State Highlights: Ind., Ohio Confront Overdoses From ‘Amped-Up’ Heroin; In N.Y., Few Homeless Shelter Workers Can Administer Narcan

USA Today: Amped-Up Heroin Blamed In 75+ Overdoses In 2 States
Authorities in Indiana and Ohio are on high alert after a supercharged form of heroin is suspected of causing 50 overdoses in the two states since Tuesday and more than 75 total since Friday. (Nelson, 8/24)

The New York Times: Few Homeless Shelter Workers Are Trained To Administer Heroin Antidote
Overdoses were the leading cause of death among homeless people in shelters during the last fiscal year, accounting for 30 percent of fatalities, according to an annual report by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Yet only a fraction of the 272 city shelters — about 18 percent — have staff members who have been trained by the Department of Homeless Services to administer the antidote, which is available as nasal spray or an injection. Slightly more than half of the 84 shelters for single adults, where overdoses occur more frequently, have trained the staff. (Jula, 8/24)

Kansas Health Institute: With Safety In Mind, Kansas Changes High School Football Practice Rules 
Players aren’t allowed to go all-out until the fifth practice. Once games start, full-contact practices are limited to an hour and a half, and contact isn’t allowed the day after games. The new rules — formed with help from the National Federation of State High School Associations Concussion Summit Task Force — are meant to reduce players’ head injuries and brain trauma that have parents increasingly asking whether football is right for their kids. (Marso, 8/25)

Richmond Times Dispatch: 4 Tropical Smoothie Cafe Customers Contracted Hepatitis A In Region; 23 In State
At least four people in the Richmond region and 23 across Virginia have contracted hepatitis A from strawberries served by Tropical Smoothie Cafe, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Frozen strawberries imported from Egypt, served to customers as recently as Aug. 9, are to blame in the nearly two dozen cases, health department officials said Wednesday. Though the strawberries were all pulled from the restaurants by Aug. 8 or Aug. 9, additional cases of hepatitis A might be confirmed in coming weeks because symptoms of the liver disease take as many as 50 days to appear, health department officials said. (Shulleeta, 8/24)

Health News Florida: Veterans' Nursing Homes Looking For Nurses
As Florida’s health care industry is growing, so too is the need for registered nurses and other medical personnel. The competition for qualified health care professionals is high which has one state agency banking on a nurse’s patriotism to attract new hires. “Florida Veterans – they served us - it’s an honor to now serve them.” That’s the opening line of a 30-second public service video produced by the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs. (O'Brien, 8/24)

St. Louis Public Radio: After 147 Years, Catholic Nuns Will Stop Running North St. Louis Nursing Home 
After nearly 150 years of ministering in St. Louis, the Little Sisters of the Poor will stop operating its residence for low-income elderly individuals in the city’s Old North neighborhood. The Catholic women religious order cites a lack of "sufficient vocations" to continue to staff their long-time St. Louis Residence facility at 3225 North Florissant Ave., which currently houses 88 people. It is run by eight Little Sisters and nearly 125 lay staff. (Lecci, 8/24)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Why Doctors Who Sexually Abuse Patients Get Therapy And Return To Practice
Increasingly, private therapists, rather than regulators or police investigators, try to unearth the extent of a doctor’s transgressions, the Journal-Constitution found as part of a broad investigation of sexual misconduct by physicians. The newspaper’s full report is at doctors.ajc.com. The Journal-Constitution reviewed public disciplinary orders for 2,400 physicians accused of sexual misconduct with patients since 1999. The AJC found that, with rare exceptions, all of the 1,200 who are still licensed were ordered to undergo treatment, training, or both. (Hart, 8/24)

ProPublica: A Spike In Rates Of Pregnancy-Related Deaths In Texas Spurs Soul-Searching 
Last week, researchers studying maternal mortality in the U.S. reported an ominous trend: The rate of pregnancy-related deaths in Texas seemed to have doubled since 2010, making the Lone Star State one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to have a baby. Reproductive health advocates were quick to blame the legislature for slashing funding in 2011–12 to family-planning clinics that serve low-income women, calling the numbers a “tragedy” and “a national embarrassment.” Now a 15-member state task force has issued its own maternal mortality report, offering a new view of what might be going on. (Martin, 8/24)

Kaiser Health News: Giving Birth In Georgia Is Too Often A Deadly Event
Georgia enjoys its image as the Empire State of the South, a leader among its Deep South neighbors, the first to have an Olympic city and the first to send a native son to the White House. But for all of its firsts, the state is worst — or at least among the very worst — in a key measure: its rate of maternal mortality. (Anderson, 8/25)

The Boston Globe: Calls For More Oversight Of Medical Examiners Office
Top child-advocacy and pediatricians’ groups are calling on the governor to introduce more oversight of individual state medical examiners, saying the current system of giving each of them exclusive power to issue — or revise — homicide rulings undermines confidence in their findings. ... These proposals come in the wake of a Boston Globe article on Sunday that explored three retracted shaken-baby homicide rulings within 18 months, an unprecedented set of revisions that occurred after three medical examiners received reports from — and in some cases were actively lobbied by — defense attorneys before trial. (Wen, 8/25)

Los Angeles Times: Illegal Drugs Are Flowing Into California's Most Guarded Prisons — And Killing Death Row Inmates
The condemned inmates on California's death row are among the most closely monitored in the state. Death row’s 747 inmates spend most of their time locked down, isolated from the rest of the prison system under heavy guard with regular strip searches and checks every half-hour for signs of life. Still, six death row inmates died between 2010 and 2015 with detectable levels of methamphetamines, heroin metabolites or other drugs in their system, according to Marin County coroner records. (St. John, 8/24)

Health News Florida: How A Florida Teen Beat The Brain-Eating Amoeba
So many things had to go right for Gonzalez to get that gift of life. On a Friday, he had a bad headache. The next day at the theme parks, his parents decided this way more than just a migraine and took him to the emergency room at Florida Hospital for Children. Doctors convinced the family to do spinal tap to rule out meningitis – even though he didn’t have a stiff neck, the telltale symptom. That’s when Sheila Black, the lab coordinator, looked at the sample and saw white blood cells. But then she took a second, longer look. (Aboraya, 8/24)

Los Angeles Times: Pasadena Doctor Who Falsely Claimed Patients Were Terminally Ill Is Sentenced To Four Years For Fraud
A Pasadena doctor convicted of falsely certifying that more than 79 patients were terminally ill as part of a scheme to bilk Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced by a federal judge to four years in prison. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero also ordered Boyao Huang, 43, to pay $1,344,204 in restitution last week. (Winton, 8/24)

Detroit Free Press: Water Chemistry Problems May Have Caused Flint Rashes
A months-long investigation that brought federal, state and local leaders to Flint to hunt for a cause of mysterious rashes and hair loss has not led to any definitive answers.Interviewers talked to 390 people with rashes and hair loss who had exposure to Flint municipal water after the switch back to Lake Huron...With the exception of lead, all metals and minerals the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in the water are common in most public water systems. None of the metals are likely to cause a rash or hair loss. (Shamus, 8/24)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: How Toxic Is Lead-Tainted Tap Water? 
For decades, St. Louis has battled a lead poisoning threat from paint in older homes. Now the discovery of lead in sinks and drinking fountains at some local schools raises questions about the safety of the tap water. Tap water from municipal sources is tested regularly and contains only trace amounts of lead. The toxic heavy metal can enter the water through corroding lead pipes and fixtures inside a building, especially if the water has not been turned on for several hours or days. (Bernhard, 8/25)