing so, serves as a model for the nation,” Montefiore CEO Steve Safyer wrote to Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for CMS, in June. “We continue to believe that in order to capture accurately the continued underfunding of high DSH hospitals, the definition of uncompensated care should be as broad as possible, including unreimbursed and uncompensated care costs for Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and other state and local government indigent care programs, as well as charity care and bad debt.” Ram Raju, CEO of Health + Hospitals, the city’s public system, which also sees lots of Medicaid and uninsured patients, believes CMS officials should decouple DSH dollars from what a hospital charges. The charges are far higher for some hospitals than others and that means the difference between what Medicaid pays and what they charge is greater. That should not entitle them to increased DSH funding, Raju said. “I am telling them do not take into consideration charges,” Raju said. The CMS has delayed the changes until Oct. 1, 2020, giving the agency time to standardize the S-10 and consider how it will define uncompensated care. “We intend to make certain modifications and clarifications to the cost report instructions for Worksheet S-10, as well as implement review protocol for the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to use in reviewing Worksheet S-10,” the agency said. III. FAMILY AND CHILD HEALTH https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160803143113.htm<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.sciencedaily.com_releases_2016_08_160803143113.htm&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=2fnWgn594rRBBeYB0fb6MDQUTtQ9qvP1uroGJIp-boU&e=> 18. Pregnancy procedure may be associated with increased risk of premature birth and neonatal loss Science Daily August 3, 2016 Researchers are urging surgeons to reconsider using a particular type of thread for a procedure to prevent premature birth, after new research found this thread was associated with an increased rate of premature birth and baby death compared with a thinner thread. In a new study, researchers at Imperial College London analysed 671 UK women who received a cervical stitch procedure to prevent miscarriage or premature birth. The procedure, which is performed on around two million women a year globally, is offered to women deemed at high risk of miscarriage or premature birth. The process involves surgeons placing a stitch in the cervix to hold it closed and delay labour. The closed cervix also acts as a barrier to infection, and so shutting it with a stitch prevents bacteria passing through the cervix and into the womb. Surgeons use one of two types of thread for the stitch -- the majority use a thicker woven thread, and around 20 per cent use a thinner thread. The study results, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggest the thicker thread is associated with a three-fold increase in rate of baby death in the womb when compared to the thinner thread, and is associated with an increased rate of premature birth. It's thought the thicker woven structure of the thread encourages the growth of dangerous bacteria. The team suggest switching to the thinner thread for all procedures could prevent 170,000 premature births globally every year, and 172,000 intrauterine baby deaths every year across the world. Professor Phillip Bennett, lead author of the study from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial, said: "Although the cervical stitch procedure still holds benefits for women overall, our results suggest the thicker thread may encourage the growth of potentially dangerous bacteria in the cervix. This may lead to premature birth or even loss of the baby. We strongly advise that the thicker thread -- which is currently used in the majority of procedures -- only be used in a research setting whilst we thoroughly investigate the risks this may hold." Around 50,000 babies are born prematurely ever year in the UK. Defined as birth between 24 and 37 weeks of pregnancy, premature birth is the leading cause of neonatal death in the UK. It is triggered by the cervix opening too early in the pregnancy, causing the baby to start moving down the birth canal. The causes are unknown, but infection in the birth canal is thought to be a factor. Women are recommended to undergo the cervical stitch procedure if they are deemed at high risk of late miscarriage or premature birth -- for instance if they have had a previous miscarriage later in pregnancy or a baby who was born too early. During the procedure, also called cervical cerclage, surgeons use one of two types of thread to close the cervix. One is a thin nylon thread, around 1mm think and very similar to fishing line, called monofilament. The other is a thicker thread -- around 5mm thick -- that is composed of smaller threads woven together like a shoe lace. The thicker woven thread -- called multifilament -- is used in around 80 per cent of procedures as surgeons believe it to be stronger, and more efficient at holding the cervix closed. In the new study, the team looked at 671 women who had the procedure at five UK hospitals over the last ten years. Around half had the thinner 'fishing line' thread, while the other half had the thicker 'shoe lace' thread. The results revealed the thicker thread was associated with increased rate of intrauterine death compared to the thinner thread (15 per cent compared to 5 per cent). The rate of intrauterine death in a normal pregnancy is around 0.5 per cent. The thicker thread was also associated with an increased rate of preterm birth rate compared to the thinner thread -- 28 per cent compared to 17 per cent. The rate of preterm birth among the general population is around 7 per cent, but the cervical stitch procedure is only performed on women already deemed at high risk of premature birth. To understand the difference in outcomes between procedures using the two threads, the team conducted a second study with 50 women who were due to have the cervical stitch procedure. Half received the thinner thread, while half received the thicker thread. The team then monitored the women at 4, 8 and 16 weeks after the procedure through ultrasound scans and analysis of bacteria collected using vaginal swabs. The results suggested that women who received the thicker thread had increased inflammation around the cervix. There was also increased blood flow, which is associated with the cervix opening before labour. Crucially, the team also found women who received the thicker thread had more potentially harmful bacteria in the vagina and around the cervix. Dr David MacIntyre, scientific lead of the study, also from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial explained: "At the beginning of the trial, all women had similar types of naturally-occurring bacteria, called Lactobacillus, in their birth canal and around their cervix. However four weeks after the procedure 45 per cent of the women who received the thicker thread had these harmless bacteria replaced with potentially dangerous bacteria that have previously been associated with poor outcomes during pregnancy, like preterm birth and infection in babies. Women who received the thinner thread maintained normal levels of harmless Lactobacillus bacteria in the birth canal or cervix." The team also performed lab-based experiments to examine how easily bacteria grew on the two types of thread. Dr MacIntyre added: "We found potentially dangerous bacteria grew more easily on the thicker thread. This may be because bacteria can latch onto the woven structure of the thick thread more easily than the smooth thin thread. " There is a randomised clinical trial of 900 patients currently underway, organised by University of Birmingham, which is looking at the comparative risks of the two threads. Professor Bennett added: "Our current study suggests the thick multifilament thread is associated with increased risk of complications. Even after factoring in the age and overall health of the patient, this effect still existed. However there are other factors that may influence the risks, such as surgical technique. Only by performing a large randomised clinical trial can we confirm whether the thicker thread itself is triggering complications, to ensure this procedure is as safe and effective as possible for the mother and baby. Professor Bennett added that anyone concerned about the cervical stitch procedure should speak to their healthcare team. Professor Jeremy Nicholson, head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial, explained the research also provides insights into how a women's naturally occurring bacteria may influence pregnancy: "This research showed that all 50 women in the second part of the study had a higher level of potentially dangerous bacteria in their birth canal than a healthy pregnant woman -- even before undergoing the cervical stitch procedure. This links to our ongoing work that suggests a woman's bacterial mix in the birth canal -- called the microbiome -- has