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Monday, September 11, 2017
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Welcome to Monday, everyone. Here's what you need to know about health and medicine today.
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The health response to Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma battered Florida overnight and continues to barrel up the coast. And though the storm weakened as it hit the state, hospital staffs, health officials, and emergency responders in the U.S.
and neighboring islands are ramping up their efforts. Here’s the latest:
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Hospitals are addressing the aftermath.
At least 35 hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina either
closed entirely or ordered partial evacuations in advance of
Hurricane Irma. The federal health department has deployed 500 staffers to Orlando to bolster the state’s medical and public health response.
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Dialysis patients are being evacuated on islands already hit,
with the help of the Department of Defense. Medical teams from HHS are also providing care at hospitals on the island of St. Thomas and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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There’s now a disaster distress helpline to help people
deal with the psychological impact of the storm. There’s
concern that the stress of the storm can drive relapse for people struggling with addiction, and authorities are factoring in that increased risk of relapse and overdose into their hurricane response plans.
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Experts look at the risk of codeine cough syrup to kids
Pediatric health experts are meeting this morning to discuss the use of opioids to treat kids’ coughs. Earlier this year, the FDA
issued its strongest level of warning about the use of opioid pain-relievers in kids. The agency now requires that products containing codeine — often found in prescription cough syrups — bear a label indicating that they
shouldn’t be used in kids under age 12. The decision came after an FDA safety review found that codeine and another narcotic, tramadol, both carry serious risks for patients under the age of 12, including difficulty breathing and death. Today’s advisory committee
meeting will cover the current standards of treating children’s coughs and weigh the risks and benefits of using prescription opioids to treat children.
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There's just one hospital left to treat patients in Raqqa
Just a single hospital is now treating patients in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where there’s an intense, ongoing battle to take the city back from ISIS. The aid organization Physicians for Human Rights says
few of the thousands of civilians trapped in the city are able to get to the hospital amid airstrikes. But years of conflict have left the city with no real emergency services or rescue personnel to reach those injured by the fighting. Those leaving the city
are at risk of being injured or killed by landmines or airstrikes, and there isn’t much the doctors in the city can do to help. PHR says doctors at Raqqa National Hospital have been left to sanitize wounds with just water and salt.
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Inside STAT: A powerful Alzheimer's gene hidden in a family tree
Louise Lowman Lee is a member of the Chastain family, which has an astonishing rate of Alzheimer's. (dustin chambers for stat)
Louise Lowman Lee heard stories about her great-grandmother walking in a fenced-in area in the backyard so she could safely wander. She watched her mother care for her grandmother as Alzheimer’s disease
took hold. The disease gradually eroded the brain of her mother, too. When Lee and her sisters took their mother to Emory University in 2006 for treatment, Dr. Allan Levey was waiting for them. He’d seen other members of their extended family over the years
and had started studying their pattern of Alzheimer’s inheritance. Researchers have since determined that the family has an astonishing rate of Alzheimer’s disease that suggests some family members carry a previously unknown gene — a gene so powerful, it can
cause disease in someone who receives a copy from just one parent. STAT contributor Michele Cohen Marill has the story — read
here.
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How a law helped cut childhood ATV injuries
A new
study out this morning finds that a 2010 Massachusetts law restricting the use of off-road vehicles by kids significantly cut serious injuries tied to the vehicles. The law banned kids under age 14 from using off-road
vehicles like ATVs and put more safeguards in place for teens up to age 18. Researchers looked at records for more than 4,000 kids injured by off-road vehicles between 2002 and 2013. After the law was implemented in 2010, the number of 10- to 13-year-old kids
discharged from the ER for those injuries fell by half. There were similar, though slightly smaller, declines seen in younger children and older teens. There wasn’t a significant drop in injuries among 25- to 34-year-olds.
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Mumps outbreak in Arkansas ends
A mumps outbreak that infected nearly 3,000 people in Arkansas is over, the state’s department of health reports. State health officials
report the last confirmed case in the outbreak, which started more than a year ago, was on July 13. The CDC says an out-of-state visitor infected with mumps might’ve started the outbreak. Mumps is extremely contagious
and can cause flu-like symptoms and, in some cases, serious inflammation.
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What to read around the web today
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9/11 responders who became ill from toxic exposure now have a monument to their heroism.
Los Angeles Times
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Mother of nine goes door-to-door as part of Yemen's anti-cholera brigade.
NPR
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Seven days of heroin: This is what an epidemic looks like.
Cincinnati.com
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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
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