Campaign Calls On People To Break ‘Code Of Silence’ Surrounding Domestic Violence
The campaign, Don’t Just Give A Damn, urges people to take an active stand in the fight against domestic violence. In other public health news: therapy dogs, intermittent fasting, women in science, blood cancer, end-of-life discussions, and more.
USA Today:
Cycle Of Domestic Violence Affects Millions Of Young Women, Men
One in three teenagers say they know someone their age who has been hit, punched, choked or otherwise physically hurt by their partner. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says one in three young women will be abused before they reach 25 years old. Such statistics prompted the domestic violence prevention group Saving Promise to launch a campaign Monday to raise awareness of the effects of the abuse, especially on people in their preteens to their 20s. (O'Donnell, 10/8)
Modern Healthcare:
New Study Scrutinizes Hospitals' Therapy Dog Programs
New research has found that patients who spent more time with therapy dogs increased their risk of contracting the superbug MRSA—a warning to hospitals that haven't examined policies surrounding the popular programs. The Associated Press first reported that researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health last week unveiled the unpublished limited study. Co-author Dr. Meghan Davis, a veterinarian and assistant professor of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, was looking at the potential for human-to-human transmission of pathogens during dog therapy support visits. (Johnson, 10/9)
CNN:
After Intermittent Fasting, These Men No Longer Take Insulin For Diabetes -- But Experts Stress Caution
Three men with Type 2 diabetes used "intermittent fasting" to reverse their dependence on insulin, according to a report published Tuesday -- but you shouldn't try it without medical supervision, experts say. The new case report says the three patients also lost weight, and their HbA1Cs, a measure of blood sugar levels, improved. "People are focused on giving drugs to Type 2 diabetes, but it's a dietary disease," said study author Dr. Jason Fung, medical director of the Intensive Dietary Management Program in Toronto. (Nedelman, 10/9)
Stat:
Experts Chart Path Forward To Recruit And Advance More Women In Science
Science, medicine, and academia are increasingly grappling with obstacles that can block women from advancing their careers and feeling comfortable in the workplace. Women in science say change is urgently needed — from the board room to the lab bench. That was the message at a panel on the path forward for women in science on Tuesday, convened by STAT and hosted at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. The event was part of the annual HUBweek festival, founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT. (Thielking, 10/10)
Stat:
Celgene Shutters Blood Cancer Trial, Possibly Dimming Hopes For Promising Therapy
A promising but controversial new approach to treating blood cancer could be in trouble in the earliest innings of human testing after Celgene pulled the plug on a trailblazing clinical trial. On Monday, Celgene (CELG) terminated a Phase 1 study of CC-90002, which targets a protein that helps cancer cells stay out of the immune system’s crosshairs. In an update to ClinicalTrials.gov, Celgene said it canceled the CC-90002 study because early results “did not offer a sufficiently encouraging profile” to move forward. (Garde, 10/9)
Boston Globe:
Toughest Talk: Medical Students Learn To Discuss Patients’ Wishes For End-Of-Life Care
Role-playing games with actors — like those portraying the Carlsons in a simulation drill at the University of Massachusetts Medical School last week — teach students how to talk about end-of-life care with compassion, but also realism. The simulations, along with lectures, group discussions, and shadowing physicians talking to gravely ill patients, also help them find out what’s most important to dying patients and incorporate that into their care plans. (Weisman, 10/9)
MPR:
Acute Flaccid Myelitis: More About This Rare Illness
Acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, is a rare, but serious condition which typically causes weakness, even paralysis in the arms and legs, and facial drooping. ... Although there's currently no vaccine or treatment, says Hallberg, there are very few cases of AFM. (Hallberg, 10/9)
NPR:
After Prison, People Living With HIV Struggle To Get Medical Care
When people living with HIV walk out of prison, they leave with up to a month's worth of HIV medication in their pockets. What they don't necessarily leave with is access to health care or the services that will keep them healthy in the long term. That is one of the findings of a study published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine. The study was among the first to follow people with HIV from jail or prison back into the community. What they found was that most people — more than half — fell out of care within three years of leaving prison. (Boerner, 10/9)
Miami Herald:
Younger Women Get Breast Cancer And It’s More Aggressive
Breast cancer in younger women tends to be a more aggressive cancer, researchers say, because it’s often diagnosed later, is farther along when found and insurance companies set minimum ages on mammograms, which can deter detection. In addition, because the numbers are relatively small, some doctors don’t always jump to cancer as a conclusion in younger women. (Powell, 10/10)
NPR:
Dementia Sometimes Starts In A Hospital's ICU
Doctors have gradually come to realize that people who survive a serious brush with death in the intensive care unit are likely to develop potentially serious problems with their memory and thinking processes. This dementia, a side-effect of intensive medical care, can be permanent. And it affects as many as half of all people who are rushed to the ICU after a medical emergency. Considering that 5.7 million Americans end up in intensive care every year, this is a major problem which, until recently, has been poorly appreciated by medical caregivers. (Harris, 10/10)
