Researchers launch effort to make artificial human eggs in a test tube

In a little-noticed study published earlier this year, Shoukrat Mitalipov and other scientists from Oregon Health and Science University reported the birth of three mouse pups created with a never-before-used recipe for reproduction. Researchers removed the genetic material from one female’s eggs and replaced them with nuclear DNA from the skin cells of another, then nudged the eggs to lose half their chromosomes and fertilized them with mouse sperm.

The group now intends to use this method to make artificial human embryos in a test tube. If successful, the research holds enormous potential for treating infertility, preventing heritable diseases, and enabling same-sex couples to have genetically related children. But “there will be legitimate questions — about whose cells can be used and under what conditions — that will need regulatory answers,” said Stanford’s Hank Greely. STAT’s Megan Molteni has more on the science and the controversy.

Bacterium that causes rare but dangerous disease likely endemic along Gulf Coast, CDC says

Melioidosis, a bacterial infection long believed to originate outside the U.S., is likely endemic in states along the Gulf Coast, disease detectives conclude, based on genetic data analyzed from cases of the rare but dangerous disease. Previous infections were linked to travel outside the country, but in a health alert issued yesterday, CDC said that assumption shouldn’t be made anymore. People are treated with two weeks of intensive intravenous antibiotics, then three to six months of oral antibiotics.

“We found it here. It is locally endemic in this region,” Julia Petras, an epidemic intelligence service officer at CDC, told STAT’s Helen Branswell. Why now? “I think that climate change could play a role,” she said. “Rising temperatures could play a role in the grand scheme of things because the bacteria prefers a tropical or subtropical climate.” Read more.

WHO shifts message on monkeypox risk for men who have sex with men

Since mid-May, outbreaks of monkeypox far beyond and mostly unconnected to countries where it is endemic have prompted calls for caution among groups where it is spreading. Yesterday WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus specifically advised men who have sex with men to consider limiting the number of sexual partners they have to reduce their risk of contracting the virus. The apparent shift in messaging follows the declaration of a public health emergency made by Tedros on Saturday, overruling an advisory committee.

Previous public health messaging, including the WHO’s, has focused on the importance of not stigmatizing gay men in this outbreak, rather than on the role the community could play in helping to stop the spread. Initially, some advocates stressed the need for communications that made clear to men who have sex with men that they were at risk. STAT’s Helen Branswell and Andrew Joseph explain.

Closer look: Despite its ‘Fort Knox’ image, IQVIA’s deal with Experian reveals lapses in patient privacy

(Casey Shenery for STAT)

IQVIA is a data powerhouse. For decades it has turned the medical secrets of tens of millions of Americans into a multibillion-dollar business of the analysis and sale of patient information, all while cultivating a Fort Knox reputation. But in a new STAT investigation, Casey Ross found privacy lapses in the company’s long-running relationship with the credit reporting firm Experian, whose detailed consumer data it buys and then links with Americans’ health records — to deliver marketing insights to drug companies and device makers.

Internal documents reveal that as IQVIA was compiling anonymized personal and financial information from Experian on at least 120 million people, its employees sounded alarms that the data, including details about income, jobs, religion, and ethnicity, could be used to re-identify individual consumers. “All these people are sharing data about you behind your back,” Harvard’s Latanya Sweeney told Casey. Read more. Casey also has this story: A top IQVIA lawyer declines to discuss the Experian relationship, but pledges Americans’ medical secrets are safe.

That daily vitamin D pill doesn't lower risk of bone fractures, study finds

It has seemed like such a good idea for such a long time, but a large new study in NEJM again knocks down vitamin D taken as a supplement or part of a multivitamin, concluding it does not help prevent broken bones. When our bodies make the vitamin from sunlight or eat it in food, yes, it helps keep bones healthy. But daily doses of supplemental vitamin D did not significantly lower total bone fractures, nonvertebral fractures, or hip fractures in a study of 25,871 adults, more than half of whom were women, and one-fifth were Black.

“The key here is that it takes only small to moderate amounts of vitamin D to improve bone health to maintain bone health,” study leader JoAnn Manson of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who has led multiple vitamin D studies, told STAT’s Elissa Welle. “And more is not necessarily better.”

People with sustained loss of taste or smell after Covid could total 27 million, study estimates

In one of Covid’s more baffling symptoms, almost half of infected people lose their sense of taste or smell — or experience unpleasant changes — and some don’t regain it for months or at all. A new BMJ study estimates 12 million people will still have taste loss and 15 million will have smell loss. Based on a review of 18 studies of nearly 4,000 people in Europe, North America, and Asia, the researchers projected their totals from the 5.6% of patients for whom smell loss persisted and the 4.4% who didn’t recover their sense of taste.

Most people can taste and smell again 30 days after infection, but that was less likely for women, those whose loss of smell was severe, and those who had nasal congestion. Caveat: There were observational studies based on self-reports.

What to read around the web today

Global AIDS fight at crossroads after setbacks during Covid, Associated Press
Matt's Take: Can we really get better Covid vaccines? There are big hurdles, but some hope, STAT
Buprenorphine treatment for veterans with opioid use disorder increased as care shifted to telehealth during Covid, study finds, STAT
Abortion rights supporters are trying to reduce barriers to access through search keywords, The 19th
Lactose intolerance is an evolutionary puzzle, The Atlantic