Public Health Roundup: Losing Sleep Over Climate Change; Immunotherapy And Hope; And Youth Suicides

The New York Times: An Effect Of Climate Change You Could Really Lose Sleep Over
Global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases is having clear effects in the physical world: more heat waves, heavier rainstorms and higher sea levels, to cite a few. In recent years, though, social scientists have been wrestling with a murkier question: What will climate change mean for human welfare? (Gillis, 5/26)

The Washington Post: ‘This Is Not The End’: Using Immunotherapy And A Genetic Glitch To Give Cancer Patients Hope
The oncologist was blunt: Stefanie Joho’s colon cancer was raging out of control and there was nothing more she could do. Flanked by her parents and sister, the 23-year-old felt something wet on her shoulder. She looked up to see her father weeping. “I felt dead inside, utterly demoralized, ready to be done,” Joho remembers. (McGinley, 5/28)

Cincinnati Enquirer: As Rates Of Suicidal Youth Increase, Doctors Look At Influence Of School, Internet
An increasingly stressful environment and unfiltered access to information could be dramatically boosting the number of teens and children hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or actions. A recent study found that children’s hospital admissions of patients 5 to 17 years old for such thoughts or actions more than doubled from 2008-2015. The study looked at 32 hospitals using data from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS), which includes Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. (Korte, 5/27)

The New York Times: Scientists Link A Gene Mutation To Rheumatic Heart Disease
Whether a painful strep throat turns into a fatal case of heart disease depends not just on prompt antibiotic treatment but also on the patient’s genetic makeup, according to a new study led by Oxford University scientists. The discovery could help the long fight to find a vaccine against Group A streptococcus bacteria, which cause strep throat, scarlet fever and rheumatic heart disease. (McNeil, 5/29)

The Baltimore Sun: Study Explores Way To Stave Off Heart Attacks In HIV Patients 
People infected with HIV can now live long, healthy lives — so long as they don't have a heart attack. Cardiovascular problems among HIV patients are emerging as the latest threat they face and a major challenge for medical experts, whose success using antiretroviral drugs to prolong patients' lives has given rise to new risks...To test the idea, the National Institutes of Health has lined up about 100 hospitals, academic centers and health facilities around the globe — including the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore — to take part in a long-term study that will provide a drug known as pitavastatin to HIV patients without signs of cardiovascular disease to see if it prevents heart problems. (Cohn, 5/28)

The New York Times: Gay And Transgender Patients To Doctors: We’ll Tell. Just Ask.
Do doctors need to know their patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity? A growing number of federal agencies has been pushing health care providers to ask. Federally funded community health centers, which treat millions of patients, have begun to collect the data. Electronic health software must be able to store it. And blueprints for national health goals recommend collecting the information from all patients. (Hoffman, 5/29)

NPR: Adult ADHD Cannot Be Diagnosed With A Simple Screening Test, Doctors Warn
Diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be difficult. The symptoms of the disorder, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM, have changed multiple times. Even if you know what to look for, many of the symptoms are pretty general, including things like trouble focusing and a tendency to interrupt people. Discerning the difference between people who have a problem and those who are just distracted requires real expertise. (Hersher, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Learning To Read And Write Alters Brain Wiring Within Months, Even For Adults
Let’s hear it for the written word. Learning to read can have profound effects on the wiring of the adult brain, even in regions that aren’t usually associated with reading and writing. That’s what researchers found when they taught a group of illiterate adults in rural India to read and write. Michael Skeide and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, wanted to study how culture changes the brain, so they focused on reading and writing. These cultural inventions have appeared only recently in our evolutionary history, so we haven’t had a chance to evolve specific genes for such skills. (Ananthaswamy, 5/28)