an important role in pregnancy. It also shows, for the first time, that treatments that change the bacteria in the vagina may lead to bad outcomes in pregnancy. We need to further investigate the role of a woman's vaginal microbiome in pregnancy to help ensure more babies are born healthy, and at the right time. "This is part of a much broader work programme in our department aimed to understand the normal microbial composition of the body, and how changes to this may link to a range of non-infectious diseases." Jane Brewin, chief executive of the charity Tommy's, added: "The really good news is that a safe and proven treatment to prevent pre-term birth has just been made safer by this new finding. A treatment which has been around for many years has been shown to prevent pre-term birth but no-one really understood why it seemed so effective in some people but not in others; now we have a plausible explanation and success rates should improve as a result of this work. It's important that women who have this procedure ask their obstetrician about what stitch they will receive because clinical practice can take time to catch up with research findings." The research was funded by the Genesis Research Trust and the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. Dr David MacIntyre was supported by a Career Development Award from the Medical Research Council. IV. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH http://qz.com/749443/being-vegan-isnt-as-environmentally-friendly-as-you-think/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__qz.com_749443_being-2Dvegan-2Disnt-2Das-2Denvironmentally-2Dfriendly-2Das-2Dyou-2Dthink_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=KDXUOkb2XKHaFSee4_yc15oNh74UM_hJOXSXZMuPMKo&e=> 19. Being vegan isn’t as environmentally friendly as you think Chase Purdy, Quartz August 4, 2016 The moral high ground of food just shifted a little bit. Using biophysical simulation models to compare 10 eating patterns, researchers found that eating fewer animal products will increase the number of people that can be supported by existing farmland. But as it turns out, eliminating animal products altogether isn’t the best way to maximize sustainable land use. Their work was published in Elementa, a journal on the science of the anthropocene. The researchers considered the vegan diet, two vegetarian diets (one that includes dairy, the other dairy and eggs), four omnivorous diets (with varying degrees of vegetarian influence), one low in fats and sugars, and one akin to the modern American dietary pattern. Based on their models, the vegan diet would feed fewer people than two of the vegetarian and two of the four omnivorous diets studied. The bottom line: Going cold turkey on animal-based products may not actually be the most sustainable long choice for humanity in the long term. Of course, this is not an argument to embrace a meaty diet. The study says striving for plant-based diets (with a little bit of meat on the side, at most) is the way towards environmental efficiency. The average US consumer today requires more than 2.5 acres (over two football fields) of land each year to sustain his or her current diet. That number decreases dramatically as you reduce meat consumption and add in more vegetables. Three of the vegetarian diets examined in the study would use less than 0.5 acres of land per person each yea, freeing up more land to feed more people. So why not go whole-hog vegan? When applied to an entire global population, the vegan diet wastes available land that could otherwise feed more people. That’s because we use different kinds of land to produce different types of food, and not all diets exploit these land types equally. Grazing land is often unsuitable for growing crops, but great for feeding food animals such as cattle. Perennial cropland supports crops that are alive year-round and are harvested multiple times before dying, including a lot of the grain and hay used to feed livestock. Cultivated cropland is where you typically find vegetables, fruits and nuts. The five diets that contained the most meat used all available crop and animal grazing land. The five diets using the least amount of meat—or none at all—varied in land use. But the vegan diet stood out because it was the only diet that used no perennial cropland at all, and, as a result, would waste the chance to produce a lot of food. 1 The omnivorous diets on the chart below reflect four patterns, each with more or less vegetarian influence. Throwing a bone to vegans Of course, these findings were from a single study, and determining what people should eat to maximize both sustainability and health is a tricky business. Economists, biologists, nutritionists and environmentalists have all undertaken studies to find a definitive answer, but that remains elusive as there are many variables along the food chain—to say nothing of how our bodies interact with foods differently. And then there’s the issue of philosophy. A lot of vegans aren’t in the business of avoiding animal products for sustainability reasons, some would prefer to just leave animal husbandry out of food altogether. https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/04/chimera-nih-funding/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.statnews.com_2016_08_04_chimera-2Dnih-2Dfunding_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=1sxcQcOqw3cp9ebd_Pyd2NQzH_f6iHzCv2_dmMp1l6M&e=> 20. NIH considering restarting funding for human-animal chimera research Andrew Joseph, STAT News August 4, 2016 Federal health officials said Thursday they are reconsidering a moratorium on the funding of research in which human tissues are transplanted into early, nonhuman embryos — creating organisms known as chimeras. The proposed rule changes, which the National Institutes of Health announced in a blog post, would allow the agency to pay for experiments that incorporate human tissue into early-stage animal embryos, except for those of primates like monkeys and chimps. The NIH put a moratorium on funding early-stage embryonic chimeras in September because of ethical concerns. Some bioethicists raised concerns that animals with human brain tissue might absorb some ability to think like people. Others were concerned about what would happen if human-animal chimeras were allowed to breed. “I am confident that these proposed changes will enable the NIH research community to move this promising area of science forward in a responsible manner,” Carrie Wolinetz, the NIH’s associate director for science policy, wrote in the blog post. The announcement was first reported by NPR. Since September’s moratorium, scientists have accused the NIH of stifling science with a draconian and rash decision, arguing it was preventing a deeper understanding of how embryos develop and how cells, tissues, and organs could be used to treat disease — a burgeoning field known as regenerative medicine. Scientists argue that steps can be taken to address the ethical concerns inherent in conducting chimera research. In the blog post, Wolinetz said the NIH was creating a steering committee that would advise NIH officials on funding decisions regarding early embryonic human-animal chimeras. Research conducted with nonhuman primate embryos would only be supported after a certain stage of embryonic development, she wrote. For now, the NIH is asking for feedback on the proposed rule changes through Sept. 4. The blog post also said that the NIH is not going to fund research that involves the breeding of chimeras that include human egg or sperm cells. In theory, that could lead to a mostly human embryo being carried in a mouse womb, which would presumably be miscarried. V. PREVENTION AND PRIMARY CARE http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/exercise-may-ease-hot-flashes-provided-its-vigorous/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__well.blogs.nytimes.com_2016_08_03_exercise-2Dmay-2Dease-2Dhot-2Dflashes-2Dprovided-2Dits-2Dvigorous_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=TNyERwIMnosmGfd3KYxxWjFy36uGLdl6OmIcLneW9jQ&e=> 21. Exercise May Ease Hot Flashes, Provided It’s Vigorous Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times August 3, 2016 Hot flashes are a lamentable part of reaching middle age for many women. While drug treatments may provide relief, two new studies suggest that the right type of exercise might lessen both the frequency and discomfiting severity of hot flashes by changing how the body regulates its internal temperature. As estrogen levels drop with the onset of menopause, many women become less adept, physiologically, at dealing with changes to internal and external temperatures. The result, famously, is the hot flash (also known as a hot flush), during which women can feel sudden, overwhelming heat and experience copious sweating, a problem that in some cases can linger for years. Hormone replacement therapy can effectively combat hot flashes, and antidepressants may also help, though drug treatments have well-established side effects. Weight loss also may lessen hot