Donations After Cardiac Death Are Starting To Show Promise For Thousands Of People Who Desperately Need Heart Transplants
Strict rules outline how and when organs can be transplanted but if this new trial method proves to be successful and safe, researchers say it could revolutionize transplantations. Other public health news is on inactive adults, millennials' thoughts on vaccines, blood pressure, body temperature, binge drinking, surgical gown recalls, health research on mice, sepsis deaths, breakthrough on sudden death of Amish children, and more.
Stat:
New Heart Transplant Method Being Tested For The First Time In The U.S.
More than 250,000 people in the U.S. are currently at the end stages of heart failure, up to 15% of whom are in desperate need of a transplant. A new method of “reanimating” donor hearts from those who have died from cardiac failure is currently being tested in the U.S., and may soon ease that burden. As part of the new procedure, known as “donation after cardiac death,” or DCD, transplants, organs are retrieved from those who have died because their heart stopped — either naturally or because physicians discontinued life support. (Chakradhar, 1/16)
Stat:
15% Of U.S. Adults Are Physically Inactive, New CDC Data Show
More than 1 in 7 adults across all U.S. states and territories are physically inactive, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. The findings were compiled from 2015-2018 data collected as part of the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is a telephone-based survey of people’s health activities, chronic conditions, and use of preventive health services. (Chakradhar, 1/16)
The Hill:
61 Percent Of Millennials Familiar With Anti-Vaccination Movement Agree With Some Beliefs: Survey
Sixty-one percent of millennials familiar with the anti-vaccination movement said they agreed with at least some of its beliefs, according to NBC News, citing a survey released Thursday by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The survey, which polled 1,000 adults, also found that 55 percent of respondents in their 20s and 30s did not receive the flu vaccine this year, although the majority cited lack of time or forgetting as the reason rather than opposition to vaccination. (Budryk, 1/16)
The New York Times:
Blood Pressure Patterns Are Different For Women
Blood pressure begins to increase at younger ages in women than in men, and it goes up at a faster rate, a new study reports. On average, women who develop heart disease are about 10 years older than men who develop it. But this report, published in JAMA cardiology, suggests that high blood pressure, one of the most important controllable risk factors for cardiovascular disease, begins at a younger age in women than men, and rises faster. (Bakalar, 1/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
98.6 Degrees Fahrenheit Isn’t The Average Any More
Nearly 150 years ago, a German physician analyzed a million temperatures from 25,000 patients and concluded that normal human-body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That standard has been published in numerous medical texts and helped generations of parents judge the gravity of a child’s illness. (McGinty, 1/17)
CNN:
Binge Drinking: US Adults Are Drinking Even More, Study Says
Adults in the United States who binge drink are consuming even more alcohol per binging episode, according to a new study published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System over a six-year period and discovered that the annual number of binge drinks among adults who reported excessive drinking jumped on average from 472 in 2011 to 529 in 2017. That's a 12% increase. (Erdman, 1/16)
Modern Healthcare:
Contaminated Surgical Gowns To Be Recalled By Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health told its customers to stop using contaminated surgical gowns as the wholesale distribution giant orchestrates a recall with the Food and Drug Administration, according to a letter Cardinal sent to its customers Wednesday that Modern Healthcare exclusively obtained. Certain lots of AAMI Level 3 surgical gowns, which include widely distributed non-sterile and single-sterile gowns, were contaminated due to "environmental conditions" at a contract manufacturer's facility, Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal wrote. Some of the packs that contained the gowns were also contaminated. The company said it will initiate a product recall. The first notice was sent Jan. 11, when Cardinal said it stopped distributing the gowns. (Kacik, 1/16)
NPR:
Mighty Mice In Space May Help Disabled People On Earth
In early December at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, two anxious scientists were about to send 20 years of research into orbit. "I feel like our heart and soul is going up in that thing," Dr. Emily Germain-Lee told her husband, Dr. Se-Jin Lee, as they waited arm-in-arm for a SpaceX rocket to launch.A few seconds later the spacecraft took off, transporting some very unusual mice to the International Space Station, where they would spend more than a month in near zero gravity. (Hamilton, 1/16)
NPR:
Sepsis Deaths May Be Twice Previous Estimates
A medical condition that often escapes public notice may be involved in 20% of deaths worldwide, according to a new study. The disease is sepsis — sometimes called blood poisoning. It arises when the body overreacts to an infection. Blood vessels throughout the body become leaky, triggering multiple-organ failure. (Harris, 1/16)
CNN:
No One Knew Why The Kids In 2 Amish Families Were Dying Suddenly. Now Researchers Have Some Answers
About 15 years ago, an Amish family in the eastern US was hit by an unexplainable tragedy -- one of their children died suddenly while playing and running around. Just a few months later, the same fate befell another one of their children. Six years later, they lost another child. Two years after that, another one. The autopsies didn't offer any clues. The children's hearts appeared normal. The family had what they referred to as "the curse of sudden death." And medical examiners couldn't figure out why. (Kaur, 1/16)
The New York Times:
This Strange Microbe May Mark One Of Life’s Great Leaps
A bizarre tentacled microbe discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean may help explain the origins of complex life on this planet and solve one of the deepest mysteries in biology, scientists reported on Wednesday. Two billion years ago, simple cells gave rise to far more complex cells. Biologists have struggled for decades to learn how it happened. (Zimmer, 1/16)