NPR: Speedier Information Transmission In Young Brains Boosts Self-Control
Impulsive children become thoughtful adults only after years of improvements to the brain's information highways, a team reports in Current Biology. A study of nearly 900 young people ages 8 to 22 found that the ability to control impulses, stay on task and make good decisions increased steadily over that span as the brain remodeled its information pathways to become more efficient. (Hamilton, 5/26)

The New York Times: Car Accidents Remain A Top Child Killer, And Belts A Reliable Savior
The most common cause of death in children under the age of 15 is unintentional injury, and the most common cause of unintentional injury is car accidents. Between 2010 and 2014, 2,885 children died in motor vehicle accidents nationwide — an average of 11 children a week. That number excludes pedestrians, those who died in motorcycle or bicycle accidents, and those who died riding in an unenclosed cargo area or trailer. (Bakalar, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Bullies Use A Small But Powerful Weapon To Torment Allergic Kids: Peanuts
They thought it would be funny: During lunch, the boys threw peanuts at a fellow student with severe food allergies. The Los Angeles area fifth-grader was so sensitive to nuts that exposure might send him to the emergency room. He said: “No, stop. That could kill me.” When he turned away to talk to a friend, one of the boys stashed peanuts in the container that held his lunch. Seeing the nasty trick, the allergic boy’s friends quickly grabbed the container and threw it away, possibly saving their friend from a terrible incident. (Levingston, 5/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Best, Safest Sunscreen: Study Finds 73 Percent Of Products Don't Work
For their 11th annual sunscreen guide, researchers at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group evaluated the UV-ray protections, toxic ingredients and other health hazards in approximately 900 sunscreens, 500 SPF-labeled moisturizers and more than 100 lip products. The group found 73 percent of the 880 tested sunscreens either contained “worrisome” ingredients or didn’t work as well as advertised. Two toxic ingredients, oxybenzone (a hormone disruptor) and retinyl palmitate (a form of Vitamin D with the potential to increase skin cancer risk), were among the chemicals found. (Pirani, 5/26)

Kansas City Star: First Adult Cured Of Sickle Cell Disease At Kansas Hospital
Though pioneered three decades ago as the first sickle cell cure, bone marrow stem cell transplants remain underused — especially for adult patients — because of the risks involved, a lack of public awareness and a shortage of bone marrow donors for African-Americans. Nationwide, fewer than 120 such transplants took place last year. Children’s Mercy Hospital, which currently has about 300 sickle cell patients, has done four or five transplants over a 14-year period. (McGuire, 5/29)

WBUR: Dealing With Dyslexia, Starting With One Family's Battle For A Diagnosis 
Most schools in the state of Massachusetts don't screen for dyslexia, even though experts say diagnosing the learning disability early is the key to successful interventions. Instead, many districts wait until a child shows obvious signs of trouble reading or writing. Some advocates say, by then, it's too late. (Mosley, 5/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Meatless, Tasty And Genetically Modified: A Healthy Debate 
To those steeped in the natural-food movement, the acronym GMO — for genetically modified organisms — has traditionally been almost as taboo as a plate of braised veal. However, that view could be changing as a new generation of Bay Area entrepreneurs upends the alternative meat and dairy industry, using biotechnology to create vegetarian foods that taste more like meat and promise ecological advantages to boot. (Duggan, 5/29)

Kaiser Health News: A New Zika Threat Hovers As Summer’s Mosquitoes Get Bzzzzy
Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that triggered public health alarm bells last summer, has receded from the spotlight. But, experts say, expect the virus to pose a renewed threat this year. How great of a threat? That’s where it gets tricky. (Luthra and Rodriguez, 5/30)

Health News Florida: 'Mosquito Fish' Giveaway Aims To Help Prevent Zika 
Mosquito fish are 2.5-inch long native, freshwater fish that love munching on mosquito hatchlings. On Saturday, March 27, Mosquito Control officials are giving out gambusia affinis to Hillsborough County residents for free. The giveaway, the second one so far this year, is an effort to fight mosquito-borne illnesses. (Miller, 5/26)