Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Highlights High Fatality Of Mpox For People With Advanced HIV
NBC News: Mpox Is Highly Fatal Among People With Advanced HIV, Study Finds
Mpox can have a devastating impact on people with advanced cases of HIV, leading to severe skin and genital lesions and causing death in as many as 1 in 4 of those with a highly compromised immune system. This is according to the first major study of mpox in this population, which a global team of authors published in The Lancet on Tuesday. The analysis included 382 people from 28 nations, all of whom were HIV-positive and had a count below 350 of key immune cells called CD4 cells, which help ward off infections. Twenty-seven of these individuals died. (Ryan, 2/21)
The New York Times: Mpox Often Leads To Severe Illness, Even Death, In People With Advanced H.I.V.
In people with advanced H.I.V. disease, the mpox virus — formerly known as monkeypox — often causes severe illness, with a death rate of about 15 percent, researchers reported on Tuesday. The seriousness of the infection warrants the inclusion of mpox among the opportunistic conditions that are particularly dangerous to people with advanced H.I.V., the researchers said at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle. (Mandavilli, 2/21)
Meanwhile, in other research news —
Noticias Telemundo for Axios: Study Finds Hispanic Veterans Wait Longer For Specialists
Black and Hispanic veterans' access to specialty health care declined during the pandemic, according to a recently published study that also found non-Hispanic white veterans were largely unaffected. About 12% of vets are Black and 8% are Latino. Those numbers are projected to grow to 15% and 12% respectively by 2045, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Franco, 2/21)
St. Louis Public Radio: Wash U Study Links Depression In Black College Grads To Racism
Researchers from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis found that college-educated Black Americans are suffering racial discrimination that leads to depression. For “Understanding the Impact of Contemporary Racism on the Mental Health of Middle Class Black Americans”, researchers conducted a nationwide online survey of 528 college graduates over 24 years old to determine if there is a health cost to being a college-educated Black American. (Henderson, 2/17)
CIDRAP: Trial Finds Prophylactic Doxycycline Doesn’t Reduce STIs In Cisgender Women
A clinical trial in Kenya found that taking the antibiotic doxycycline after sex did not prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in cisgender women, researchers reported at this week's Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). (Dall, 2/21)
On research relating to covid —
CIDRAP: Brain Changes May Be Linked To Anxiety, Depression In Long COVID
People who have long COVID and experience anxiety and depression following a mild infection may have brain changes that affect its structure and function, Brazilian researchers reported yesterday at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting in Boston. (Schnirring, 2/21)
