Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Cluster Of Cases Tells Story Of A Black Lung Epidemic That Is Emerging In Appalachia
The New York Times: Black Lung Disease Comes Storming Back In Coal Country
Federal investigators this month identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung cases ever officially recorded. More than 400 coal miners frequenting three clinics in southwestern Virginia between 2013 and 2017 were found to have complicated black lung disease, an extreme form characterized by dense masses of scar tissue in the lungs. (Popovich, 2/22)
The Washington Post: Decades’ Worth Of Rape Kits Are Finally Being Tested. No One Can Agree On What To Do Next.
He wanted me to see the boxes. They were piled six or seven high, and there were so many stacks on the shelves it was hard to take them in all at once. The other aisles of the Virginia Beach Police Department’s evidence storage unit were filled with guns and knives, hard drives and cash piles — objects that had been used to do terrible things to people. But these boxes — rape kits — contained what was left on a person’s body when something terrible had already been done. “I wanted you to see that each one is a victim,” said Lt. Patrick Harris, who had brought me here. “Each one has a name and a story behind it.” (Contrera, 2/20)
CQ: CDC Calls For Coordination In Treating Kids With Brain Injuries
Health care providers who treat children who experience traumatic brain injuries would benefit from more training and better coordination across the health care delivery system, a report to Congress from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday says. Traumatic brain injuries in children is a “significant public health burden” in the U.S., according to the report. Its effects can be “chronic and disabling,” but there is little information on its scope, it says. (McIntire, 2/21)
NPR: Experimental Treatment For Sepsis May Have Saved This Lumberjack
This story of a man who nearly died in the hospital actually started in the woods of Washington's Cascade Mountains last summer. "I was cutting for a logging outfit up on these rock cliffs and I felled a 150-foot fir tree into [some] maple trees," says Kristopher Kelly, a 51-year-old lumberjack. The maples "had a bunch of dead tops — they call 'em widow makers," Kelly says. "You don't want to get under them because they'll make you a widow." And when the top of the fir tree crashed into those maples, he says, the butt of the tree he had just felled bounced back toward him. (Harris, 2/21)
The New York Times: Working Nights May Raise Diabetes Risk
Night-shift work is linked to an increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, a new study has found. British researchers used a large health database to compare diabetes prevalence in 47,286 night-shift workers with that of 224,928 day workers. (Bakalar, 2/21)
Boston Globe: Moving A New Arm The Old-Fashioned Way
Other amputees have been fitted with brain-controlled hands, but [Ron] Currier is the first to connect these signals with the LUKE Arm, a new prosthesis developed through a public-private partnership involving Albuquerque; Dean Kamen, the New Hampshire engineer who invented the Segway scooter; and the US departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. (MacQuarrie, 2/22)
