Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Black, Hispanic Kids Had Higher Covid Hospitalization Rates, Analysis Finds
CIDRAP: Analysis Shows Higher COVID Hospitalization Rates For Black, Hispanic Kids
Yesterday in JAMA Network Open, researchers published a study highlighting higher COVID-19 hospitalization rates among Black and Hispanic children in the United States during the first 3 years of the pandemic. The cross-sectional study, which was based on population-based surveillance, identified 13,555 pediatric COVID-19–associated hospitalizations from March 2020 to September 2023. Hospitalizations occurred in 12 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah, covering approximately 10% of the US population. (Soucheray, 7/16)
Stat: Scientists Show That MRNA Therapy Can Be Delivered As A Capsule
An oral capsule can efficiently deliver liquid mRNA therapy directly to the gut, a possible new delivery mechanism for mRNA vaccines, a new study finds. (Russo, 7/16)
AP: DCD Heart Transplants: Two Hospitals Try New Ways To Use More Donated Organs
Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies — advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused. The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines. Surgeons at Duke and Vanderbilt universities reported Wednesday that they’ve separately devised simpler approaches to retrieve those hearts. (Neergaard, 7/16)
MedPage Today: Nausea Drug Helped Kids After ED Visits For Gastroenteritis-Related Vomiting
Ondansetron reduced the risk of recurrent gastroenteritis and vomiting when prescribed to children at discharge from emergency department (ED) visits for acute gastroenteritis-associated vomiting, a randomized trial showed. In children assigned to oral ondansetron or placebo to be given as needed for vomiting after discharge, just 5.1% of the treatment group experienced moderate-to-severe gastroenteritis compared to 12.5% of the placebo group, a research team led by Stephen Freedman, MDCM, of Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Minerd, 7/16)
Chicago Tribune: Northwestern Lab Finds Harmless Virus In Parkinson's Patients
A Northwestern Medicine research lab has found a usually harmless virus in brain samples from Parkinson’s patients. The idea that Parkinson’s could be linked to a virus had been theorized for years, but this is the first study to pinpoint a specific virus as more common in Parkinson’s patients. (Weaver, 7/16)
CIDRAP: Review Shows Ethical Considerations In Infectious Disease Guidelines Lacking
A new review published in JAMA Network Open describes how often ethics are incorporated in infectious diseases international clinical practice guidelines (CPGL) and finds planning and actual consideration of ethical issues in infectious disease CPGL are limited. ... “Less than a third of CPGL dedicated a section or paragraph to ethical considerations, and only half of guidelines addressed minority populations,” the authors wrote. “The most common ethical issues addressed were related to justice (including affordability and access to care).” (Soucheray, 7/16)
