Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Explains Genes May Have Role In Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
USA Today: What Causes SIDS? Genetics Study Suggests It's More Than Unsafe Sleep
The cause of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, continues to be a medical mystery but a new study suggests genetics may play a role. Over the course of 39 years, researchers found siblings of infants who died of SIDS had a four-fold higher risk of dying suddenly compared to the general population, according to the report published in JAMA Network Open. (Rodriguez, 1/25)
In other health and wellness news —
NBC News: Autism Rates Have Tripled. Is It More Common Or Are We Better At Diagnosis?
Autism rates tripled among children in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area from 2000 to 2016, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics. The authors, a team from Rutgers University, calculated the trend by analyzing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates of the number of children who've been identified as having autism spectrum disorder by age 8. (Bendix, 1/26)
The Boston Globe: Dude, Where’s My Car? Brigham Researchers Find We’re Good At Recalling Approximate Location Of Objects
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital sought to capture the brain’s capacity to store such details, suggesting in a new study that people automatically encode vast amounts of data on not only where, but when, they saw something. “It’s showing a memory capacity that is larger than we would have guessed,” said Jeremy Wolfe, an experimental psychologist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital who coauthored the study. The findings will be published this week in Current Biology. (Bartlett, 1/25)
The Boston Globe: How Could A Mother Allegedly Kill Her Children? Experts Say Mental Health Can Distort Thinking
It seems beyond comprehension: A Duxbury woman has been charged with murdering two of her children, ages 3 and 5, and her third, a 7-month-old, has been hospitalized with traumatic injuries. Neighbors said they never noticed anything unusual about the home with weathered shingles and a swing set in the backyard. And indeed little is known about what preceded the horrible occurrences of Tuesday evening. (Freyer, 1/25)
The Washington Post: Only 4 Percent Of Men Who Want To Give Sperm Actually Do
Just 4 percent of men who indicate interest in becoming sperm donors typically complete the application process and have sperm samples approved for use in medically assisted reproduction, according to research published in the journal Human Reproduction. The finding came from an analysis of the donor application process for 11,712 men from the United States and Denmark who had applied to a large international sperm bank. (Searing, 1/24)
The Washington Post: Humans Still Have The Genes For A Full Coat Of Body Hair
Roughly a million years ago human beings lost most of their body hair, a key moment in evolution that involved major changes to the same set of genes that determined whether many of our fellow mammals kept or lost their coatings of fur, according to new research. ... The work also identified new genes and gene regulators linked to body hair, a discovery that may someday be used to treat millions of balding Americans. (Johnson, 1/24)
On xylazine and tranquilizer use —
AP: Mexico Issues Alert Over Social Media Tranquilizer Craze
Health authorities in Mexico issued an alert Wednesday over an internet “challenge” in which groups of students at three schools in Mexico have taken tranquilizers vying to see who can stay awake longer. The Health Department called on the public to report any store selling clonazepam, a tranquilizer, without a prescription. The alert came one week after eight students at a Mexico City middle school were treated after taking a “controlled medication.” Some were hospitalized. (1/25)
USA Today: What Is Xylazine? Animal Tranquillizer Shows Up In US Drug Supply
While most jurisdictions don't routinely test for xylazine in postmortem toxicology, the Drug Enforcement Administration estimates xylazine was involved in at least 1,281 overdose deaths in the Northeast and 1,423 in the South in 2021. Last week, ONDC director Dr. Rahul Gupta hosted a listening session with local public health and safety leaders to discuss trends related to xylazine and efforts to address it, including plans for tracking, substance use treatment, and harm reduction. (Rodriguez, 1/24)
