Lyme Disease Is On The Rise But There’s Still Not A Way To Test Unequivocally For The Presence Of It In The Blood
You can make a diagnosis of acute Lyme disease by seeing the characteristic rash, erythema migrans, which at its most classic looks like a target. But it doesn’t always look like that, and it can be hidden in the hair, and it doesn’t show up nearly as clearly on darker-skinned people. In other public health news: the term "concentration camps," gender bias, ACL tears, HIV prevention, gene-editing, and more.
The New York Times:
The Challenge Of Diagnosing Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is on the rise. The 30,000 cases reported annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by state health departments represent only a fraction of the cases diagnosed and treated around the country. About half the cases occur in people under the age of 21, and boys from 5 to 9 years old are the most commonly affected group, possibly because they spend a good deal of time outdoors. (Klass, 7/29)
Los Angeles Times:
What Is A Concentration Camp? It's An Old Debate That Mostly Started In California
What’s a concentration camp — and, more importantly, who owns the term? U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ignited a national debate last month when she compared the government-run facilities packed with migrant detainees near the U.S.-Mexico border to Nazi “concentration camps.” Many Republicans have pushed back in recent weeks, including Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to President Trump, who said that the comments outraged him “as a Jew.” (Watanabe, 7/26)
Los Angeles Times:
In Science, Questions Matter A Lot. Men Are More Likely Than Women To Ask Them
When Beryl Cummings asked her first-ever question in the auditorium at a genetics conference, she chose a topic she knew a lot about, formulated her question as meticulously as she could, and addressed her query to a female presenter. In science, questions matter a lot, said Cummings, who was then working on her doctorate in computational genomics at Harvard. But as a young female scientist speaking up in a public forum, she said, the stakes just felt a little higher. (Healy, 7/26)
The New York Times:
For A Torn A.C.L., Considering Repair Rather Than Replacement
My son Erik, then 23, was playing basketball when an opponent stepped on his foot and the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee ruptured with an audible pop. This critically important ligament, best known as the A.C.L., is a ropelike structure that connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone), stabilizing the knee joint. A torn A.C.L. is an all-too-common injury that typically results in complex surgery and prolonged rehabilitation. (Brody, 7/29)
Kaiser Health News:
New Protocol For HIV Prevention Drug Reduces The Number Of Pills Required
Health officials and AIDS advocates in San Francisco hope to expand the use of an effective HIV prevention drug with a new approach that requires fewer pills than the standard once-a-day regimen. San Francisco’s public health department and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation have long promoted what is known as preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for those at high risk of contracting HIV. With regular PrEP, the daily pill is taken indefinitely. But both organizations now endorse a strategy that requires taking just four pills timed to a specific sexual encounter — two within two to 24 hours before sex and one on each of the two following days. (Tuller, 7/29)
NPR:
CRISPR Gene-Editing: Sickle Cell Patient Volunteers For Landmark Study
Victoria Gray is waiting patiently in a hospital room at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville. "It's a good time to get healed," she says. The 34-year-old from Forest, Miss., has struggled with sickle cell disease throughout her life. Gray is at the hospital because she volunteered for one of the most anticipated medical experiments in decades: the first attempt to use the gene-editing technique CRISPR to treat a genetic disorder in the U.S. (Stein, 7/29)
The Washington Post:
PMS Food Cravings Are Real. Here Are The Theories About How They Happen.
Premenstrual food cravings are the punchline of endless jokes. Like most good jokes, they’re funny because they’re true. Certain parts of a woman’s menstrual cycle do seem to go hand in hand with the desire for chocolate ice cream and potato chips. I hear about this every day from my OB/GYN patients. Researchers have studied food cravings for years; one of the most cited studies dates back to 1953. Scientists — and lots of others — want to know who has food cravings and why, what they crave, when they crave it and how to minimize the cravings. (Twogood, 7/28)
Kaiser Health News:
Creator Of Brain Exam That Trump Aced Demands New Training For Testers
Last year, Dr. Ronny Jackson, then the White House physician, gave Donald Trump a standard test to detect early signs of dementia — and said the president had scored a perfect 30. “There is no indication whatsoever that he has any cognitive issues,” Jackson said at the time in front of TV cameras. Trump’s team embraced the result, with Donald Jr. boasting on Twitter: “More #winning.” The publicity sparked a wave of interest in the screening tool. Much was written about what the test showed — or didn’t — about the president’s mental acuity. A media outlet even posted its questions online, suggesting readers could measure whether they were “fit to be U.S. president.” (Aleccia, 7/29)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Newer Guidelines Call For Colonoscopies 5 Years Earlier, Many Insurances Cover Costs
[Dan] Adler’s story is an example of why the American Cancer Society now recommends that most people — those who are at average risk for colorectal cancer — start screenings at age 45. The new guidelines, announced in 2018, set an age that’s five years younger than the previous recommendation. The age was lowered in an attempt to reverse a trend that’s seen a rise colorectal cancer rates in men and women under 50, said Dr. James Church, colorectal surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. (Washington, 7/28)
The Washington Post:
Anne Hathaway Opens Up About Fertility Struggles
Anne Hathaway, who announced this week she was expecting her second child, says she came forward about her struggles with getting pregnant because infertility can be deeply isolating. “I think that we have a very one-size-fits-all approach to getting pregnant,” Hathaway told The Associated Press on Saturday. “And you get pregnant and for the majority of cases, this is a really happy time. But a lot of people who are trying to get pregnant: That’s not really the story. Or that’s one part of the story. And the steps that lead up to that part of the story are really painful and very isolating and full of self-doubt. And I went through that.” (Lennox, 7/28)
The CT Mirror:
E-Reading, Screen Time For Young Children Draw Scrutiny
Recent research supports the reluctance of educational experts and parents to place electronic readers within reach of very young children. The most recent study to scrutinize the emerging trend of e-readers for young audiences was published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) journal Pediatrics. The study, which analyzed interactions of 37 parent–toddler pairs while reading together electronic versus print books, found that parents and toddlers verbalized and collaborated less when parents read stories from e-readers than from the pages of a book. (Heubeck, 7/28)
Kaiser Health News:
Doctor Alexa Will See You Now: Is Amazon Primed To Come To Your Rescue?
Now that it’s upending the way you play music, cook, shop, hear the news and check the weather, the friendly voice emanating from your Amazon Alexa-enabled smart speaker is poised to wriggle its way into all things health care. Amazon has big ambitions for its devices. It thinks Alexa, the virtual assistant inside them, could help doctors diagnose mental illness, autism, concussions and Parkinson’s disease. It even hopes Alexa will detect when you’re having a heart attack. At present, Alexa can perform a handful of health care-related tasks: “She” can track blood glucose levels, describe symptoms, access post-surgical care instructions, monitor home prescription deliveries and make same-day appointments at the nearest urgent care center. (Rae-Dupree, 7/29)
The Washington Post:
'Maybe You're Just Someone With Blood In Their Urine': A Mysterious Condition Finally Gets A Frightening Cause
Kathy Hipsher was having a horrible year. She spent months battling a vicious stomach virus, followed by lingering nausea and pain that left her subsisting on a bland diet consisting largely of Cream of Wheat and applesauce. Her gut problems were accompanied by days of fatigue so extreme that at times she could barely drag herself up the stairs of her Bellevue, Idaho, home. In October 2016, just as Hipsher was recovering, the 45-year-old sign-language interpreter and Grand Canyon river guide suddenly confronted a new and alarming symptom: visible blood in her urine. (Boodman, 7/27)
