Health officials race to raise monkeypox awareness ahead of Pride Month

(Octavio Jones/Getty Image)

There is no good time for monkeypox to be transmitting person to person, STAT’s Helen Branswell reminds us. But as the world enters the annual monthlong celebration of gay pride, it is particularly concerning. Public health authorities are scrambling to raise awareness of the growing monkeypox outbreak in advance of this weekend’s start of Pride Month celebrations. They are trying to strike a fine balance: getting out the message that monkeypox may currently be a risk to men who have sex with men, without stigmatizing the community by linking them to a scary-sounding virus that can infect anyone in certain circumstances. “The message is similar for all communities, which is vigilance if you have a rash that is different or that could be … monkeypox,” CDC’s Demetre Daskalakis told journalists yesterday. Read more on the continuing outbreak.

Adding diabetes screening to Covid testing works, study says

“Silver lining” is an overworked pandemic metaphor, but this study does look like a good idea born of a bad time. Last year, researchers tried offering diabetes screening to people who came to a community Covid testing program in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. Among more than 6,600 people screened for Covid, 14% did hemoglobin A1c testing too, which found about one-third had prediabetes and about one-tenth had diabetes. Most were Latino people of low income who hadn’t been tested for diabetes before and had no insurance or primary care clinician. The researchers note that as with Covid, Latino people in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by diabetes. “Integrating rapid diabetes screening into community-based Covid-19 testing sites has the potential to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and entry into care for diabetes,” they write.

Small study links pandemic stress in pregnancy to altered fetal brain development

It’s easy to believe just living through the pandemic while pregnant — not being infected with Covid-19 — is linked to psychological distress. A small new study in Communications Medicine makes a further connection: Maternal stress and depression were associated with lower brain volume and less structural development in fetuses. To reach this conclusion, researchers interviewed 202 pregnant women in metro Washington, D.C. — 65 during the pandemic and 137 the year before. They answered questionnaires about stress during pregnancy; the brains of their fetuses were imaged by MRI. Anxiety was the same in both groups, but stress and depression increased during the pandemic, when fetal brain volume was smaller and brain fold development was delayed in distressed mothers. The authors say other factors may be at play, but it adds to other research about the effects of stress and mental disorders on the developing brain.

Closer look: Watching for resistance to Paxlovid

(adobe)

You’ve heard or learned firsthand about Paxlovid rebound. Are you ready to think about resistance? “If there is anything we know about viruses and antiviral drugs, [it] is that eventually we will see some sort of resistance,” Andy Pavia of the University of Utah told STAT’s Jason Mast. But how much of a problem resistance will be for Paxlovid is complicated. In some patients, the coronavirus will inevitably find ways to evade the pill, as it did this monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid. What’s less clear, Pavia and other experts say, is whether any resistant variants will spread widely. The coronavirus may have particular difficulty getting around Paxlovid compared to other drugs because patients take it for only five days and because it targets a protein the virus can’t easily change. But it’s not impossible. Read more.

Adults with epilepsy face challenges finding care

People with epilepsy confront financial barriers when seeking care for their brain disorder, a new report from CDC says. Surveys in 2015 and 2017 of adults with epilepsy found they were more likely than people without epilepsy to struggle to pay for prescription medicines or specialty care. They were more likely to take less medication than prescribed to save money and to say that a lack of transportation kept them from care. More likely to have Medicaid or other public insurance coverage, they also couldn't afford eyeglasses or dental care. Another CDC report out yesterday said emergency department visits for people with epilepsy fell during the pandemic’s early months, but they didn’t rebound for children under 10 until June 2021. Whether that was fear of Covid or a move to telehealth requires more research to answer, the authors said.

A biodegradable, wireless pacemaker might one day fill a temporary post-op need

Here’s a cool proof-of-concept study: Researchers report in Science that they’ve devised a biodegradable, bioelectronic pacemaker that wirelessly monitors and corrects heart rate in people who need temporary control after cardiac surgery. It could provide an attractive alternative to current practice, in which recovering patients receive implants connected to external power and controls by wired leads through their skin, risking infection, limiting mobility, and requiring extraction. The technology, tested in rats, dogs, and human heart models, uses skin-surface sensors to collect and transmit data via Bluetooth and water-soluble metals and degradable polymers that wirelessly receive power through the skin for pacing. There are some key issues that need to be addressed, Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann of the University of Göttingen writes in a related commentary, such as “ the degree to which the obtained data are reliable, how safety and effectiveness can be ensured, and how misuse can be prevented.”

What to read around the web today

An ER doctor's 'third way' approach to the gun crisis. The Atlantic
As monkeypox spreads, Bavarian Nordic’s CEO is fielding calls for his vaccine, but doesn’t see panic. STAT+
Why unprecedented bird flu outbreaks sweeping the world are concerning scientists. Nature
Patients face long delays for imaging of cancers and other diseases. New York Times
With new data on its KRAS-blocking lung cancer drug, Mirati expects to take on a rival Amgen treatment. STAT+