flashes, but losing weight after menopause is difficult. So researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in England and other institutions recently began to consider whether exercise might help. Endurance exercise, after all, improves the body’s ability to regulate temperature, the scientists knew. Athletes, especially those in strenuous sports like distance running and cycling, start to sweat at a lower body temperature than out-of-shape people. Athletes’ blood vessels also carry more blood to the skin surface to release unwanted heat, even when they aren’t exercising. If exercise had a similar effect on older, out-of-shape women’s internal thermostats, the scientists speculated, it might also lessen the number or the intensity of their hot flashes. Previous studies examining exercise as a treatment for hot flashes had shown mixed results, the scientists knew. However, many of those experiments had been short term and involved walking or similarly light exercise, which might be too gentle to cause the physiological changes needed to reduce hot flashes. So for the two new studies, one of which was published in the Journal of Physiology and the other in Menopause (using the same data to examine different aspects of exercise and hot flashes), the researchers decided to look at the effects of slightly more strenuous workouts. They first recruited 21 menopausal women who did not currently exercise but did experience hot flashes. According to diaries each woman kept for a week at the start of the study, some women were having 100 or more of them each week. The scientists also measured each woman’s general health, fitness, blood flow to the brain (which affects heat responses) and, most elaborately, ability to respond to heat stress. For that test, researchers fitted the women with suits that almost completely covered their bodies. The suits contained tubes that could be filled with water. By raising the temperature of the water, the scientists could induce hot flashes — which typically occur if an affected woman’s skin grows hot — and also track her body’s general ability to deal with heat stress. Fourteen of the women then began an exercise program, while seven, who served as controls, did not. (This was a small pilot study, and the researchers allowed the women to choose whether to exercise or not.) The sessions, all of them supervised by trainers, at first consisted of 30 minutes of moderate jogging or bicycling three times a week. Gradually, the workouts became longer and more intense, until by the end of four months the women were jogging or pedaling four or five times per week for 45 minutes at a pace that definitely caused them to pant and sweat. They also, in the last of those 16 weeks, kept another diary of their hot flashes. Then they returned to the lab to repeat the original tests. The results showed that the exercisers, unsurprisingly, were considerably more aerobically fit now, while the control group’s fitness was unchanged. More striking, the women who had exercised showed much better ability to regulate their body heat. When they wore the suit filled with warm water, they began to sweat a little earlier and more heavily than they had before, showing that their bodies could generally dissipate heat better. But at the same time, during an actual hot flash induced by the hot suit, the exercisers perspired less and showed a lower rise in skin temperature than the control group. Their hot flashes were less intense than those of the women who had not worked out. Probably best of all from the standpoint of the volunteers who had exercised, they turned out to have experienced far fewer hot flashes near the end of the experiment, according to their diaries, with the average frequency declining by more than 60 percent. These findings strongly suggest that “improvements in fitness with a regular exercise program will have potential benefits on hot flushes,” said Helen Jones, a professor of exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University, who oversaw the new studies. Precisely how exercise might change a women’s susceptibility to hot flashes is still not completely clear, although the researchers noted that the women who exercised developed better blood flow to the surface of their skin and to their brains during heat stress. That heightened blood flow most likely aided the operations of portions of the brain that regulate body temperature, Dr. Jones said. The cautionary subtext of this study, though, is that to be effective against hot flashes, exercise probably needs to be sustained and somewhat strenuous, she said. “A leisurely walk for 30 minutes once a week is not going to have the required impact.” http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/08/04/women-with-common-ovary-problem-may-not-get-recommended-tests.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.foxnews.com_health_2016_08_04_women-2Dwith-2Dcommon-2Dovary-2Dproblem-2Dmay-2Dnot-2Dget-2Drecommended-2Dtests.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=VXpIoaswz30rE8RFfexU2j4yOppLcUvDIdtdehMhjY8&e=> 22. Women with common ovary problem may not get recommended tests Fox News August 4, 2016 Women with a common ovary problem should be screened for blood sugar and cholesterol problems, but a new survey of obstetricians and gynecologists found few were ordering those tests. In the U.S., up to 12 percent of women have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a hormone disorder that causes irregular periods, acne, weight gain, and difficulty getting pregnant. Most women with PCOS have multiple cysts on their ovaries. They're also at increased risk for cholesterol and blood sugar problems, the researchers write in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Recognition of these abnormalities can allow the provider and the patient to work together to determine the next steps in health care improvement including nutritional changes and exercise, weight loss, starting a medication, and/or referral to a specialist," said lead author Dr. Amy Dhesi of Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that all women with PCOS get screened every two to five years for high blood sugar and every two years for high cholesterol. The tests recommended are a 2-hour glucose tolerance test and a fasting lipid profile, but many doctors use less sensitive blood sugar tests that may not pick up on early issues. In an online survey, Dhesi and her team asked gynecologists what tests, if any, they would order for PCOS patients at a first visit, and what follow-up tests they would conduct. The research team got complete responses from 157 physicians. About half said at least 10 percent of their patients have PCOS. About 22 percent said they would not order any screening test at the first visit for at least half of their PCOS patients. The most common tests doctors used to screen for blood sugar issues in PCOS patients were the less sensitive hemoglobin A1C, which shows the average blood sugar level over the past few months, and fasting glucose tests. Only 7 percent said they would order a 2-hour glucose test for at least the majority of their PCOS patients at the first visit. The doctors were more compliant with cholesterol testing recommendations; 54 percent said they would order a fasting lipid profile in at least half of their PCOS patients. Only nine of the doctors said they typically order both a lipid profile and a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test at the initial visit for most patients with PCOS. The main reason doctors gave for not ordering 2-hour oral glucose tolerance tests was that it's inconvenient for patients. Also, more than one in five doctors said glucose test results would not affect how they treat the patient. Most said they wouldn't order a repeat blood sugar test unless the patient's medical history changed. But 76 percent said they would order repeat cholesterol tests even in PCOS patients with normal cholesterol levels. Dr. Richard Legro, vice-chair of research at Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, emphasized the importance of catching blood sugar and cholesterol issues in the early stages."Early detection can lead to prevention of developing diabetes and heart disease," said Legro, who wasn't involved with the new study. "Patients are more likely to change their lifestyle when they know they have a related abnormality." Legro told Reuters Health by email that follow up tests are vital to monitor how these issues may change and if they are improving with treatment. Dhesi said it's important for PCOS patients to talk to their doctors about possible health risks and monitoring for them. "It is important for patients with PCOS and their health care providers to discuss the common metabolic abnormalities associated with PCOS . . . and work towards a common goal to improve their health for the future," Dhesi told Reuters Health by email. