After Cluster Of Cases, Colorado Starts New Mpox Shot Campaign
A handful of new cases over recent weeks have hit Colorado, and now health officials are launching a new vaccination campaign. Meanwhile, in Missouri, hospitals are reported to be housing children in foster care for weeks because there was nowhere else for them to live.
Colorado Sun:
Colorado Health Officials Launch New Mpox Vaccination Campaign
Colorado health officials are launching a new vaccination campaign after a handful of cases of mpox, the viral disease formerly known monkeypox, have been identified in the state in recent weeks. Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said three cases were identified in June and one in May. She said some of the cases involved out-of-state travel and two of the cases were linked to each other. (Ingold, 6/26)
Stateline:
‘Truly A Crisis’: Missouri Hospitals House Children In Foster Care With No Place To Go
On an early June day, five foster children were being housed by SSM Health at hospitals in the St. Louis area not because they were sick, but because there was no other place for them to live. They had each been in the hospital an average of 56 days. There were 23 adult clients of the Department of Mental Health — people with a developmental disability or behavioral issue — being boarded by SSM. Each had been hospitalized an average of 193 days. (Keller, 6/23)
The New York Times:
In NYC, Some People Forced Into Psychiatric Wards Find Homes
On the coldest night of the winter, Mazou Mounkaila was sleeping under an overpass in the Bronx when the ambulance crew arrived. The wind chill was minus 4 degrees. Paramedics and homeless-outreach workers told Mr. Mounkaila he had to go either to a shelter or a hospital. Mr. Mounkaila, a courtly former warehouse manager from the West African nation of Niger who has been homeless for about a decade, declined to do either. But he had no choice. The police showed up. “To my surprise,” Mr. Mounkaila said, “they handcuff me.” He spent the next 104 days at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx being treated for schizophrenia. (Newman, 6/25)
In environmental health news —
NBC News:
Teen Hiker Dies In Extreme Heat In Texas Desert; Stepfather Dies Seeking Help
A 14-year-old boy fell ill and ultimately died in extreme heat while he was hiking Saturday in Big Bend National Park in Texas, officials said. His stepfather, identified only as a 31-year-old man, died seeking help for the boy when the vehicle he was in veered off its path and crashed down an embankment beneath an overlook, the National Park Service said in a statement. (Romero, 6/26)
Indianapolis Star:
Brain-Eating Amoeba Expanding Its Range Northward With Climate Change
Typically, Midwesterners might think of brain-eating infections as a southern thing. While that might have been in the case in the past, new research is raising questions about it's growing footprint. For this edition of the Scrub Hub, we are looking at the question: Is the brain-eating amoeba expanding to the north? And why? To find the answers, we looked at information from the CDC as well as a recently-released report on the amoeba and how it's changing. (6/26)
CIDRAP:
CWD Detected For First Time In Florida, Which Becomes The 31st Affected State
The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Florida has been detected in a road-killed deer in Holmes County, boosting the number of affected states to 31 and prompting nearby states to take action. Caused by infectious prions (misfolded proteins), CWD is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting cervids such as deer and elk. While CWD isn't known to infect humans, some experts fear it could jump species. (Van Beusekom, 6/23)
