Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Legionnaires' Disease Sickens 19, Kills 1 In Bronx Neighborhood
An outbreak of Legionnaires鈥 Disease in a Bronx neighborhood has sickened 19 people since the beginning of the month, with one person dying, city health officials said Wednesday. The Health Department said cooling towers in the borough鈥檚 Highbridge section had been tested for the presence of the bacteria Legionella which causes the disease, a form of pneumonia. The bacteria was found in four of the towers, which the department ordered to be disinfected. (5/25)
Within days, the boy went from having cold symptoms to being unable to walk. To Peter Wright, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, it looked similar to polio 鈥 a condition not seen in the United States anymore. It had to be something else. The case occurred back in 2008, and tragically, the 5-year-old New Hampshire boy died. But his family permitted the scientific team to conduct an autopsy, to help solve 鈥渢he mystery around the child鈥檚 death and illness,鈥 Wright recalled. The researchers found something unusual: evidence of a common pathogen called an enterovirus, but in the fluid that bathes the spinal cord. (Joseph, 5/25)
Finding the most polluted places in the San Francisco Bay area is simple, a new air quality analysis shows: Locate places where mostly Black, Latino, Asian and low-income residents live, and pay them a visit. The data released Tuesday by Aclima 鈥 a California-based tech company that measured the region鈥檚 air quality block-by-block for the first time 鈥 found that communities of color are exposed to 55 percent more nitrogen dioxide, which contributes to smog, than mostly White communities. (Fears, 5/25)
Searching for a better night's sleep? A digital app to treat insomnia is an effective alternative to sleeping pills, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom. The recommendation from NICE last week means that doctors in the UK's National Health Service can prescribe the Sleepio app, which uses artificial intelligence to provide people with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia instead of sleep medications like zolpidem and zopiclone that can be dependency forming and aren't intended for long-term use. (Hunt, 5/26)
Postpartum depression (PPD) is estimated to affect more than one in ten women who have a baby and is just one of many mood disorders that a woman can get during pregnancy or in the first year after birth, known as the perinatal period. Yet these conditions, known as perinatal mood disorders, remain largely misunderstood by the public and healthcare providers alike, said experts at a roundtable discussion hosted by CNN's gender reporting team As Equals. (Senthilingam, 5/26)
While this will be University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Freeman A. Hrabowski III鈥檚 last graduation 鈥 he announced his retirement last August 鈥 he will leave the school with a number of leaders who will help the next generation of graduates to push past challenges and earn their degrees. Jane De Hitta, who had to pause her social work studies due to cancer treatment, is one of those leaders, and will help guide adult undergraduates through returning student programs. (Roberts, 5/26)