Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Business Of Selling Dubious Elixirs To Aging People Desperate For A Fountain Of Youth
Stat: How A Society Gala Was Used To Sell Young-Blood Transfusions To Seniors
STAT got an inside look at this $195-a-head symposium, held last month in this wealthy beachside enclave. It offered a striking view of how promoters aggressively market scientifically dubious elixirs to aging people desperate to defy their own mortality. ... Beyond the questionable science, participants have to pay big money to join the trial. Faloon, an evangelist of anti-aging research who cut a slim figure in his black suit and had the thick dark hair of a younger man, acknowledged during his talk that it would be “expensive” to sign up for the trial. (Robbins, 3/2)
Stat: How The U.S. Military Might Help Answer A Critical Question About The Flu Vaccine
The question is whether flu vaccines that are not made in eggs are more protective against the H3N2 viruses that have been causing so much illness this winter. Coming up with the answer is tricky, because the two vaccines that are not made in egg-based production lines make up only a small portion of the flu vaccine used in the United States. ...The Department of Defense purchased a substantial amount Flucelvax this year; it is one of the vaccines not made in eggs. In fact, half of the department’s beneficiaries — a population that includes guards and reserves, the families of active service personnel, and retirees — who were vaccinated got Flucelvax. (Branswell, 3/2)
Bloomberg: Merck Turns To Tumor-Killing Viruses To Boost Immune Cancer Drugs
Scientists have tried to muster viruses to hunt and kill tumors for almost 70 years, with limited success. That may be changing.Now, microbes are playing an important role in an emerging branch of cancer immunotherapy that’s attracting some of the world’s biggest drugmakers. Merck announced plans to buy Australia’s Viralytics Ltd. last week to gain an experimental cold virus-based treatment that may bolster the utility of Keytruda, its blockbuster cancer medicine. (Gale, 3/1)
The Cincinnati Enquirer: What To Ask Your Child’s Doctor About Screening For Depression
This week, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated 10-year-old guidelines for primary-care doctors to screen all children 10 through 21 for depression once a year. Here are seven questions to consider when you talk to your child’s doctor. (Saker, 3/1)
Kaiser Health News: As Surgery Centers Boom, Patients Are Paying With Their Lives
The surgery went fine. Her doctors left for the day. Four hours later, Paulina Tam started gasping for air.Internal bleeding was cutting off her windpipe, a well-known complication of the spine surgery she had undergone.But a Medicare inspection report describing the event says that nobody who remained on duty that evening at the Northern California surgery center knew what to do. In desperation, a nurse did something that would not happen in a hospital. She dialed 911. By the time an ambulance delivered Tam to the emergency room, the 58-year-old mother of three was lifeless, according to the report. (Jewett, 3/1)
The New York Times: They’re Hosting Parasitic Worms In Their Bodies To Help Treat A Neglected Disease
Seventeen volunteers in the Netherlands have agreed to host parasitic worms in their bodies for 12 weeks in order to help advance research toward a vaccine for schistosomiasis, a chronic disease that afflicts more than 200 million people a year, killing thousands, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. “Yes it sounds odd and crazy. The idea of having a worm grow inside you is awful,” says Meta Roestenberg, an infectious disease physician at Leiden University Medical Center, who is directing the research. But she said the risk to the student volunteers is “extremely small,” especially compared with the potential benefit to preventing a disease that burdens millions of the world’s poorest people. A Dutch ethics board agreed. (Murphy, 3/1)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Saline In IVs May Increase Risk Of Death, Kidney Failure
IV bags filled with saline solution are one of the most common items in hospitals. But new research suggests replacing the saline with a different intravenous solution may significantly reduce risks of death and kidney damage among patients. (Lemon, 3/1)
Kaiser Health News: A Tale Of Love, Family Conflict And Battles Over Care For An Aging Mother
“Edith + Eddie,” a short documentary vying for an Academy Award Sunday, is a gripping look at a couple in their 90s caught up in an intense family conflict over caring for an aging parent. As a columnist who covers aging, I’m familiar with such stories. But as I immersed myself in the details of this case, I found myself reaching a familiar conclusion: real life is more complicated than in the movies. (Graham, 3/1)
