Scam Alert: Seniors, Low-Income Neighborhoods Targeted By People Claiming To Collect DNA Swab Samples

Bloomberg: Scam DNA Tests May Be New Target For Health Fraud, States Warn 
Authorities in several states are warning about an alleged scam in which people visit senior-living communities and low-income neighborhoods, offering to perform DNA tests and collecting information from people in government health programs. The alleged DNA-testing scams appear to be a new twist on an old tactic, in which people are tricked into giving away personal information or participating in medical services they don’t need. Perpetrators of such schemes can bill the government for unneeded medical tests and procedures, or use the information they collect — such as Medicare and Medicaid identification data — to commit identity theft and fraud. (Brown, 4/17)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Moves To ‘Close The Door’ On Asbestos. Consumer Groups Say Loopholes Remain.
The Trump administration on Wednesday issued a regulation it said would impose new restrictions on asbestos, a deadly substance once commonly found in insulation materials. The final Environmental Protection Agency rule goes somewhat further than the initial version the agency had proposed, but public health advocates said it still fell short of the protections needed. Under the rule, the agency will require companies to obtain federal approval in order to domestically manufacture or import specific types of products using asbestos. (Friedman, 4/17)

The New York Times: How A Chicago Woman Fell Victim To Candida Auris, A Drug-Resistant Fungus
Gregory Spoor got the distressing news about his wife on the morning of Jan. 16 while standing outside her room in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The doctor explained that Stephanie Spoor, 64, had contracted a “rare, very rare, fungus.” The physician said the fungus was called Candida auris, and it appeared to have entered her bloodstream through a catheter or other intravenous line during her treatment. Mr. Spoor sent a text to the couple’s four children. (Richtel, 4/17)

The New York Times: Prostate Drugs May Raise Diabetes Risk
Two commonly used drugs for treating an enlarged prostate may increase the risk for Type 2 diabetes. Benign prostate hypertrophy, or B.P.H., may cause difficulty in urinating or increased frequency and urgency of urination. A study published in BMJ examined the use of two similar drugs often prescribed for the condition, finasteride (Proscar) and dutasteride (Avodart), in 39,000 men. As controls, the 11-year study used 16,000 men taking tamsulosin (Flomax), a different type of drug for B.P.H. (Bakalar, 4/18)

Stat: U.S. Team Ready To Start Pregnancies With 'Three-Parent' Embryos
Researchers at Columbia University in New York have created embryos containing genetic material from three people and are ready to use them to start pregnancies. But they’re at a legal impasse. At a public forum at Harvard Law School on Wednesday, Dietrich Egli, assistant professor of developmental cell biology at Columbia, said his team has used a controversial technique called mitochondrial replacement therapy to make embryos for four female patients. The women are all carriers of genetic disorders that are passed down through maternal mitochondria, the energy-generating organelles inside cells. (Mulling, 4/18)

Kaiser Health News: As Syphilis Invades Rural America, A Fraying Health Safety Net Is Failing To Stop It
When Karolyn Schrage first heard about the “dominoes gang” in the health clinic she runs in Joplin, Mo., she assumed it had to do with pizza. Turns out it was a group of men in their 60s and 70s who held a standing game night — which included sex with one another. They showed up at her clinic infected with syphilis. That has become Schrage’s new normal. Pregnant women, young men and teens are all part of the rapidly growing number of syphilis patients coming to the Choices Medical Services clinic in the rural southwestern corner of the state. She can barely keep the antibiotic treatment for syphilis, penicillin G benzathine, stocked on her shelves. (Weber, 4/18)

The New York Times: A Giant Laid Low By Too Many Blows To The Head
Tall and imposing, indomitable even, 6-foot-8 with shoulders and a back broad enough to push a pickup truck. He was a star lineman on a state championship team in high school and for the University of Colorado Buffaloes, where he set a team record for starts and minutes played. He was an Associated Press third-team all-American and played three years in the N.F.L. Yet the word that jumps most quickly to mind when talking to Ryan Miller is “fragile.” (Powell, 4/17)

The New York Times: Stress Tied To Heart Disease, Especially In People Under 50
Stress may increase the risk for heart disease, especially in younger people. Researchers writing in BMJ used Swedish data on 136,637 people diagnosed with stress-related disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress reaction and others. They compared them with 171,314 unaffected siblings, and with 1,366,370 people in the general population without a stress disorder diagnosis. They tracked their health for up to 27 years. (Bakalar, 4/17)

The New York Times: The Right Way To Use A Public Bathroom (To Avoid Getting Sick)
There are a handful of things in this world I’m extremely thankful for, yet also quite grossed out by. Public bathrooms are one of them. (Also: colonoscopies.) My disgust peaks around this time of year, when everyone around me seems to be coughing or sneezing or both — sometimes in the next stall. What, if anything, can we do to minimize our exposure to germs when we have to relieve ourselves in public? I called a handful of experts — it’s fun to ask total strangers about toilet bacteria, believe me — and dug up some pretty nasty research to find out. You’re welcome. (Moyer, 4/17)