Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
AIDS Advocates, Worried About Falling Behind During Pandemic, Call For Redoubling Response
San Francisco Chronicle: Eradicate AIDS? Coronavirus Stands In The Way
The coronavirus pandemic has hobbled progress in fighting HIV worldwide, including San Francisco’s efforts to quash new infections, with public health resources diverted toward COVID-19 and millions of people struggling to access care, according to reports presented this week at the International AIDS Conference. San Francisco’s “Getting to Zero” initiative, aimed at ending all new infections and deaths from HIV/AIDS, is dependent upon an aggressive public health response that has been dramatically derailed by COVID-19, health care providers and patient advocates said. (Allday, 7/6)
The Washington Post: When One Pandemic Disrupts Another: The Story Of The Coronavirus And HIV
More than 20,000 HIV specialists, patients and activists convened Monday for their worldwide conference, a meeting held this year in the shadow of another virus that causes a deadly new disease with global reach. The novel coronavirus has disrupted two years of planning. Instead of highlights and challenges, the talk now is of locked-down people with HIV who cannot get treatment, preventive medication or even testing, of lost wages and health insurance. For the physicians and scientists still exploring therapies and a vaccine for AIDS four decades on, some research is threatened or postponed, their patients hunkered down at home. (Bernstein, 7/6)
The Washington Post: Mildew In The Toilet May Indicate Someone Has Diabetes
People with diabetes cannot process glucose properly, causing urine to have excess sugar — an ideal food for mildew. (Huber, 7/6)
The Washington Post: The Big Number: 795,000 People A Year Have A Stroke In The U.S.
Every 40 seconds, on average, someone in the United States has a stroke — amounting to 795,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most strokes, 80 percent or more, occur when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a clot. Known as an ischemic stroke, it results in brain cells not getting needed oxygen and nutrients, which causes the cells to start dying within minutes. (Searing, 7/6)
NPR: U.N. Predicts Rise In Diseases That Jump From Animals To Humans
A new United Nations report warns that more diseases that pass from animals to humans, such as COVID-19, are likely to emerge as habitats are ravaged by wildlife exploitation, unsustainable farming practices and climate change. These pathogens, known as zoonotic diseases, also include Ebola, MERS, HIV/AIDS and West Nile virus. They have increasingly emerged due to stresses humans have placed on animal habitats, according to the U.N. Environment Program report Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, released on Monday. (Neuman, 7/6)
