Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Clinic Seeks To Turn Marijuana From 'Gateway Drug' To Gateway To Treatment
The New York Times: Addiction Specialists Ponder A Potential Aid: Pot
Nine days after Nikolas Michaud’s latest heroin relapse, the skinny 27-year-old sat on a roof deck at a new drug rehabilitation clinic here. He picked up a bong, filled it with a pinch of marijuana, lit the leaves and inhaled. All this took place in plain view of the clinic’s director. ... The new clinic is experimenting with a concept made possible by the growing legalization of marijuana: that pot, rather than being a gateway into drugs, could be a gateway out. (Richtel, 3/27)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Lawmakers Take Aim At Opiate Epidemic In Advancing Host Of Bills
The Legislature’s budget committee approved legislation Monday to fight Wisconsin’s opiate epidemic. On unanimous votes, the Joint Finance Committee signed off on bills to expand treatment, hire special agents to investigate drug crimes and establish a new charter school to treat teens with addiction. (Marley, 3/27)
Stat: EPA Sidestepped Decision To Tighten Standards For Lead Levels
The 750,000-ton stack is a mix of lead, arsenic, and other toxic metals, blended with sand and abandoned by the businesses that once employed most of the town, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, in the Illinois River Valley. When the wind blows, specks of toxic metals sail off the slag heap and land on the town’s modest houses and gardens, in school playgrounds, on church steps and, sometimes, in the water...It is the lead — a toxin that can damage children’s brains at even low levels of exposure — that worries most people here. (Kaplan, 3/28)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: An Intractable Problem
Public health experts in Milwaukee and around the nation now see a direct link between childhood trauma and an incapacitated workforce. Improving the latter is impossible without addressing the former. Children exposed to abuse, violence and neglect may not be able to concentrate in school, much less job training programs. (Schmid and Crowe, 3/27)
Columbus Dispatch: Multiple Sclerosis Drug Offers Hope Of Halting Disease
In multiple sclerosis, an abnormal immune-system response leads to an attack of nerve fibers and the fatty myelin that surrounds them in the central nervous system... Ocrelizumab works by depleting B cells, which are immune cells that participate in the attack on myelin, Racke said. The drug represents a transformation in MS care, said Dr. Aaron Boster, director of the MS center at OhioHealth, where he also serves as systems medical chief of neuroimmunology. (Viviano, 3/28)
Miami Herald: Zika Virus: Rick Scott Visits Miami Prepare Mosquito Season
South Florida's battle plan for Zika, expected to rebound with the rainy season, includes more boots on the ground to inspect and fumigate for mosquitoes, more lab resources to speed up test turnaround times and the promise of a more collegial collaboration between the federal and state governments. (Chang, 3/27)
St. Louis Public Radio: High STD Rates Could Put St. Louis At Greater Risk For Zika Infections, Researcher Warns
A Saint Louis University analysis of mosquito migration patterns and sexually transmitted diseases places the St. Louis region on a map of counties that could see an elevated risk for Zika infections this summer. The virus is spread by mosquitoes but can also be transmitted sexually for several months after symptoms occur. (Bouscaren, 3/27)
Kaiser Health News: New Vaccine Recommendation Cuts Number Of HPV Shots Children Need
You’d think that a vaccine that protects people against more than a half-dozen types of cancer would have people lining up to get it. But the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which can prevent roughly 90 percent of all cervical cancers as well as other cancers and sexually transmitted infections caused by the virus, has faced an uphill climb since its introduction more than a decade ago. Now, with a new dosing schedule that requires fewer shots and a more effective vaccine, clinicians and public health advocates hope they may move the needle on preventing these virus-related cancers. (Andrews, 3/28)
The Washington Post: How A Protein Called ‘NFL’ Could Help The NFL With Brain Injuries
Brain injuries are a danger in many sports, but for none more than football and its most profitable enterprise, the National Football League. The NFL is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a concussion-lawsuit settlement and has poured tens of millions into research on measuring and preventing head trauma. (Bieler, 3/27)
