Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Do You Feel Like You're Seeing More Reports Of Flesh-Eating Bacteria? You Are, And Climate Change May Be To Blame
Tampa Bay Times: Why Is Flesh-Eating Bacteria On The Rise? Some Point To Climate Change.
If it seems like you're seeing more reports about flesh-eating bacteria, you actually are. The number of cases is up, though only slightly. And scientists have begun pointing to an increasingly familiar cause: climate change. The trend will likely continue because of steadily warming temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, which provide a "breeding ground" for the bacteria, said Dr. Sally Alrabaa, an an infectious disease specialist with USF Health and Tampa General Hospital. (Griffin, 7/25)
The New York Times: Man Dies Of ‘Brain-Eating’ Amoeba After Swimming In Lake
A man in North Carolina died on Monday after he went swimming in a lake and was infected by Naegleria fowleri, a single-celled organism known as the “brain-eating amoeba.” The man, Eddie Gray, 59, fell ill after he visited the Fantasy Lake Water Park in Cumberland County July 12, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Thursday. (Fortin, 7/25)
The Associated Press: First CRISPR Study Inside The Body To Start In US
Patients are about to be enrolled in the first study to test a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR inside the body to try to cure an inherited form of blindness. People with the disease have normal eyes but lack a gene that converts light into signals to the brain that enable sight. The experimental treatment aims to supply kids and adults with a healthy version of the gene they lack, using a tool that cuts or "edits" DNA in a specific spot. (7/25)
NPR: Why You Should Put Down Your Phone And Say Hello To A Stranger
A body of research has shown that we might just be short-changing our own happiness by ignoring opportunities to connect with the people around us. Several years ago, University of British Columbia psychologist Elizabeth Dunn and her colleague Gillian M. Sandstrom, tested whether short conversations with strangers could lift moods. They asked participants to enter a busy coffee shop and grab a beverage — half to get in and get out, and half to strike up a conversation with the cashier. (Nicolaus, 7/26)
The Associated Press: Girls Report More Harassment Amid Rise In US Cyberbullying
Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she got help, she decided to limit her time on social media. It helps to take a break from it for perspective, said Whalen, now a 19-year-old college student in Utah. There’s a rise in cyberbullying nationwide, with three times as many girls reporting being harassed online or by text message than boys, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (Ho, 7/26)
Los Angeles Times: Gender Gap In STEM Fields Could Be Due To Girls' Reading Skills, Not Math Ability
Why don’t more girls grow up to become scientists and engineers? It’s not that they’re bad at math, a new study argues. It’s that they’re even better at reading. This comparative advantage in reading is the primary reason why women are outnumbered by men in technical fields, according to a report published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study authors, economists Thomas Breda of the Paris School of Economics and Clotilde Napp of the French National Center for Scientific Research, came to this conclusion by analyzing survey data from 300,000 high school students in 64 countries around the world. (De Marco, 7/25)
NPR: Trouble Sleeping? Try A Warm Bath To Cool Down
Graduate student Shahab Haghayegh has long had trouble sleeping. But when the biomedical engineering student began his doctoral program at the University of Texas at Austin five years ago, his issues worsened. "I would go to bed at 3 or 4 a.m. and wake up at 8 a.m.," he says. The exhausted Haghayegh was getting an average of just 4 or 5 hours sleep a night. After years of near constant fatigue, he tried a bedtime home remedy: "I started using warm baths," he says. This seemed to help — actually, a lot. These days, Haghayegh says, he's able to fall asleep at midnight, getting three or four more hours of sleep per day. (Neilson, 7/25)