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160803/OPINION/160809955/medicares-overall-hospital-quality-star-ratings-are-flawed-and-new<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.crainsnewyork.com_article_20160803_OPINION_160809955_medicares-2Doverall-2Dhospital-2Dquality-2Dstar-2Dratings-2Dare-2Dflawed-2Dand-2Dnew&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=WIPQTusGKCE_fgblz6FxCDu51kLMaR2wtTpXqePBhHw&e=> 23. Medicare's hospital ratings are flawed and New Yorkers should view them with caution Beatrice Grause, Crain’s New York August 3, 2016 Medicare recently released its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings, marking the entrance of yet another player into an already crowded field. Medicare Star Ratings rank hospital quality and efficiency on a five-star scale, comparable to other service industries like hotels, rental cars, and restaurants. Given the flaws in Medicare’s approach and the very personal and complex nature of health care services, I strongly recommend that consumers not rely solely on these ratings for their care decisions. What consumers know through their experience with rating systems across service industries is that any type of system is variable, sometimes subjective, and always imperfect. The hospital star ratings system is no exception. There is a clear disconnect between Medicare’s ratings and the reality we know. New York state is home to some of the finest hospitals and health systems—ones that not only attract patients from within New York, but across the nation and the world. Our hospitals have a longstanding and proven history of providing high-quality and safe patient care and a commitment to continuously improve upon this effort. But New York’s hospitals generally do not perform well on the Star Ratings system—an implausible result, with one-, two-, and three-star ratings listed for many of the state’s hospitals. This stands in stark contrast to the newly released U.S. News and World Report rankings that place many of these same hospitals on the list of Best Hospitals for 2016-2017. (Editor's note: For a list of New York hospitals and their CMS rankings click here. U.S. News' New York state overall rankings are here.) Medicare’s Star Ratings are imperfect. The measures, the underlying methodology, lack of consideration for socioeconomic factors, and discounting of a patient’s clinical needs are all factors that muddle the Hospital Star Ratings results. The Healthcare Association of New York State believes that Medicare and all other hospital report cards must use a common set of principles that would ensure they can be easily understood and are useful to patients, families, health care providers, payers, and government. These principles include the use of proven clinical measures that take into consideration significant differences in patient illness and other important factors. Medicare and all other health care stakeholders must streamline, align, and focus on the measures that matter most for improving patient care and outcomes. The Medicare Star Ratings will eventually improve. Until then, consumers should exercise caution. While consumers may use the Star Ratings as part of their decision making, like the evaluation of any product or service, consumers should talk with health care professionals, family, and friends before making decisions about their care. Beatrice Grause is a registered nurse and president of the Healthcare Association of New York State. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/read-books-live-longer/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__well.blogs.nytimes.com_2016_08_03_read-2Dbooks-2Dlive-2Dlonger_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=2R2n_epSuBM7c-HmckbjqjxkhemgpWyVuADeZ0v5GZs&e=> 24. Read Books, Live Longer? Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times August 3, 2016 Reading books is tied to a longer life, according to a new report. Researchers used data on 3,635 people over 50 participating in a larger health study who had answered questions about reading. The scientists divided the sample into three groups: those who read no books, those who read books up to three and a half hours a week, and those who read books more than three and a half hours. The study, in Social Science & Medicine, found that book readers tended to be female, college-educated and in higher income groups. So researchers controlled for those factors as well as age, race, self-reported health, depression, employment and marital status. Compared with those who did not read books, those who read for up to three and a half hours a week were 17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. Book readers lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all. They found a similar association among those who read newspapers and periodicals, but it was weaker. “People who report as little as a half-hour a day of book reading had a significant survival advantage over those who did not read,” said the senior author, Becca R. Levy, a professor of epidemiology at Yale. “And the survival advantage remained after adjusting for wealth, education, cognitive ability and many other variables.” http://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12368180/obamacare-markets-competition-aetna<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.vox.com_2016_8_4_12368180_obamacare-2Dmarkets-2Dcompetition-2Daetna&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=CeIDnG78zq2Czf5_mswG0UC0_I0xz1LKqBTjrTxD1ro&e=> 25. Obamacare’s markets will be less competitive next year. Here’s why. Sara Kliff, Vox August 4, 2016 Competition on the Obamacare marketplaces will decline next year. There will be significantly more places in the country where customers have no choice of health insurance because just one company signed up to sell coverage. This is the conclusion that health policy experts have increasingly gravitated toward in recent months and weeks, as major insurance companies have announced hundreds of millions of dollars in financial losses on the Obamacare marketplaces. "Under any likely scenario, there will be less insurer participation in the exchanges in 2017 than there was in 2016," says Michael Adelberg, a senior director at FaegreBD Consulting who previously worked in the Obama administration helping to manage the marketplaces’ launch. "It seems pretty clear at this point there will be less competition in the marketplaces next year, particularly in rural areas," says Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation. President Obama promised when the marketplaces launched that Americans will find "[m]ore choices, more competition, and in many cases, lower prices." And insurance competition did go up in the first few years of Obamacare. Between 2014 and 2015, the US Department of Health and Human Services estimated that the number of insurance carriers participating in Obamacare increased 25 percent. More health plans wanted in on a new opportunity to sell directly to consumers. But now some of these gains are backsliding. A recent analysis shows that Obamacare’s marketplaces will have twice as many exits as entrants in 2017. Insurers have tested out Obamacare, and in some cases they’ve lost hundreds of millions of dollars. This all leaves the law in somewhat of an uncertain situation, one in which it’s not clear how well Obamacare will deliver on the president’s promise of "more competition." Thirteen insurers plan to leave Obamacare markets in 2017 — and seven will join We don’t have official data yet on how many insurers will sell coverage next year. But all data available suggests that the number will be notably smaller than insurer participation in 2016. Adelberg at FaegreBD has been tracking marketplace newcomers and departures. By his count, at least 13 insurers have announced they’ll leave the Obamacare marketplaces. This figure likely underscores the severity of the problem, as two of those insurers, UnitedHealth and Humana, sell in multiple states. At the same time, it looks like seven new carriers will come onto the market. But those insurers tend to be smaller, typically selling in just one or two states. "In 2015 there was a good story about participation going up from 2014," Adelberg says. "And in 2016 there was a good story about holding participation steady amid a shifting market. The story will be harder this time around." This means there will be more places in the United States where consumers have less choice of plans — if any choice at all. