Separate Salmonella Outbreaks Linked To Red Onions, Backyard Poultry

AP: Health Officials Link US Salmonella Outbreak To Red Onions
Federal health officials say an outbreak of salmonella infecting nearly 400 people in more than 30 states has been linked to red onions, and identified a California company as the likely source. The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement on Friday that Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, California, has notified the food agency that it will be recalling all varieties of onions that could have come in contact with potentially contaminated red onions because of the risk of cross-contamination. (D'Innocenzio, 8/1)

CIDRAP: CDC: 473 More Salmonella Illnesses Linked To Backyard Poultry
In the last month, 473 more people have been sickened in the United States by Salmonella linked to contact with backyard poultry. A total of 938 people in 48 states are part of at least 15 multistate outbreaks tied to backyard birds, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also, four more serotypes have been added to the investigation: Braenderup, Muenchen, Thompson, and Typhimurium. (7/31)

The Hill: Colorado To Declare Racism A Public Health Crisis 
Colorado is declaring racism a public health crisis after employees inside the state's Department of Public Health and Environment put pressure on its top health official to address the issue. Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the department, told The Denver Post that the stance would become formal policy within the department. The declaration aligns Colorado with the American Public Health Association (APHA), which first declared systemic racism in the U.S. a public health crisis back at the beginning of June — shortly after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, a Black man. (Johnson, 7/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Homicide Spike Hits Most Large U.S. Cities 
A sharp rise in homicides this year is hitting large U.S. cities across the country, signaling a new public-safety risk unleashed during the coronavirus pandemic, and amid recession and a national backlash against police tactics. The murder rate is still low compared with previous decades, and other types of serious crime have dropped in the past few months. But researchers, police and some residents fear the homicide spike, if not tamed, could threaten an urban renaissance spurred in part by more than two decades of declining crime. (Hilsenrath, 8/2)

AP: Vaccine Bait To Be Dropped To Try To Curb Rabies In Maine
Authorities in Maine are distributing oral rabies vaccines in bait form in the northeastern part of the state early this month. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services said the vaccines will be distributed starting around Aug. 3 and the effort will last for several days. The baits will be distributed by the air and ground and target raccoons over a 2,650-square-mile area. (8/3)

In mental health news —

Dallas Morning News: ‘Every Day Is A Struggle‘: El Paso, One Year Later 
Dina Lizarde sits in her house with its lights turned low and the TV a constant companion. She stares at the candles she lights in memory of her 15-year-old son Javier Amir Rodríguez. A father. A son. A mother. They are but three of the survivors of the 23 people who died at the hands of a gunman at a busy Walmart in the worst mass shooting of Hispanics in recent U.S. history. In the year following the Aug. 3 tragedy, The Dallas Morning News interviewed family members of those slain, about a dozen of the injured, other witnesses and multiple sources close to the investigation. We reviewed hundreds of pages of documents related to the massacre. (Corchado, Jaramillo and Barragan, 7/31)

NPR: Cancer's Stress Deepens With Pandemic's Tough Choices 
Alexea Gaffney battles health issues every day on multiple fronts. As an infectious disease doctor in Stony Brook, N.Y., she treats patients who have COVID-19. And two years ago, at age 37, she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. As a result, the physician and single mom, who is also home-schooling her 8-year-old daughter these days, is still under medical treatment for the cancer. And that makes her more vulnerable to the virus.Gaffney says navigating life from minute to minute feels like a minefield of risks — ones she mitigates with face masks, protective gowns and lots of hand-washing. (Noguchi, 8/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Californians With Mental Illness Are Dropping Private Insurance To Get Taxpayer-Funded Treatment 
In many cases, commercial insurers aren’t legally required to offer the intensive mental health services available through Medi-Cal. This open secret exposes troubling questions: What should private insurance cover? What should the state — and thereby taxpayers — pay for? Who’s responsible for ensuring people with serious mental illnesses get the treatment they need? (Wiener, 7/31)

In West Nile news —

AP: Mosquitoes At Lake Havasu Test Positive For West Nile Virus
Health officials are asking visitors to avoid a beach on the east side of Lake Havasu after mosquitoes gathered there tested positive for the West Nile virus. Mohave County routinely collects and tests mosquitoes that have the potential for carrying the virus. Officials said mosquitoes around Body Beach, a half-mile stretch of shoreline, recently tested positive. (8/1)