Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tennessee Confirms Measles Case In Traveler; West Nile Spreads In Mass.
CIDRAP: Tennessee Reports First Measles Case In 5 Years
Tennessee has reported its first measles case since 2019, which involves someone who traveled internationally and spent time in Kentucky while infectious. The infected person has recovered. (Soucheray, 9/13)
The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Records 11th Human Case Of West Nile Virus
The state’s 11th instance of a human case of West Nile virus, a man in his 60s, was announced Friday by state health officials, nearly doubling the total number of human cases reported in Massachusetts last year. In 2023, there were six human cases of the mosquito-borne virus reported in the state. The number this year has been on the rise with the last three human cases reported on Tuesday, and now another on Friday. (Alanez, 9/13)
The New York Times: Boar’s Head Shuts Down Virginia Plant Tied To Deadly Listeria Outbreak
Boar’s Head announced on Friday that it would indefinitely shut down the troubled Jarratt, Virginia, deli meat plant that it acknowledged had caused a deadly listeria outbreak, killing nine people and sickening dozens more in 18 states. The company also said it had identified liverwurst processing as the source of contamination and would permanently discontinue the product. (Jewett and Rosenbluth, 9/13)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
Oklahoma Voice: Officials Pull The Plug On Oklahoma Narcan Vending Machine Program
State mental health officials are abruptly pulling the plug on a vending machine initiative designed to provide Oklahomans access to overdose-prevention medications and testing strips. The 25 vending machines offering free naloxone and fentanyl test strips will be removed from their locations by the end of the month, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse said in a statement Friday. (Murphy, 9/15)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Donated Breast Milk Now Available For All SSM Health Babies
Hospitals have long provided donor breast milk for sick newborns in neonatal intensive care units, but now SSM Health hospitals are the first to expand the free service to include all patients at its birth centers in the St. Louis region. (Munz, 9/13)
The Washington Post: Used Hypodermic Needles Halt Swimming In Ocean City, Other Maryland And Virginia Beaches
Swimming was banned at beaches in Ocean City and on Assateague Island on Sunday after used hypodermic needles and other medical waste washed ashore, authorities said. (Laris, 9/15)
KFF Health News: Tossed Medicine, Delayed Housing: How Homeless Sweeps Are Thwarting Medicaid’s Goals
Andrew Douglass shoved his clothes and belongings into plastic trash bags as five police officers surrounded his encampment — a drab gray tent overflowing along a bustling sidewalk in the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood, where homeless people lie sprawled on public sidewalks, sometimes in drug overdoses. Officers gave him a choice: Go to a shelter or get arrested and cited for sleeping outside. (Hart, 9/16)
KFF Health News: Decades Of National Suicide Prevention Policies Haven’t Slowed The Deaths
When Pooja Mehta’s younger brother, Raj, died by suicide at 19 in March 2020, she felt “blindsided.” Raj’s last text message was to his college lab partner about how to divide homework questions. “You don’t say you’re going to take questions 1 through 15 if you’re planning to be dead one hour later,” said Mehta, 29, a mental health and suicide prevention advocate in Arlington, Virginia. She had been trained in Mental Health First Aid — a nationwide program that teaches how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness — yet she said her brother showed no signs of trouble. (Platzman Weinstock, 9/16)
The Daily Yonder: Rural/Urban Health Gap Still Growing
When Janice Probst read a report released in March by the federal Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service confirming that the health disparities gap between rural and urban Americans is widening, substantially, she was dismayed but not surprised. According to the report, between 1999 and 2019 the gap in rural/urban natural-cause deaths for those aged 25–54 surged from 6 percent to 43 percent. Researchers also found that the more rural the region, the greater the increase. (Sisk, 9/15)
