Sanders rolls out single-payer bill, San Diego's hepatitis A outbreak, & a medical mystery

Single-payer, repeal and replace, and medical marijuana bills on the Hill

There’s a handful of big new health care bills on the table in Congress, from single payer health care to a plan to foster medical marijuana research. Here’s your quick rundown of what’s happening on Capitol Hill:

§ Medicare for all: The proposed plan — which would set up a government-run, single-payer system that provides insurance to all Americans — is the brainchild of independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and a crew of Democrats. It would shield consumers from out-of-pocket health costs other than those for prescription drugs. The bill isn’t likely to pass with the GOP in control, but it’s sparking conversation about future reform.

§ Another repeal-and-replace push: Republican senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham revealed their plan yesterday, which would repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate and offer states a block grant to spend on health care programs. The deadline to push a repeal bill through using the budget reconciliation process is September 30, but it’s not clear that the GOP has the 50 votes needed in the Senate, and the Congressional Budget Office still hasn't scored the proposal.

§ “High time” for medical marijuana research: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) put out an impressively pun-filled announcement on a new bill to improve the process of running medical marijuana research, calling it a “joint measure” that’ll allow scientists to delve “into the weeds” on dosing, effectiveness, and safety of medical marijuana. “To be blunt, we need to remove the administrative barriers preventing legitimate research into medical marijuana,” he says.

San Diego works to curb deadly hepatitis A outbreak

The mayor of San Diego is planning to set up three giant tents to house hundreds of homeless people in a bid to curb the city’s deadly hepatitis A epidemic, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The contagious liver disease is caused by a virus found in human feces. San Diego health officials declared a public health emergency earlier this month amid an outbreak that has killed 16 people and hospitalized another 300 since it began last November. People who are homeless have been hit particularly hard, and the city is hoping to open the tents as soon as December to make sure those people are able to access clean bathroom and hand-washing stations.

A new push to advance sickle cell research

A prominent charity better known for supporting the arts and environment is giving $6 million to researchers to develop cures and treatments for sickle cell disease. Sickle cell, the most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S., has long been starved for funding. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced this morning that its inaugural Sickle Cell Disease/Advancing Cures awards would support seven projects designed to enable patients’ blood cells to carry oxygen to vital organs, which the cells’ sickle shape prevents. Four aim to do so by using CRISPR to edit either the gene whose abnormality causes sickle cell or other genes that can substitute for the mutated one. “I think CRISPR does offer high hopes for a cure,” says Betsy Myers, who oversees the foundation's medical research program.

New three-year overall survival data in lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most common and deadly cancers. Nationwide, more than half of all patients die within one year of diagnosis. Research from two Phase 3 trials presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress reports longer-term survival data for a therapy that works with the body’s immune system to help fight previously treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Learn more about the three-year overall survival results in these patients.

Inside STAT: The culprit behind a cluster of infections

(molly ferguson for stat)

In 2014, infectious disease doctor Nasia Safdar noticed a cluster of bloodstream infections tied to an uncommon, potentially dangerous bacteria. Five cases, all the same strain of bacteria, had occurred in just five weeks. All of the patients had spent time in the post-surgery recovery unit, and some of them reported their pain being poorly controlled by opioids. That was a red flag for Safdar, who later realized the hospital’s pharmacy was conducting its own related investigation. Read more in our latest medical mystery from STAT contributor Allison Bond here.

Florida nursing home where eight deaths occurred had repeat safety violations

Eight people have died after being evacuated from a Florida nursing home lacking air conditioning in the wake of Hurricane Irma, and STAT’s Max Blau reports that the health facility has had repeat safety violations. More than 100 residents were evacuated yesterday and at least a dozen were being treated at a nearby hospital. The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills — located about half an hour north of Miami — does have a generator, but it was unclear if it was operational. In February 2016, a federal inspector who visited found the facility only had a temporary generator and wasn’t able to detail plans to replace it with a permanent generator. The report was one of two citations for violations related to federal requirements for backup power.

What happened when doctors accidentally transplanted hepatitis-infected organs

As many as 1,000 kidneys are thrown out every year in the U.S. because of hepatitis C infections, but new drugs can cure the infection. That's led to clinical trials to test whether hepatitis C-infected kidneys and hearts could be safe for transplantation. Now a new study points to even wider possibilities. Doctors accidentally transplanted hepatitis C-infected organs from a patient who'd died — in whom infection wasn’t suspected — into five patients, according to a new letter in NEJM.

Four of those patients — who'd received a kidney, heart, or lungs — survived the early post-transplantation period and were treated for and cured of the infection, and there wasn't any evidence that the immunosuppressant drugs given post-transplant made the hepatitis treatment any less effective. That suggests there’s a need for further research into the idea of transplanting other infected organs — though the hepatitis C treatments aren't 100 percent effective, and making sure transplant recipients could access and afford the pricey therapies is still an issue.