Failure To Find Source Of E. Coli Outbreak Highlights Vulnerabilities In Food Safety Regulation

The New York Times: Romaine Riddle: Why The E. Coli Outbreak Eludes Food Investigators
Scientists searching for a toxic strain of E. coli that has raced across 25 states, sickening 121 people and killing one, have been able to identify the general source as the Yuma, Ariz., growing region. But as the outbreak enters its second month, they still cannot find the contamination itself — it could be lurking in the area’s fields, water sources, harvesting equipment, processing plants or distribution centers. Federal officials predict that the outbreak, linked to romaine lettuce, will continue for several weeks. (Hoffman, 5/7)

USA Today: Calls To Hotline About Guns, Deportation And Domestic Violence Way Up
Calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline involving firearms were up more than 75% in 2017, according to an analysis out Monday by the hotline. The surge, which followed a year that had a 50% increase in gun-related domestic violence reports, is attributed to increased publicity surrounding mass shootings. Nearly 12,000 of the hotline's calls in 2017 were related to guns, up from about 6,800 such contacts in 2016.  (O'Donnell, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer’s Cure Is Being Pursued With The Help Of An Online Game
Want to cure Alzheimer’s? Get in line. Researchers have long been puzzled by the disease and vexed by how long it’s taking to unravel its mysteries. One group of scientists is helping speed up that process with assistance from the public. “Stall Catchers,” a game created by Cornell University’s Human Computation Institute, turns the hunt for a cure from frustrating to fun. In the game, players watch short movies — made using a multiphoton microscope — that show blood flowing through the brains of living mice. Players work on a data set of thousands of images to point out “stalls” — areas of reduced blood flow caused by white blood cells accumulating on the sides of the vessels. (Blakemore, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Which Anti-Depressant Is Right For You? Your DNA Can Shed Some Light
Paxil or Prozac, Zoloft or Lexapro? When treating a patient suffering from depression, Brent Forester considers which anti-depressant to prescribe—ideally, one that will ease psychic pain without side effects. It can be a tough call. (Lagnado, 5/6)

The New York Times: A Simple Way To Improve A Billion Lives: Eyeglasses
Shivam Kumar’s failing eyesight was manageable at first. To better see the chalkboard, the 12-year-old moved to the front of the classroom, but in time, the indignities piled up. Increasingly blurry vision forced him to give up flying kites and then cricket, after he was repeatedly whacked by balls he could no longer see. The constant squinting gave him headaches, and he came to dread walking home from school. “Sometimes I don’t see a motorbike until it’s almost in my face,” he said. (Jacobs, 5/5)

NPR: Prevent Lyme Disease With These Steps
Lyme disease was once unheard of in western Pennsylvania, where Barbara Thorne, now an entomologist at the University of Maryland, spent time as a kid. Thorne knew that if black-legged ticks are infected with bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, they can transmit Lyme to people and, that if untreated, symptoms can range from fever, fatigue and a rash, to serious damage to the joints, heart and nervous system. (Aubrey, 5/7)

Boston Globe: Meet Connor, A Boy At The Intersection Of Autism And Mental Illness
This is Connor, a puzzle his family and caregivers have worked long and hard to solve, a boy who lives at the intersection of autism and mental illness. It isn’t so much a rare place — as many as half of autistic children suffer from mental health problems — but it can be a deeply baffling one. (Kowalczyk, 5/4)

The New York Times: How A Low-Carb Diet Might Aid People With Type 1 Diabetes
Like many children, Andrew Hightower, 13, likes pizza, sandwiches and dessert. But Andrew has Type 1 diabetes, and six years ago, in order to control his blood sugar levels, his parents put him on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. His mother makes him recipes with diabetic-friendly ingredients that won’t spike his blood sugar, like pizza with a low-carb, almond-flour crust; homemade bread with walnut flour instead of white flour; and yogurt topped with blueberries, raspberries and nuts. (O'Connor, 5/7)

The Washington Post: When Someone Is Dying, Threshold Choir Provides The Comfort Of Song
It’s a quiet afternoon at the Halquist Memorial Inpatient Center, a hospice, as four women huddle close, talking quietly in a tight circle before walking through the doors to sing to men and women on the threshold of death. These women are part of the Threshold Choir, a group that brings the comfort of song to dying people. A thin woman, who is in the last weeks of life, is the choir’s first stop. She is sitting nearly upright in a hospital bed, her daughter beside her. Leslie Kostrich, the group’s leader for this day, asks the older woman if she would like to hear a few songs. She nods; the singers set up folding stools and pull up close to her bed. (Bruno, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Ovarian Tumor: 132-Pound Mass Removed From Woman's Abdomen
The tumor had ballooned to 132 pounds and stretched the patient's abdomen into a 3-foot-wide orb. By the time  oncologist Vaagn Andikyan examined the 38-year-old woman, she could no longer walk. And because the tumor was increasing the pressure on her digestive tract, she was malnourished and growing weaker everyday. It was the largest ovarian mucinous tumor Andikyan had ever encountered, benign only in the medical sense of the word. It didn't take the gynecologic oncologist long to recognize the growth for what it really was: A death sentence. (Wootson, 5/4)

The Washington Post: ‘I Saved Them Because I’m A Superhero!’: 4-Year-Old Donates Bone Marrow To His Baby Brothers
It was barely sunrise and Michael DeMasi Jr. was romping through the corridors at a children’s hospital in Philadelphia, balancing on a red line that was etched into the floor design and telling his mother to tie a balloon to him so he could “fly.” The 4-year-old boy fancied himself a real-life superhero, wearing a blue T-shirt with photographs of his 4-month-old twin brothers, who were born with a rare immunodeficiency disease. (Bever, 5/6)

The Washington Post: A Roach Crawled Into A Florida Woman’s Ear. It Took Nine Days To Get It All Out.
Katie Holley was jolted awake by a cold thing — what she had initially thought was a small piece of ice that somehow slid down her left ear. Disoriented, she rushed to the bathroom, grabbed a cotton swab and slowly stuck it inside her ear. And then Holley felt something move. It was like a “rhythmic” movement, she recalled, as if whatever that thing was was trying to burrow deeper into her ear canal. She pulled out the cotton swab and saw small, dark brown pieces that looked like legs. (Phillips, 5/5)