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 664 counties will have a single marketplace insurer in 2017, up from 225 of these counties in 2016. Meanwhile, some insurers that were initially bullish on Obamacare are turning bearish. The prime example here is Aetna, a major insurer that signed up more than 800,000 Obamacare enrollees and as recently as April called the law a "good investment." But on an earnings call Monday, Aetna’s views of Obamacare seemed to sharply change. Chief executive Mark Bertolini announced that the company lost $300 million on the marketplaces last year. Aetna will nix plans to expand into five additional states and will reevaluate the 15 states it currently sells in. "Turning a profit has long been a struggle for the big national insurers," Kaiser Family Foundation’s Levitt says. "Aetna was always one of the more optimistic carriers. But now they seem much more pessimistic." Obamacare has created winners and losers When Obamacare launched in 2014, there was a vision that it would give smaller, newer health plans an easier entrance into a market dominated by insurance giants. And it seems like a version of that did happen — except it was on steroids. The dominant American insurers have typically made money selling large contracts to companies that provide health coverage for thousands of employees. And these employees have generally wanted really robust insurance networks, ones that provide a wide array of doctors to choose from. These employees are typically quite insulated from costs, as their employer pays a good chunk of their premium. It’s becoming increasingly clear that that business model just didn’t work very well on the Obamacare marketplace. There, consumers have generally been low-income and proved exceptionally sensitive to prices. Many have switched plans during open enrollment so they can get a better deal. The plans that have generally been successful on the Obamacare marketplaces are those that have experience helping states insure low-income Medicaid patients. These are insurers that had already set up narrow insurance networks that are especially adapted to the needs of lower-income consumers. "Sometimes we talk about narrow networks as a negative," says Levitt. "But one thing these Medicaid plans may have done that others didn’t is identify the providers that are convenient for low-income enrollees, doctors that are in their neighborhoods and easier to get to." Obamacare gets a lower price tag. Consumers get less competition. When the Obamacare markets launched, there was decent variety in the premium prices and the breadth of coverage they offer. Some had low premiums and narrow networks; others had high premiums and a huge array of doctors to choose from. What we might be learning now is that it's very hard for those two types of insurance to coexist in the same marketplace. Levitt offered an analogy about restaurants that helped me make sense of the issue. Right now McDonald's and Michelin-starred restaurants coexist with little problem. One is expensive. One isn’t. Consumers use prices to decide where they want to eat, and each restaurant attracts different diners. But this balance of expensive and inexpensive might not work in the insurance marketplace, because in health care some people just need a lot more care than others. To go back to the restaurant analogy: Think about what would happen if all the people who showed up to the Michelin-starred restaurants also had insatiable appetites — and the restaurant was responsible for sending them home with a full stomach. The restaurants would go broke selling them lobster after lobster. And this is a simplified version of what happened to the more expensive health plans on the marketplaces right now. Insurance plans can’t cap the benefits they offer patients. Sick customers gravitated toward robust plans, and they used so much coverage that the premiums didn’t cover all the bills. So it is possible that what we’re seeing right now is that the more expensive plans — the ones that offer wide networks of doctors, low deductibles, and brand-name hospitals — are getting edged out of the market. And that the type of insurance sold through Obamacare will be much more homogeneous than we realized. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/04/486960237/when-food-firms-cut-the-salt-what-do-they-put-in-instead<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.npr.org_sections_thesalt_2016_08_04_486960237_when-2Dfood-2Dfirms-2Dcut-2Dthe-2Dsalt-2Dwhat-2Ddo-2Dthey-2Dput-2Din-2Dinstead&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=lBo6wDZtW-SQmlGk204befXH75axo5rx0tuJHYg9xdY&e=> 26. When Food Firms Cut The Salt, What Do They Put In Instead? Alan Yu, NPR August 4, 2016 Hans Lienesch, also known as the Ramen Rater, made a career out of reviewing instant noodles, starting in 2002. The 41-year-old used to eat two packs a day, every day — but afterwards, he got sweaty, stressed out, and felt his heart rate go up. His doctor told him he was close to having high blood pressure, so, after a thousand reviews, he decided to cut back to just one pack of instant noodles a day. As a professional consumer of salt and seasoning, he had tried a low-sodium instant noodle before: It was so bland, he put it on his bottom 10 list for the year. Recently, a salt company invited Lienesch to do blind taste tests for a potassium chloride salt that's meant to replace sodium chloride as salt. He tried chicken strips, pizza and pepperoni — one version made with regular salt, and another version made with the potassium chloride replacement. Aside from a slight millisecond delay for the flavors to sink in, the food made with the salt substitute tasted virtually identical to that made with regular salt, Lienesch says. "Not only is it knocking out a whole bunch of sodium and replacing it with potassium ... it's making the food more savory," he says. "That just sold me right there." Lienesch says he recommended the potassium chloride salt to all the instant noodle companies he is in contact with. Most Americans get too little potassium as well, so he wondered, why isn't everyone using this? Reducing sodium, in fact, is something that instant noodle manufacturers have been unable to accomplish. That's because even though low-sodium noodles are better for our health, they don't taste as good — and consumers can tell, says Norio Sakurai, deputy chief executive of the World Instant Noodles Association. Reducing sodium in food has become a priority for the rest of the food industry, too. This June, the Food and Drug Administration released a draft of sodium-reduction targets for dozens of foods, aiming to reduce Americans' average salt consumption over the next decade from 3,400 mg a day to 2,300 mg a day. Cargill, one of the largest beef processors in North America and supplier of beef for McDonald's, already offers potassium chloride salt products. Researchers at Unilever (which owns brands like Hellmann's, Knorr and Ben and Jerry's) published a journal article this April concluding that potassium chloride is a "valuable, safe replacer" for sodium chloride (aka, table salt), and they expect more food products to do so. Janice Johnson, a food scientist at Cargill, says food manufacturers have been asking them about how to lower sodium. She says it's been a challenge because salt does many things, like enhance flavor, make meat succulent and preserve food. "It does these many things that no single ingredient can do completely. The next closest is potassium chloride," Johnson says. She says the meat industry has been most interested in using potassium chloride, because it currently uses sodium chloride for preserving meat and keeping it tender and juicy, and potassium chloride does that well, too. Johnson says potassium chloride is already used in some consumer products like processed meat. She says she took a look at new consumer food products recently and saw well over a thousand using potassium chloride. It's a little harder for something like soup, which relies on salt for flavor. One problem with potassium chloride is a slightly bitter taste. There could certainly be health benefits to eating less sodium and more potassium. Cheryl Anderson is an associate professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Department of Health and Human Services' 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee. She points to an influential 2006 study of more than 1,900 elderly men in a Taiwanese veteran's retirement home: It found that eating potassium-enriched salt made the men more likely to survive cardiovascular disease, and they racked up lower medical bills. A 2013 review of randomized trials and studies found that eating more potassium reduces blood pressure in people with hypertension and lowers the risk of stroke. However, extra potassium isn't good for everyone — Anderson cautions it can be dangerous for people with chronic kidney disease. She says the best strategy for sodium reduction is to "gradually and in short order, reduce the amount of sodium in the food supply, as opposed to substituting the amount of sodium in the food supply." Using a substitute like potassium chloride means Americans will continue to develop a taste for salty food, she argues. Despite how much salt many Americans eat every day, Gary Beauchamp, emeritus director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, says we can gradually get used to having less salt. Research he conducted in the 1980s found as much, and the findings have been replicated many times, he says. "When people are forced to go on low-sodium diets experimentally, initially they found this diet very unpleasant," Beauchamp says. "But after several months, they adapted to it. Then, when given salt levels in food that they used to think were just