FDA Seeks Tool To Trace Sources Of Food Illness Outbreaks
Separately, a study shows superbugs are less likely to be found in organic meat. Warnings against eating cicadas if you have seafood allergy, athlete mental health, and suicides among young people suffering schizophrenia are also in the news.
CIDRAP:
FDA Launches Challenge To Develop Traceability Tool For Food Outbreaks
In an effort to improve traceability tools used to identify sources in foodborne illness outbreaks, the FDA announced a new challenge to create low- or no-cost ways to alert people to outbreaks. ... The challenge asks food technology solution providers, public health advocates, entrepreneurs, and innovators to create digital information tools that will quickly alert users to the source of food contamination. ... The FDA will accept submissions from Jun 1 through Jul 30, and will announce as many as 12 winners as selected by judges from the federal government. The winners will present their ideas during a webinar in September. (6/2)
Axios:
Harmful Superbugs Less Likely In Organic Meats, Study Finds
Organic meats are less likely to contain harmful bacteria, including multi-drug resistant organisms, according to a recent study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, highlights the risks of overuse of antibiotics in the U.S. food supply — which come not only in the form of foodborne illness, but the potential development of untreatable infections. (Reed, 6/2)
The Washington Post:
Don’t Eat Cicadas If You’re Allergic To Seafood, The FDA Warns
Weeks after the arrival of Brood X, the buzzy swarm of cicadas that emerge from the ground every 17 years to cover trees and sidewalks across a swath of the country, federal health officials have a new warning: People with seafood allergies shouldn’t eat the insects. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued the advice to would-be bug-munchers via Twitter, noting that the cicadas “share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters.” (Heil, 6/2)
In other public health news —
NBC News:
'A Lot Of Trauma': Trans Parents Say Medical System Isn't Set Up For Their Pregnancies
When Kayden Coleman was pregnant with his now 10-month-old daughter, no one held the door for him, fussed over his growing belly or made him feel special in the way that pregnant women are sometimes treated. In a way, he feels as though he missed out on "the perks" of pregnancy, he said. In another, he's relieved no one knew the truth. As a transgender man, he felt safer that way. (Murray, 6/2)
CBS News:
NFL Vows To Stop Use Of "Race-Norming" In Reviewing Brain Injury Claims
The NFL on Wednesday pledged to halt the use of "race-norming" — which assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive function — in the $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims and review past scores for any potential race bias. (6/2)
Today:
'You're Not Alone': Athletes Speak Out About Mental Health In The NFL
As more and more celebrities and public figures open up about their mental health, some athletes say it still feels difficult to speak candidly about their struggles. TODAY's Carson Daly sat down with four NFL players who are looking to break the stigma around mental health in sports on the newest episode of "Mind Matters TODAY." "I still think the stigma's pretty strong," said Solomon Thomas of the Las Vegas Raiders, who said he began to seek help after the death of his sister. "That's the one reason I didn't come out and start speaking right away about my depression, about my journey, and about my sister's journey, as well. I was afraid of, like, what fans would think, if teammates would think I'm soft." (Breen, 6/2)
Fox News:
Young Adults With Schizophrenia Face Highest Suicide Risk, Study Says
Suicide prevention efforts for those with schizophrenia should focus on young adults, researchers say, after a large study revealed heightened suicide risks in the 18-34 age group. Findings from Columbia University and Rutgers were published in JAMA Psychiatry last week, drawing from data on nearly 670,000 schizophrenic patients with Medicare coverage from 2007-2016, with data analysis conducted in 2020-2021. According to the Mayo Clinic, "schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally, [and] may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling." (Rivas, 6/2)
The Atlantic:
Maggot Therapy Can Heal Intractable Wounds
In its larval stage, Lucilia sericata looks unassuming enough. Beige and millimeters long, a bottle-fly grub may lack good looks, but it contains a sophisticated set of tools for eating dead and dying human flesh. The maggots ooze digestive enzymes and antimicrobials to dissolve decaying tissue and to kill off any unwanted bacteria or pathogens. Lacking teeth, they use rough patches on their exterior and shudder-inducing mandibles (called “mouth hooks”) to poke at and scratch off dead tissue before slurping it up. This flesh-eating repertoire is hard enough to stomach in the abstract. Now imagine hosting it on your skin. “Not everyone, psychologically, can deal with that sensation and knowing maggots are chewing on their flesh,” Robert Kirsner, the director of the University of Miami Hospital Wound Center, in Florida, told me. This is the barrier that advocates of maggot therapy face: the emotional gravity of pure human revulsion. (Renault, 6/2)
