Longer Looks: Cold Medicine; Next Year’s Health Challenges; Prenatal Testing

The Atlantic: The Cold-Medicine Racket
One in four people, when buying an over-the-counter medicine to treat a headache, will go for a brand name product. Unless that person is a pharmacist. In that case, according to research from the National Bureau of Economic Research, they'll almost certainly buy a generic version. The pharmacists know, and trust, that the drugs are identical. (James Hamblin, 12/19)

Boulder Weekly: Deported To Death
Enrique’s story in the U.S. began like many immigrant stories: illegal border crossings and a dream of a better life. Today, his story is uncertain. It’s unclear if Enrique is still alive. What is known is how his time in the United States came to an end. He was deported more or less, but not by our government and not after he had exhausted the usual legal remedies of appeal or his right to request asylum. Enrique was sent back to his home country by a corporation by way of a process known as medical repatriation, or medical “deportation.” He was not sent back because he could get better care in Guatemala. He was sent back so the corporation could save money by not continuing to treat his serious condition. As the population of undocumented persons living in the U.S. has grown, so has this dangerous practice of corporate “deportation” by hospitals. It is an unsavory practice hidden in the shadows that has only come to light in recent years. (Cassie Moore, 12/18)

Vox: 5 Health Challenges The World Will Face In 2015
What comes next for the future of the world's health? Unfortunately we don’t have an evidence-based crystal ball. But these are the issues reason would suggest will set the world's health agenda next year. (Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman, 12/23)

The Wall Street Journal: What I Learned From A Dying Patient
I had a patient recently whose death was particularly harrowing. Thirty-nine years old. Ph.D. scientist. Brilliant. She was sent to the ICU team as a “fascinoma,” meaning a person with a constellation of problems the doctors couldn’t figure out. This woman had been physically fine until two months earlier, and now she was growing progressively shorter of breath, had a little blood in her urine and had pain in her toes, which were turning blue and red in the cold. (E. Wesley Ely, 12/19)

The Atlantic: The Unexpected Home Of Unintended Pregnancy
Delaware has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the nation by some measures .... By the time girls arrive at [Delaware Adolescent Program Inc., a network of three schools for pregnant teenagers and those who have recently given birth], their lives are too complicated for the standard health-class self-esteem pep talks. For them, it’s time to get down to brass tacks—like how to stretch a skimpy food budget as a single mom. ... Even the most dedicated teen mother might say she wishes she’d delayed her pregnancy by a few years. Reducing unplanned pregnancy is something Republicans and Democrats can agree upon. On the plus side for conservatives, there’s no need for a woman to consider having an abortion if the unwanted pregnancy never happens in the first place. And unintended pregnancies cost Delawareans alone $52 million a year, since many such births are covered by Medicaid. (Olga Khazan, 12/22)

Mother Jones: Is Male Birth Control Around The Corner?
For nearly a century, we've had reason to believe that "the pill" for men might be possible: In the 1920's, scientists discovered how to control sperm production in rats by manipulating their pituitary glands, and in the 1990's the World Health Organization published evidence that hormonal interventions to regulate fertility in men could be effective and reversible. But two decades later, researchers say they still don't have enough funding to produce a male version of the pill, even as drug companies continue to pump money into the already mature market for female contraceptives (and a private foundation set aside $75 million in 2008 to find a non-surgical way to sterilize cats and dogs.) (Samantha Michaels, 12/23)

FiveThirtyEight: New Prenatal Tests Aren't Perfect — But They're Close
For a large share of pregnant women, testing for Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities is a standard part of prenatal care. This testing has gotten quite a bit of negative press in the last few days. In particular, news reports have questioned the value and accuracy of new technologies that claim to detect problems at a high rate with a simple blood test. (Emily Oster, 12/22)

The Wall Street Journal: The Making Of A Flu Vaccine
The WHO has spent more than six decades monitoring flu. Flu virus, which primarily infects the upper respiratory tract, is responsible for up to an estimated 500,000 deaths globally each year, the WHO says, including up to 50,000 people in the U.S., according to the CDC. While vaccines for measles or polio are nearly 100% effective, immunizations against flu work moderately at best, topping out around 60% in the general population. Some years, like this one, they do far worse, experts say. (Shirley S. Wang, 12/22)