10 people are being monitored for bird flu after Colorado man's positive test

Authorities in Colorado are monitoring the health of about 10 people who were in contact with a man who tested positive for H5 bird flu when he was involved in culling poultry infected with the virus, STAT’s Helen Branswell reports. The man, incarcerated at a state correctional facility and taking part in a pre-release work program, is thought to be the country’s first case of H5 bird flu. CDC has raised the possibility that the man may not have been infected — the test swab may have just picked up the virus in his nostrils. Still, people who worked with him and shared transportation to the poultry operation will be monitored for 10 days after their last exposure to the unidentified man, who has recovered from a very mild illness. Read more on why this case is unlikely to reignite fears of an H5N1 pandemic.

An algorithm shows early promise detecting heart problems via Apple Watch data

Mayo Clinic is developing an algorithm capable of detecting a weak heart pump from electrocardiograms recorded on wearable devices like Apple Watches, potentially enabling early detection of the life-threatening condition outside medical settings. The algorithm accurately flagged a small number of patients with a weak heart pump — also known as low ejection fraction — in a study presented yesterday at the annual Heart Rhythm Society conference in San Francisco. It was tested in a decentralized study that collected more than 125,000 Apple Watch EKGs from participants in 46 states and 11 countries. Cardiologists said the new results establish the early feasibility of embedding that capability in wearable devices. “This should be viewed as a first step, but by no means is it ready for prime time,” Collin Stultz, a cardiologist at Mass General Brigham in Boston, told STAT’s Casey Ross. Read more in STAT+.

Opinion: The medical system needs to deeply reform its care of people with autism

As a physician with a sibling who has severe autism, Amanda Joy Calhoun can’t stop thinking about how the medical system is failing people with autism. Last week, a sheriff’s deputy tackled an unarmed Black teenager with autism, for unknown reasons. That reminded her of the time her brother was thrown to the ground by a security officer despite his paraprofessional screaming, “He’s autistic! We are fine!” But as furious as she was, she was also relieved that he did not have to go to the hospital. “When it comes to people with autism, I want more than awareness or acceptance,” Calhoun, a psychiatry resident at Yale School of Medicine, writes in a STAT First Opinion. “Those sentiments are fine, but they won’t keep people with autism from dying prematurely or receiving inequitable care in the medical system. I want justice.”

Closer look: How a kidney researcher hopes to break the chain of a lethal inheritance

Physician-scientist Anna Greka in her lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. (Kayana Szymczak for STAT)

In the Carroll family, stretching back an unknown number of generations, a rare genetic mutation has caused life-threatening kidney disease in half of them. Their kidneys often stop working in their 30s or 40s. Dialysis or a transplant may bring another 10 years of life. But the clock keeps ticking, loudly. It took until 2013 for researchers to find the culpable mutation. Still, they didn’t know how that genetic variant led to kidney failure, or how to stop that disastrous cascade. Enter Anna Greka, a physician-scientist who discovered a potential therapy that could stop cells in the kidney from falling apart, for the Carrolls and other families. Now at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, she has made herself into a champion for patients with rare diseases. STAT’s Isabella Cueto has more on her research and the people she is determined to help.

Pediatrics group urges end to race-based medicine

A leading medical society is calling for an end to race-based medicine — starting with an examination of its own practices. Today the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement encouraging self-evaluation and fundamental changes in how medicine is practiced, with the goal of eliminating inequities in health care. "Race is a historically derived social construct that has no place as a biologic proxy," the new policy says, reflecting on the construct's past links to inaccurate disease management and disparate clinical outcomes. AAP will look at its own guidelines through a race-equity lens, seek specific curricular changes in medical education, and monitor its own publications. “Eliminating race-based medicine is necessary; it is challenging; and it is long overdue,” AAP President Moira Szilagyi said in a statement.

Study suggests repeat home antigen testing for Covid after first negative result

Home antigen tests for Covid-19 win for convenience but may not measure up to the accuracy of PCR testing. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine explores a different question: how well antigen testing performs over the course of illness. Researchers followed 225 people who had Covid infections confirmed by PCR testing, as well as their household members. After daily testing for 15 days, home antigen test sensitivity peaked three days after illness onset, at 80% for symptomatic cases and 50% for asymptomatic cases. The researchers warn that antigen test positivity was lower before and on the first day people felt symptoms. “Individuals with a high pretest probability of SARS-CoV-2 infection and initial negative home antigen test result should consider repeating an antigen test in 1 to 2 days or obtaining a confirmatory RT-PCR,” they write.

Black Americans are three times more likely to die giving birth than their white peers. In the fourth episode of "Color Code," podcast host Nicholas St. Fleur leads a look at America’s Black maternal mortality crisis. Listen here.

What to read around the web today

Paxlovid’s failure as a preventative measure raises questions, but doctors still back it as a therapeutic. STAT
Loss of pandemic aid stresses hospitals that treat the uninsured. New York Times
Autopsy backlog plagues Mississippi, with worst delays in U.S. Associated Press
Labor costs from Omicron surge drag Ascension into the red. STAT+
Meet the lawmakers and lobbyists who want to bring health tech into the home. STAT+
U.S. seeks ‘urgent’ data on Covid relapses after using Pfizer’s Paxlovid drug. Bloomberg