Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Without Borders Worker Evacuated To Netherlands After Contracting Ebola
Bloomberg: Health Worker Contracts Ebola In Congo, Evacuated To Netherlands
A Doctors Without Borders worker contracted Ebola while helping fight the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest-ever outbreak of the disease and is being evacuated to the Netherlands for treatment. The staff member tested positive for Bundibugyo virus disease and is being evacuated under strict medical protocols in coordination with Congolese and Dutch health authorities, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, said in a statement Thursday. (Gale, 10/2)
On the spread of flu and covid —
San Francisco Chronicle: SF Reports First Flu Death Of Season
San Francisco health officials Thursday reported the city’s first flu-related death of the respiratory virus season. The person was an adult, but the health department did not disclose their age, vaccination status or whether they had underlying health conditions. (Ho, 10/1)
CIDRAP: Monoclonal Antibody For COVID Meets Safety Endpoints In Phase 3 Trial
US biopharmaceutical company Invivyd said this week that its investigational monoclonal antibody (mAB) for COVID-19 was found to be safe and tolerable in a phase 3 randomized clinical trial. (Dall, 10/1)
On infant and maternal health —
CNN: Unsafe Sleep Factors Found In Most Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths
Sudden unexpected infant death claimed the lives of about 3,400 babies in the United States in 2024. Despite decades of public health efforts to promote safer sleep, these deaths remain a major cause of mortality during infancy. A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly three-quarters of these deaths examined from 2020 through 2024 involved unsafe sleep factors. (Hetter, 10/1)
CIDRAP: Sepsis Rates Much Higher For Black Moms In Mississippi, Analysis Finds
Black moms in Mississippi are more than twice as likely to develop sepsis after giving birth than White mothers, according to an analysis published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Maternal sepsis, the third most common cause of maternal death globally, occurs when an overactive immune response to infection during pregnancy, or after childbirth or abortion, causes the body to attack its own organs and tissues. (Boden, 10/1)
MedPage Today: More New Moms Are Starting GLP-1 Drugs
Starting a GLP-1 receptor agonist after giving birth is becoming more common, an analysis of claims data showed. The percentage of women who initiated a GLP-1 medication within 6 months of delivery rose more than 20-fold, from 0.08% in early 2018 to 1.9% by early 2025, reported Sih-Ting Cai, PhD, of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues. (Robertson, 10/1)
In other health and wellness news —
CNN: Eating Sugar While Taking Antibiotics Might Harm Gut Bacteria
Sugary foods combined with antibiotic treatment can damage the gut microbiome in ways that could leave people vulnerable to dangerous infections, a new study shows. (Goodman, 10/1)
CNN: Can Aging Be Treated Like A Disease? Scientists Are Starting To Find Out
As research into longevity advances, scientists are finding new ways to test a once-speculative idea: that aging itself could become a target of medicine. Researchers are investigating whether, instead of doctors waiting for age-related diseases to appear, it could be possible to measure and influence the biological changes that happen as we age. (Glgova, 9/30)
Newsweek: Cheap, Common Drug Linked To Far Lower Dementia Risk—But Only For Some
Aspirin could be associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia among older adults with a particular set of genetics, a new study has found. Researchers at Monash University, Australia, found that low-dose aspirin was associated with a 70 percent lower risk of dementia among those with specific genetics that influence platelet count. (Laws, 10/1)
