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Covid response in prisons, surprising mutations in monkeypox, & melatonin in poison center calls

    

 

Morning Rounds

Good morning. Packing your bags for vacation yet? Before you go, tell us what books and podcasts related to health, medicine, and life sciences are on your list this summer for our annual roundup (see lists from 2021, 2019, and 2018).

How Biden plans to improve federal prisons’ response to Covid-19

Back in February, STAT’s Nicholas Florko reported that people in prison are roughly three times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the general population, after adjusting for prison populations skewing younger. Today he has an update on how the Biden administration plans to remedy that, from testing to vaccination to data sharing. Prison rights experts are hopeful — but still skeptical, Nick writes  — that the new order will spur fixes to fundamental problems that have plagued the Bureau of Prison’s Covid response. “It’s too little too late, but I’m glad to see it still,” said Josh Manson of the UCLA Law Covid-19 Behind Bars Data Project. “Where was this order a year ago, two years ago, when dozens of people were dying every week?” Read more.

Collins calls concerns about ARPA-H 'overblown'

Calm down, everybody. That’s what former NIH director Francis Collins seemed to be saying when STAT’s Lev Facher asked him about the Biden administration’s new high-stakes research agency, ARPA-H.

  • On whether it should be housed in NIH: “There was a lot of concern that it not somehow become incorporated into NIH like the 28th institute. I frankly think that concern was overblown. I don’t know anyone who wanted that outcome to happen.”
  • On where its HQ should be: “This is a crazy and unnecessary bidding war. This is not a big, shiny building with a lot of lab equipment and clinical space. It’s a bunch of carrels with people who are sitting in them — program managers who half the time are on airplanes, going out to look after the projects.”

Read more.

CDC warns parents about kids eating melatonin

Just as melatonin sales have spiked during the pandemic, so have reports to poison centers of children eating the sleep aid supplement. Sold over the counter as tablets, a liquid, or gummies, calls about it increased 530% from 2012 to 2021, a new CDC report says, with an extra pandemic surge. Hospital admissions also rose, mostly for children under 5, and while most kids had no symptoms, those who did involved the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, or central nervous systems. Five kids required mechanical ventilation, and two died.

Melatonin is subject to less regulatory oversight than an FDA-approved drug. The CDC researchers cite a Canadian study pointing out that what’s in OTC melatonin doesn’t necessarily match what its label says. “More research is needed to describe the toxicity and outcomes associated with melatonin ingestions in children,” the CDC authors say, as they urge greater awareness among parents.

Closer look: What surprising mutations in the monkeypox virus could mean

(NIAID)

Living with the coronavirus pandemic for more than two years has made us all conversant with variants, mutations, and the genetic sequencing that sorts them out. Now we have monkeypox virus to consider, a pathogen different in many ways from SARS-CoV-2 but similar in its ability to stump experts trying to understand it. As an outbreak numbering several hundred infections unfolds in some 30 countries where it’s not typically seen, STAT’s Andrew Joseph reminds us that as a DNA virus, it accumulates mutations more slowly than an RNA virus like the one that causes Covid-19.

That should mean fewer changes to the virus’ genome, but the bug behind the current outbreak has far more mutations than expected. Read more about hypotheses for the 40-odd mutations, some of which may be wounds from a battle between host and virus.

Traffic noise near schools takes a toll on kids

If you live near an airport, you know about noise. A new study in PLOS Medicine examines a different kind of noise pollution: traffic noise and its effects on children’s cognitive development. Researchers followed 2,680 second- to fourth-graders at 38 schools in Barcelona for a year, testing their attentiveness and working memory every three months. They found that children exposed to road traffic noise at school had slower attention and working memory development compared to children in quieter schools. Inside the classroom, noise fluctuation mattered more than noise intensity. And road traffic noise at home did not make a difference in the children’s progress on cognitive tests.

“Policies to reduce road traffic noise at schools (outside and inside classrooms) could substantially benefit cognitive development, at least working memory and attention, and future health,” the authors write.

In mice, another origin for Alzheimer's emerges

Alzheimer’s disease and the discouraging, controversial record of drug development to treat it is right up there with the pandemic and disparities in medical care as one of the most consequential stories of our time. A new study, although in mice, adds to evidence that might overturn the amyloid hypothesis dominating research. That dogma holds that amyloid clumps toxic to brain neurons cause the disease, but researchers report in Nature Neuroscience that amyloid debris outside cells follows — and does not cause — faulty waste disposal inside cells. In mice bred to develop Alzheimer’s, their cells’ lysosomes, where the breakdown, removal, and recycling happens, swelled with waste including early forms of amyloid beta plaques.

The researchers conclude that the neuronal damage seen in Alzheimer’s disease originates inside brain cells’ lysosomes, where amyloid beta first appears before building up. And they suggest moving the target back from amyloid to the lysosomes where the dysfunction starts. This is based on mice, but points the way for future research.

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What to read around the web today

  • White House: 1st shots for kids under 5 possible by June 21, Associated Press
  • These female health-care workers won a huge WHO honor. They'd like a raise, too, NPR
  • Carbon Health, citing concerns about path to profitability, lays off 250 employees, STAT
  • Doctors transplant 3-D printed ear made of human cells, New York Times
  • Tulsa shooting: Gunman who killed four at hospital had back surgery there in May, Wall Street Journal

Thanks for reading! More Monday,

@cooney_liz
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