perfect, they found it too salty." Chris Loss, director of research and development at the Culinary Institute of America, agrees that we can unlearn our taste for salt. He says using potassium chloride as a partial substitute is one tool we have, but there's a lot more we can do with cooking techniques, ingredients and psychology. "There are no flavor molecules in food," he says. "Flavor is in your head, flavor is a perception." For instance, he says his research shows that if you sprinkle a little salt on top of some mashed potatoes, the first thing you taste is salt. Then the rest of the mashed potatoes will seem very salty, even if there's actually less salt overall. He says that's what chefs exploit when they finish a dish with salt. Loss says the other question is what we want: something that's identical in flavor to the salty food we like, just with less sodium? Or something that's just as tasty, even if the flavor is a little different? Several years ago, Loss did a study with a Chinese chef in which they made some regular French fries, and some other fries with 33 percent less salt, but seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers. The 17 culinary students in the study could tell the other fries were less salty, but liked them just as much anyway, saying they were "savory" and had "more depth." He says he is encouraged by efforts to reduce sodium. He says if previous quests to remove fat and carbohydrates from food have taught us anything, it's that we can't just focus on taking out one vilified ingredient. "Everyone wants that salt substitute, but it's never that simple," Loss says. "It's never a one-for-one substitute." VI. DISEASE CONTROL http://fortune.com/2016/08/03/nih-launches-zika-vaccine-trial/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__fortune.com_2016_08_03_nih-2Dlaunches-2Dzika-2Dvaccine-2Dtrial_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=yHzxih1LCca1_ZmI_yRjFvQ6qYfDxmwVI4DDOHj1uAQ&e=> 27. The Government Just Launched Its First Zika Vaccine Trial in Humans Sy Mukherjee, Fortune August 3, 2016 Days after the first U.S. Zika travel warning. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Wednesday that it would be launching its first human trials of a vaccine for Zika virus, which is linked to potentially devastating developmental and neurological birth defects in pregnant women who contract it. The launch comes days after public health officials issued the first travel warning inside the U.S. over Zika contracted from local mosquitoes in Florida. The early-stage study is expected to enroll about 80 non-infected volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35. The experimental vaccine, which was created by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) scientists, doesn’t involve a live or weakened version of the pathogen itself. Rather, it contains a slice of DNA that’s been modified with genes which code for proteins associated with the Zika virus. The presence of those proteins mimics the presence of the microorganism itself and elicits and immune response from the body. The vaccine’s “results in animal testing have been very encouraging,” said NIAID director Anthony Fauci. “We are pleased that we are now able to proceed with this initial study in people.” But he also admitted that “it will take some time before a vaccine against Zika is commercially available.” Click here to subscribe to our upcoming Brainstorm Health Daily Newsletter. This is the second Zika vaccine candidate to be green lit for human trials in the U.S. In June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared phase I trials of another experimental DNA vaccine from Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO 1.67% . Several other biopharma companies and groups of scientists from around the world are working on a Zika vaccine, including French drug giant Sanofi. While the new trials represent progress, doubts remain about how effective they’ll ultimately be in curbing the ongoing scourge. CDC director Tom Frieden said Wednesday that his agency’s Miami-area travel advisory to pregnant women and couples who plan to become pregnant could last a year. Days after the first U.S. Zika travel warning. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Wednesday that it would be launching its first human trials of a vaccine for Zika virus, which is linked to potentially devastating developmental and neurological birth defects in pregnant women who contract it. The launch comes days after public health officials issued the first travel warning inside the U.S. over Zika contracted from local mosquitoes in Florida. The early-stage study is expected to enroll about 80 non-infected volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35. The experimental vaccine, which was created by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) scientists, doesn’t involve a live or weakened version of the pathogen itself. Rather, it contains a slice of DNA that’s been modified with genes which code for proteins associated with the Zika virus. The presence of those proteins mimics the presence of the microorganism itself and elicits and immune response from the body. The vaccine’s “results in animal testing have been very encouraging,” said NIAID director Anthony Fauci. “We are pleased that we are now able to proceed with this initial study in people.” But he also admitted that “it will take some time before a vaccine against Zika is commercially available.” Click here to subscribe to our upcoming Brainstorm Health Daily Newsletter. This is the second Zika vaccine candidate to be green lit for human trials in the U.S. In June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared phase I trials of another experimental DNA vaccine from Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO 1.67% . Several other biopharma companies and groups of scientists from around the world are working on a Zika vaccine, including French drug giant Sanofi. While the new trials represent progress, doubts remain about how effective they’ll ultimately be in curbing the ongoing scourge. CDC director Tom Frieden said Wednesday that his agency’s Miami-area travel advisory to pregnant women and couples who plan to become pregnant could last a year. And the number of infections (and regions with travel warnings) is expected to swell in the coming weeks as more U.S. mosquito populations start transmitting the virus. Efforts to kill the relevant types of mosquitoes hasn’t been as effective as officials had hoped, Frieden said. Federal funds for monitoring and fighting the outbreak are also running out. Congress failed to pass a $1.1 billion Zika bill before leaving for its summer recess—a decision that’s been slammed by doctors and public health officials since prevention, oversight, and eradicating Zika-carrying bugs is seen as key to minimizing infections during the ongoing peak mosquito season. There have been more than 6,400 Zika cases reported in the U.S. and its territories. The World Health Organization has insisted the virus will be manageable during the upcoming Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. VII. MENTAL HYGIENE https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2016/aug/04/what-can-the-uk-learn-from-new-yorks-approach-to-mental-health<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.theguardian.com_social-2Dcare-2Dnetwork_2016_aug_04_what-2Dcan-2Dthe-2Duk-2Dlearn-2Dfrom-2Dnew-2Dyorks-2Dapproach-2Dto-2Dmental-2Dhealth&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=a_gYs2H0-1EmgO57wQC3i-zWT3Qs9Yqcj0jBnm154jo&e=> 28. What can the UK learn from New York's approach to mental health? Paul Burstow, The Guardian August 4, 2016 New York mayor Bill de Blasio’s new programme of mental health spending is impressive in its scale, leadership and depth of resources, and could provide a lesson for central and local government leaders in the UK. The programme, Thrive, comes with a mental health roadmap [pdf] for the city that states its ambitious aims: “It is our goal to not only reduce the toll of mental illness, but also promote mental health and protect New Yorkers’ resiliency, self-esteem, family strength and joy.” Having spent a week in New York City as part of a small study group from London, it was impressive to see just how rapidly the programme has mobilised since its launch in November 2015. We spoke to key officials in the health and education departments and the New York police department. Over the next four years, the mayor has committed $853m (£650m) to deliver the roadmap. Some of its objectives include training 250,000 people in mental health first aid; screening and treating all pregnant mothers with depression; setting up a 400-strong mental health corps to work in primary care and substance misuse; recruiting 100 mental health consultants (social workers and psychologists) to work in schools; and scaling up community-based parent coaching and social and emotional education. There are 54 initiatives in total and many have a strong emphasis on data collection and evaluation. The mayor and first lady