Inexpensive Blood Test That Could Predict Due Date, Help Prevent Premature Birth Shows Promising Results
The test -- which detects changes in RNA circulating in a pregnant woman’s blood -- estimates due dates within two weeks in nearly half the cases, making it as accurate as the current, more expensive method. In other public health news: vaping, tonsillectomies, HPV vaccines, depression, the plague, e-cigarettes and Zika.
The New York Times:
Blood Test Might Predict Pregnancy Due Date And Preterm Birth
Scientists have developed an inexpensive blood test to predict a pregnant woman’s due date and possibly identify women who are at risk of giving birth prematurely. The research, which is still preliminary and involved small numbers of women, was led by a prominent pioneer in the field of genetic blood testing, Stephen Quake at Stanford University, who said the test could eventually provide a low-cost method of gauging the gestational age of a developing fetus. (Belluck, 6/7)
Stat:
Blood Test Might Help Predict Both Preterm And Healthy Delivery Dates
“It’s really hard to understate the potential of what these folks are proposing,” said Dr. Thomas McElrath, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “The potential for how that may feed into care and into research and into furthering not just maternal but neonatal outcomes is huge. We’re just probably beginning to get a sense of what that may involve.” (Weintraub, 6/7)
The Associated Press:
Study Says Vaping By Kids Isn't Up, But Some Are Skeptical
Vaping held steady last year in high school students and declined in middle school kids, according to new government data, but some researchers are skeptical because the survey may have missed out on a booming e-cigarette brand. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey did not specifically ask about Juul e-cigarettes, and research suggests some kids don't equate the trendy devices with other types of e-cigarettes. (6/7)
Kaiser Health News:
He Started Vaping As A Teen And Now Says Habit Is ‘Impossible To Let Go’
The debate over the health risks of Juul, vaping and e-cigarettes is now spilling into the public square. In one of the most restrictive measures nationwide, San Francisco voters this week upheld by what looks to be a large majority — nearly 70 percent in a preliminary tally — a ban on the sale of flavored vaping products, as well as conventional menthol cigarettes. (Daley, 6/8)
The New York Times:
Tonsillectomy Risks May Outweigh Benefits
More than 530,000 children have their tonsils or adenoids removed in the United States each year to prevent recurrent infections and sleep or breathing disorders. But a new study suggests that the surgery may have long-term risks that in some cases outweigh any short-time benefits. The report, in JAMA Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, compared 60,667 Danish children under 9 who had tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies or both with 1.1 million who had not had the surgeries. They were born between 1979 and 1999, and researchers followed their health for up to 30 years. (Bakalar, 6/7)
Sacramento Bee:
HPV Vaccines Save Lives But Could Save More, UCD Cancer Center Says. It's Spreading The Word
Human papillomaviruses account for nearly 40,000 new cases of cancer every year. Most HPV-related cancers are preventable with a vaccine, and yet the United States has relatively low vaccination rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (Sullivan, 6/7)
The New York Times:
Depression In Older People Tends To Be More Severe
Depression in older people tends to be more severe, last longer and be less likely to remit than the same disease in younger people, a new study concludes. The reason remains unknown, but it is apparently unconnected to known risk factors like social isolation or the chronic diseases of old age. In a study published in Lancet Psychiatry, Dutch researchers followed 1,042 people ages 18 to 88 with diagnoses of major depression. They tracked four indicators of disease over two years: the likelihood of still having the diagnosis at the end of the study, how persistent symptoms were over time, the likelihood of reaching remission and the degree of improvement in depression severity. (Bakalar, 6/7)
Stat:
A Set Of Ancient Teeth Unlock A Bacterial Secret About The Bubonic Plague
Nearly 4,000 years ago, a woman and a man were buried together just east of the Volga River in modern-day Russia, with a secret locked away in the pulp of their teeth. The bodies were uncovered just a few years ago, the teeth pulled and sent westward to the Max Planck Institute in Germany, where Maria Spyrou was working on a Ph.D. in paleogenetics. When she subjected the pulp to a bevy of genetic tests, she found something surprising: an ancestor of the bacteria responsible for the Black Death. (Swetlitz, 6/8)
The Associated Press:
E-Cigarette Sellers Turn To Scholarships To Promote Brands
A growing number of e-cigarette and vaporizer sellers have started offering college scholarships as a way to get their brands listed on university websites and to get students to write essays about the potential benefits of vaping. The tactic is taken from a method that was once believed to improve a site's ranking in search results, and it has successfully landed vaping brands on the sites of some of the nation's best-known universities, including Harvard. It also has drawn criticism that the scholarships are a thinly disguised ploy to attract young customers. (6/8)
Tampa Bay Times:
The Zika Threat Has Waned. But With Summer Rains On The Way, Officials Still Urge Caution.
As more rain threatens to drench Tampa Bay in the coming days, health officials warn Florida residents and visitors to be vigilant against Zika, even though the threat of the virus has waned. The Florida Department of Health reports 44 cases of the mosquito-borne illness so far this year, with no local cases or current active zones. (Griffin, 6/7)
