Maine Reports Its First Avian Flu Case

AP: Avian Influenza Discovered For 1st Time In Maine
A highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected for the first time in Maine, federal officials said Sunday. State officials quarantined the property in Knox County and the backyard flock will be eliminated to prevent the spread of the disease, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The virus is often spread to domestic poultry by infected wild birds. U.S. surveillance efforts have identified the virus in wild birds in a number of states including New Hampshire, where it was detected this month in 20 wild ducks. (2/20)

AP: A Mild US Flu Season Is Waning, But Is It Really Over?
This winter’s mild flu season has faded to a trickle of cases in much of the U.S., but health officials aren’t ready to call it over. Since the beginning of the year, positive flu test results and doctor’s office visits for flu-like illness are down. But second waves of influenza are not unusual, and some experts said it’s possible a late winter or spring surge could be coming. “The question we’re asking ourselves now is: ‘Is this it, or is there more to come?’” said Lynnette Brammer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stobbe, 2/18)

CIDRAP: California Reports H1N2v Flu Case
California has reported a variant H1N2 (H1N2v) flu case in an adult who had direct contact with pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly FluView report. The patient wasn't hospitalized and has recovered. Some respiratory illnesses were reported in some of the patient's contacts, but the CDC said the events occurred during a period of high respiratory illness activity, and no specimens were collected for testing. No ongoing human-to-human transmission of H1N2v has been linked to the case. So far, three novel influenza A cases have been reported to the CDC this flu season. Earlier reports involved an H3N2v case in Ohio and an H1v (neuraminidase not determined) case in Oklahoma. (2/18)

In other news —

The New York Times: More Teenage Girls With Eating Disorders Wound Up In The E.R. During The Pandemic
During the pandemic, emergency rooms across the country reported an increase in visits from teenage girls dealing with eating and other disorders, including anxiety, depression and stress, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report provides new detail about the kinds of mental health issues affecting a generation of adolescents. Mental health experts hypothesize that the pandemic prompted some youth to feel isolated, lonely and out-of-control. Some coped by seeking to have control over their own behavior, said Emily Pluhar, a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School. (Richtel, 2/18)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Poison Centers in U.S., Ohio Sound Alarm on Chemical in Some COVID-19 At-Home Tests
Be aware: That COVID-19 test kit in your home could contain a toxic substance that may be harmful to your children and you. The substance is sodium azide, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Drug and Poison Information Center has seen a surge in calls about exposures to the chemical since more people started self-testing for COVID-19 at home. (Demio, 2/21)

Axios: Pedestrian Deaths Are Surging
Pedestrian deaths from cars soared to record levels during the pandemic, according to data from the Governor's Highway Safety Association. An uptick in dangerous driving behavior during the pandemic contributed to the dramatic increase in pedestrian deaths in 2020, despite less drivers being on the road. Crashes killed more than 6,700 pedestrians in 2020, up about 5% from the estimated 6,412 in 2019, according to the association. (Doherty, 2/21)

AP: ‘Irreversible’: No Easy Fix For Water Fouled By Gas Driller
One of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom has entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against Pennsylvania’s most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for affected homeowners than a conviction. But the option prosecutors recently discussed has put them at odds with some residents who reject individual water treatment systems as inadequate and unworkable. These residents want to be hooked up to public water — itself a controversial idea in their rural community, one that state environmental officials talked up more than a decade ago but ultimately abandoned. (Rubinkam, 2/18)

Obituaries —

CNN: Dr. Paul Farmer, Global Health Giant, Dies At 62 
Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician who championed global health and sought to bring modern medical science to those most in need around the world, died unexpectedly in his sleep in Rwanda on Monday, according to Partners in Health, the nonprofit organization he founded. He was 62. Farmer, who was also an infectious disease specialist and a medical anthropologist, is survived by his wife, Didi Bertrand Farmer, and three children. Partners in Health CEO Dr. Sheila Davis said in a statement, "Paul Farmer's loss is devastating, but his vision for the world will live on through Partners in Health. Paul taught all those around him the power of accompaniment, love for one another, and solidarity. Our deepest sympathies are with his wife and three children." (Goodman, 2/21)

The New York Times: Paul Farmer, Pioneer Of Global Health, Dies At 62
Dr. Farmer attracted public renown with “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World,” a 2003 book by Tracy Kidder that described the extraordinary efforts he would make to care for patients, sometimes walking hours to their homes to ensure they were taking their medication. He was a practitioner of “social medicine,” arguing there was no point in treating patients for diseases only to send them back into the desperate circumstances that contributed to them in the first place. Illness, he said, has social roots and must be addressed through social structures.(Barry and Traub, 2/21)