Chirlane McCray have been instrumental in moving Thrive forward, motivated by their own lived experience of mental illness. The other key driver was the numbers. Gary Belkin, who heads Thrive, told us one of the motives behind the idea came from a 2014 report from the London mayor’s office [pdf] exploring the invisible costs of mental health. The report found that the total cost of mental ill-health in London comes to around £26bn a year. The difference between London and New York City is that when the latter then ran the numbers for their own city it galvanised a greater response from politicians and officials. We have to pursue treatment and prevention. Both are necessary; one is not sufficient without the other So what can the UK learn from New York’s approach? Last summer one in four people responding to a consultation by NHS England said that prevention of mental illness should be a priority. Prevention does feature in the NHS England Mental Health Taskforce’s February report. However, the focus is more on improving access and choice of treatments. The treatment gap in mental health in the UK [pdf] and globally [pdf] is admittedly huge, but the taskforce recommendations would not close this gap even if implemented in full. So what should we do? Like New York, we have to pursue a twin approach: upscaling and improving access to treatment while helping to prevent mental illness in the population. Both are necessary; one is not sufficient without the other. In 2011, as I was helping to write the government’s mental health strategy No ealth Without Mental Health [pdf], I also published a review of the economic case for investing in mental health promotion [pdf]. This set out the evidence base and identified the “best buys” for mental health promotion. Many of the approaches described in the report have good rates of return on investment, ranging from a £84 return for school-based social and emotional learning programmes, to a £4 return for debt advice services. There are many great examples of combinations of early years school-based and asset-based community development approaches being tried, including Sandwell’s primary care-led approach to community health and Margate’s multi-agency approach to health inequalities. The future of mental health promotion and illness prevention already exists in our country – the challenge is to make them the new normal. Too often, you find silos in services and the savings from various initiatives seldom land in the budget that originally funded them. An example of this is the family drug and alcohol court, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, of which I am chair. In a value-for-money study, the Centre for Justice Innovation [pdf] found that the service cost £560,000 and made estimated savings of £1.29m for public bodies over five years, meaning that £1 spent on the service saved the public purse £2.30. Savings exceeded the cost of the service within two years. But despite the prospect of savings, it’s difficult for hard-pressed directors of children’s services to make the necessary upfront investment. Still, New York is not the only place adopting the principles behind Thrive, or using it is their ambitious verb of choice. There is a growing body of literature endorsing the need to support and bolster parents and children. The critical role of positive couple relationships [pdf] as a protective factor in child development and resilience is being recognised. Adopting a population approach to the mental health of children and young people – where emphasis is placed on resilience-building – is at the heart of the Thrive model devised by the Tavistock andPortman Trust and the Anna Freud Centre [pdf]. i-Thrive, as this programme has become known, is being rolled out in the borough of Camden and in a dozen other child and adolescent services across England through an NHS innovation accelerator programme. At its heart is a shared lexicon that supports collaboration and common purpose across education, social work and psychology. Collaboration and common purpose were evident in New York. The mayor is looking beyond mental illness services for solutions that foster resilience and support recovery. So should we. Join the Social Care Network to read more pieces like this. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest social care news and views. http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-carfentanil-the-elephant-sedative<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.businessinsider.com_what-2Dis-2Dcarfentanil-2Dthe-2Delephant-2Dsedative&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=cBVnTp0IEIWpBnloYIqmX2Hg-S6ku99zbIQYUmEFRCw&e=> 29. The newest threat in the US overdose epidemic is 10,000 times stronger than morphine — and it's typically used on elephants Erin Brodwin, Business Insider August 3, 2016 Fentanyl, the opioid painkiller that killed Prince and is 50 times stronger than morphine, pales in comparison to a new drug called carfentanil. Carfentanil is a drug so strong that it's used to sedate elephants. It's 100 times as potent as fentanyl, which makes it roughly 10,000 times stronger than morphine. And now it's showing up on the street. Last week, a 36-year-old Ohio man suspected of selling carfentanil as heroin was indicted in connection with a death on July 10, the Associated Press reported. But carfentanil is just one part of the far bigger issue of painkiller use and abuse. Read on to find out where the deadly drug is likely being made, what it looks like, and what it does: http://time.com/4395064/rural-teens-telepsychiatry-mental-health/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__time.com_4395064_rural-2Dteens-2Dtelepsychiatry-2Dmental-2Dhealth_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=vbnISmw8WusBt22gYizpPPSY2nEVChPNdy6eZQYp6SU&e=> 30. For Some Rural Teens, Psychiatric Help Is Now Just a TV Screen Away Emma Ockerman, TIME August 4, 2016 With few child and adolescent psychiatrists available, "telehealth" is one way for mental health professionals to stretch their expertise a little further Rebecca Gadley’s father searched for months to find a therapist who could treat his teenage daughter for depression in their small Kentucky hometown. The few child psychiatrists within driving distance said she’d be waiting months for an appointment; another refused to accept new patients altogether. Then, in January of this year, Rebecca’s father finally found someone who could see his daughter every week. Better yet, the treatment could start immediately. There was just one catch: Rebecca and her therapist would be separated by nearly 260 miles. She would be able to hear and see her therapist, but her “telehealth” appointments would mean that she might never get to shake her hand. “It’s like Skype through a TV,” says Rebecca, now 14. “You get used to it.” In 2015, the average child and adolescent psychiatrist in Kentucky was 55 years old, and psychiatrists say many in the field are retiring without replacements. Kentucky and most other U.S. states are facing a severe shortage of psychiatrists, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Psychiatrists and mental health advocates say America today needs more than 30,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists, and has only 8,300—and the need appears to keep rising. At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where Rebecca’s therapist is based, children in psychiatric distress account for more than 7,000 annual emergency room visits per year. Ten years ago, the emergency room saw half as many such visits. Advocates have long scrambled for solutions to the problem: increase funding for clinics; expand loan-forgiveness programs so medical students might be encouraged to go into child psychiatry; increase the number of psychiatric beds in hospitals; and expand telehealth. More recently, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania and a child psychologist himself, introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which included funding for collaborative telemental health programs. “We need three times as many psychiatrists as we have,” says Dr. Gregory Fritz, Rhode Island-based child and adolescent psychiatrist and president of the AACAP. It’s estimated that there are more than 15 million children who could need—and are not getting—treatment for mental health disorders. Experts agree that as more young people emerge in need of psychiatric or psychological care, there is an ever-urgent race to find ways to deliver them the help that they require. As technology has become cheaper and more reliable, telepsychiatry has emerged as a practical approach to reaching more young people. But it’s not without its detractors. Some advocates disagree on whether appointments like Rebecca’s are as effective as those carried out in-person. Others see telehealth as just one promising piece of what must be a larger, more comprehensive solution. “It is part of an evolving landscape that has to change to get kids the services they need, and this is one very good part of that,” says