first opinion
Medicaid should cover donor breast milk
Gregory Bull/AP
Each day, more than 1,000 babies are born prematurely in America. These infants are at greater risk for a suite of serious health problems, including necrotizing enterocolitis. This inflammatory gut disease can kill up to 40% of the smallest, most vulnerable babies.
The best way to prevent the disease is simply to give babies human breast milk. Exclusively feeding preterm infants human milk rather than formula reduces their risk of necrotizing enterocolitis by 77%. But a mother's own milk supply often isn't enough. This is when donor milk becomes essential, STAT contributors Sionika Thayagabalu and Dominick Lemas write in a new First Opinion.
Their own research has shown that expanding Medicaid coverage of donor milk is one of the most effective ways to provide this treatment to more children. Read more on how Congress could expand Medicaid coverage and which states have already taken action.
research
More risks than previously thought with antipsychotics for dementia, per study
Doctors are prescribing antipsychotics to people with dementia at higher rates — especially since the pandemic — despite these drugs coming with a known increased risk for stroke and death. But there may be even more risks than previously thought. A new study in the British Medical Journal found that the use of antipsychotics by people over 50 with dementia increased risk for stroke, blood clot, heart attack, heart failure, fracture, pneumonia, and acute kidney injury. Risk was highest in the first few months after starting the medication.
The findings are based on data from almost 174,000 people in England who were diagnosed with dementia between 1998-2018, more than 35,000 of whom were prescribed antipsychotics for the first time. The authors write that the findings show how important it is to consider both the need for antipsychotics among those with dementia and the potential risks, and they add that these medications should only be tried after non-pharmacological treatments.
public health
Next-generation mosquito nets prevented 13 million malaria cases in three years
Bed nets are an essential frontline weapon in the fight against malaria. But traditional nets first introduced two decades ago are no longer as effective because mosquitos have developed insecticide resistance. Nets treated with two insecticides were introduced a few years ago, and newly released results from several pilot programs found them much more effective, STAT's Nalis Merelli tells us. In three years, 56 million second-generation nets in several sub-Saharan countries prevented 13 million cases, and close to 25,000 deaths. Researchers found that the additional costs of these nets were outweighed by their public health benefits.
But eventually, even these nets are bound to fail and malaria prevention experts will need to find new solutions. "We're going to reach the limits of what's achievable with the bed nets, how effective the bed nets are at killing mosquitoes," said Joe Wagman, a senior public health entomologist at PATH, a charity focused on global health equity. Read more.
No comments