Metro Atlanta Seeing Off-Season Surge Of Respiratory Syncytial Virus In Kids
Usually RSV cases tick upward in winter months, but this year there is a growing number of cases in Atlanta ahead of summer. Separately a South Georgia detention center has failed to track consent for women suffering unwanted medical procedures. Other state news comes from Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma and California.
11 Alive:
RSV Child Respiratory Illness Spreading In Metro Atlanta
Doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta are spreading the word: RSV is circulating in Atlanta. Respiratory syncytial virus typically affects babies and toddlers in their first one to two years of life, and while cases typically pop up over the winter months, experts are seeing a different trend this year. "We've gotten this significant uptick in RSV here," Dr. Matt Linam, infectious disease physician at Children's and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, explained. "We're seeing it here at Children's, as well as they're seeing in children's hospitals across the country." (Lucas, 6/4)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
At Georgia Immigration Jail, Warnings About Women’s Medical Care Went Unheeded
Federal immigration officials failed to monitor medical treatment at a South Georgia detention center where dozens of women say they underwent unwanted procedures, including hysterectomies, newly released documents show. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not track whether women held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla consented to the procedures, the documents show. Nor did the agency ensure that an outside gynecologist — now accused of sterilizing women against their will — used a government-funded translation service to explain procedures in the women’s native languages. (Judd, 6/5)
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Expanded HIV Testing Comes To Southern Nevada
When Dr. Jerry Cade started treating AIDS patients in Las Vegas more than 35 years ago, diagnosis was viewed as a death sentence. Today there are drugs that can reduce HIV in infected individuals to undetectable levels, so the virus can no longer spread. There also are medications to prevent infection in people at higher risk. “We have the tools today to eliminate HIV if we have the political will,” Cade, the longtime medical director of the UMC Wellness Center, said on Friday, the 40th anniversary of when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first five cases of what became known as AIDS. (Hynes, 6/4)
Charleston Gazette-Mail:
Raleigh County Community Says Coal Dust From Nearby Mine Is Taking Its Breath Away
Eunice should have been Becky Rectenwald’s place to settle. The dust settled there instead. Rectenwald, 58, moved to the former Raleigh County mining town from Marmet nearly four years ago for cleaner air and a larger yard for her dogs as she kept taking care of her mother. Eight months ago, at 15% lung capacity with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and bronchitis, Rectenwald left her 79-year-old mother in Eunice in the care of her 18-year-old granddaughter. The filters on Rectenwald’s oxygen machine and ventilator had turned black. She had to go. “The way we’ve gotta live, it’s sad,” Rectenwald says. “I can’t be with my family because of it.” (Tony, 6/5)
Houston Chronicle:
Texas' Restrictive New Abortion Law Faces Uncertain Path
Last month, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, a prohibition on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. While Texas isn’t the first state to enact a six-week limit, it is the first to allow private citizens to enforce it by suing doctors and anyone else who helps provide abortions after six weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat is first detected. That makes the law difficult to preempt in federal court. Advocates on both sides say the statute still faces an uncertain path, even if allowed to take effect as scheduled on Sept.1. (Blackman, 6/4)
Oklahoman:
Oklahoma Family Feels Pain Of Counterfeit Prescription Pills That Kill
In a police report, she left a north Oklahoma City bar with an acquaintance around 9 p.m. on Aug. 6 and drove to a drug dealer’s apartment to buy oxycodone. In a state Medical Examiner’s report, she died from a fatal mix of drugs that included fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 100 times stronger than morphine, that international criminal cartels press into counterfeit prescription pills and smuggle into the United States by the millions each year. (Dulaney, 6/6)
Oklahoman:
OKC Creating New Homeless Plan, Strategies Coordinator Position
Oklahoma City is working to complete a new homelessness plan and will begin interviewing candidates for a new homeless services position. The plan is being prepared for public review and comment with the aim of releasing it by the end of June. The homelessness strategies coordinator position was approved by the city council in its May 25 meeting. Interviews of candidates could begin as early as next week, Assistant City Manager Aubrey McDermid said. (Williams, 6/6)
In news from California —
Los Angeles Times:
Lyme Disease-Carrying Ticks Found Near California Beaches
Millions of people enjoy hanging out at California beaches in the warmer months. So do ticks carrying Lyme disease. That’s one finding from four years of field work in California’s San Francisco Bay Area and nearby wine country involving the collection of some 3,000 Western black-legged ticks. The abundance of the blood-sucking arachnids surprised some tick biologists and experts, in part because it is unclear what animals may be spreading them around. (Rust, 6/6)
AP:
San Francisco Played Key Role In AIDS Fight, Officials Say
San Francisco played a critical role in fighting AIDS in America and around the world, leaders and activists said Saturday at a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the first reported cases of the illness. Mayor London Breed and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at the private ceremony in the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles were the first major U.S. cities hit by AIDS. (6/6)
KHN:
With Restrictions Tightening Elsewhere, California Moves To Make Abortion Cheaper
Even as most states are trying to make it harder to get an abortion, California could make it free for more people. State lawmakers are debating a bill to eliminate out-of-pocket expenses like copays and payments toward deductibles for abortions and related services, such as counseling. The measure, approved by the Senate and headed to the Assembly, would apply to most private health plans regulated by the state. (Bluth, 6/7)