Dr. Kathleen Myers, program director for telepsychiatry and behavioral health at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “But if you take a child psychiatrist here and have them practice [telehealth], all you’ve done is redistribute the manpower. We really need more than that.” An Evolving Model of Care Telepsychiatry in its crudest form first emerged nearly half a century ago. There are reports from as early as 1955 of the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute using a two-way, closed-circuit television system to collaborate with a state hospital. In the next decade or so, similar setups cropped up at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and others as the technology advanced. Myers has been practicing telemedicine for nearly two decades, in fact, but she’s in the minority. The kind of treatment Rebecca is receiving is far more modern than what was practiced 50 years ago, of course, providing an almost seamless digital experience—at least for those accustomed to it. Children today are used to interacting with technology, says Dr. Michael Sorter, director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s, and computers and smartphones are where they maintain relationships with friends. Because of that, it might not be so unusual for them to see a doctor the same way. “They seem like they can easily relate to the TV screen,” Sorter says. Another evolving model for teletherapy is where psychiatrists don’t directly treat patients, but rather provide support for pediatricians and others caring for children who do not have expertise in mental illnesses. Spurred by the National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Programs, which ran a successful pilot in Massachusetts more than a decade ago, state programs are increasingly launching to both relieve some of the patient load child psychiatrists are facing, and to make it easier for doctors who are inexperienced in treating mentally ill children to seek consultation or receive training. In both telepsychiatry models, however, the distance between the trained expert and the patient has drawn some detractors. A paper published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2013 warned that video conferencing could impact the natural conversation and bedside manner that would normally occur between a mental health provider and his or her patient. The appointment might initially feel impersonal, and the psychiatrist might have to make up for that with small talk to encourage “feelings of connectedness in a clinical encounter,” wrote Dr. Jay H. Shore, a psychiatrist in Denver. And young children can pose particular difficulties. Myers, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, mentions that some may speak quietly, making it hard for the psychiatrist to hear them on the other end. Others say children can be restless or shy during the teleappointments. Connections can cut out, calls can drop and patients and providers can grow confused in the process, though that happens less as technology improves. Still, despite any potential downsides of teleappointments, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics all acknowledge its prominence and offer resources for patients and providers on how to practice it, while the HRSA’s Office for the Advancement of Telehealth provides federal grant money for programs that support telehealth in rural areas. Earlier this year, the American Telemedicine Association reported that the number of states requiring that private insurers cover telemedicine just as they would in-person services had doubled in the past four years. Kentucky mandates that telemental health encounters like Rebecca’s be covered through Medicaid and private insurers, according to the American Telemedicine Association, including those appointments through a licensed social worker. Rebecca’s father, Ron, who works as a machinist for the nearby Warrior Coal mine, had never heard of telepsychiatry before his daughter’s diagnosis of depression. But after struggling to find a local treatment option for her—there are no child psychiatrists in Hopkins County, Ky., where the family lives—he was grateful to learn from a nurse at his workplace that his company’s relationship with Cincinnati Children’s meant Rebecca could receive treatment for free. “It helped me put a jumbled-up mess into perspective,” Rebecca says. “The therapy put everything everywhere I needed it to be in my life. I’m getting active, I talk to more people, I’m making more friends.” One Answer to a Growing Problem Could we be approaching a world where a good deal of adolescent mental health appointments are conducted over video chat? Possibly, says Fritz, the child and adolescent psychiatrist and AACAP president. But that won’t be the cure-all to the crisis of care for children who are mentally ill. He cautions that although telepsychiatry can be an attractive solution for rural children, it doesn’t solve the fact that America desperately needs more child psychiatrists. Dr. Jennifer McWilliams, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebr., concurs. She says about half her patients are now coming to her through telepsychiatry. She notes that “huge swaths” of Nebraska are without any providers at all. “I got into telepsychiatry because it’s one answer to a really, really huge problem. It’s not the answer, it’s just an answer to a huge crisis going on with our mental health care system.” The legislation introduced by Murphy from Pennsylvania was overwhelmingly approved by the House in early July, with only two Republicans voting against. A similar bill in the Senate, developed by a bipartisan group of senators including Lamar Alexander from Tennessee and Patty Murray from Washington, is out of committee but still awaiting a vote from the full Senate. Rep. Murphy tells TIME that the lack of psychiatric care for adolescents is particularly troubling because patients entering emergency departments in the midst of a mental health crisis might be heavily sedated or strapped to a bed while they await psychiatric consultation, calling it “pretty Third World in terms of an overcrowded emergency room.” He adds that preventive care through psychiatry and psychology is one way to ensure a patient avoids hospitalization altogether. “We know now in today’s world that people are very comfortable talking to anybody on a screen,” Murphy adds. “What may have been foreign ten years ago is now common…and now one of those areas in healthcare where a person may be very comfortable.” Telepsychiatry may also help rewrite some children’s tragic narrative, adds Sorter, the Cincinnati Children’s doctor, by providing access to immediate care so parents don’t give up on trying to find help. One of Sorter’s recent patients suffered from a severe social phobia that caused him to panic if he was separated from his parents. Through telemental health and therapy, the child’s symptoms have eased. “Now he’s confident, he can separate well, he’s happy,” Sorter says. “That’s one thing about child psychiatry in general, children and family are resilient. This issue of this shortage is critical, because so many kids are needlessly suffering with very painful conditions that are treatable and can improve.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/08/03/aetna-is-notifying-some-doctors-about-their-drug-dispensing-habits/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com_news_to-2Dyour-2Dhealth_wp_2016_08_03_aetna-2Dis-2Dnotifying-2Dsome-2Ddoctors-2Dabout-2Dtheir-2Ddrug-2Ddispensing-2Dhabits_&d=CwMGaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=gw6dgcl4aL0ZtNHJl7OEsLCNGtawjInwXOkDmXH4-DY&m=dTCgTuz1HeZx-_0sNBZtvtJEfxBKmau1p91J5PoxL-k&s=meEc4hnkswRmBgr2leWFbS8_fd_5xcn-mcyzmmXZ_jc&e=> 31. Aetna is notifying some doctors about their drug-dispensing habits Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post August 3, 2016 Many experts say the prescription painkiller epidemic started when physicians began over-prescribing powerful opioid medications, a well-meaning attempt to more aggressively treat patients' pain. With addiction to those pills at crisis levels, they argue, a good part of the solution would be for doctors to rein in use of the drugs. The giant health insurer Aetna is now actively encouraging change. Using the vast amount of data it collects from insurance claims by pharmacies, it has begun contacting doctors whose prescribing habits are far outside the norm. "You have been identified as falling within the top 1 percent of opioid prescribers within your specialty," Aetna wrote to 931 physicians across the country last week. The not-so-subtle reminder was aimed at doctors who refill opioid prescriptions at very high rates compared to their peers. Only doctors who prescribed the painkillers at least 12 times were included in the data examined, which represented more than 8.6 million claims. Physicians such as oncologists, who are likely to dispense large amounts of opioids as part of their practices, were excluded. ---- Cindy G. 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