Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Suggests Younger Black Leukemia Patients Die Earlier
Younger Black leukemia patients were likelier to die early or not go into complete remission than their white peers when receiving the same intensive treatment, according to a new study in Blood Advances. (Dreher, 7/7)
People with Down syndrome are highly sought after for Alzheimer's research studies because many develop the disease in their 40s and 50s, and most will get it if they live long enough. The elevated risk for Alzheimer's comes from the extra copy of chromosome 21 carried by people with Down syndrome. (Hamilton, 7/7)
On a chilly October evening a decade ago, physician Michael Cohen arrived at Boston’s Logan International Airport lugging a hefty contraption, built like a tiny tank, that immediately drew the attention of airport security officers. It was a device to detect ear problems, and he and a colleague were hauling it around the globe. (Chen, 7/8)
"If you don't get the treatment, you're usually going to die from this," says Dr. Fabiana Alves, director of the leishmaniasis cluster at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. VL is even more devastating for a patient whose immune system has been compromised by HIV, simply because the existing VL treatments don't work as well. And in parts of the world where VL is rampant, like eastern Africa and Southeast Asia, a significant percentage of patients are HIV positive. (Barnhart, 7/7)
If you are someone who gets angry if you haven't eaten, also known as "hangry," a new study says you aren't being irrational. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One on Wednesday, come from one of the first studies to examine the relationship of hunger and anger, Viren Swami, lead author and social psychology professor at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K., told USA TODAY via email. (Mendoza, 7/7)
