Bird flu: CDC asks states and cities to keep flu surveillance at peak levels

And a repurposed anti-seizure drug 

May 22, 2024 Check out STAT+

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By Angus Chen Cancer Reporter

Good morning, friends! Today's rounds starts off with two reports on the H5N1 bird flu virus — how health officials are monitoring the virus this summer and what to do if it starts spreading between humans. After reading that viral fragments were showing up in dairy, I checked my local grocer in Berkeley, California to see if they were keeping raw milk on the shelf: They are.

H5N1 Bird flu CDC tells health authorities to be on alert for human H5N1 cases  Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images While flu surveillance typically slows in late spring, this year will be different. STAT's Helen Branswell reports that health officials are planning to maintain high levels of surveillance efforts through the summer due to concerns about the H5N1 bird flu virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked state and local health authorities to keep a watchful eye for any signs that the virus is spreading human-to-human. Should H5N1 begin spreading among people, one of the best defenses against another pandemic will be the world's capacity to turn into a vaccine machine. But when exactly to start loading cargo ships with vaccines is a tricky question. "Get it right and you save lives. Hesitate, and lives will be lost. But making the call if the vaccine turns out not to be needed is not a cost-free decision either," Branswell writes. Read more about how public health leaders and manufacturers weigh the odds. addiction An anti-seizure drug may help manage liver disease in patients with alcohol use disorder  Doctors only have three FDA-approved medications to manage alcohol use disorder. But STAT's Isa Cueto reports on a new study that suggests anti-seizure drugs known as gabapentinoids could be an improvement over some of those approved drugs in treating alcohol-associated liver disease.  Among over 24,000 VA patients with alcohol use disorder, those who were prescribed gabapentinoids were less likely to experience progression of alcohol-associated liver disease compared to those who received an approved alcohol dependence drug, acamprosate. In veterans with pre-existing liver disease, 30.4% on acamprosate got worse compared to 25.8% on gabapentinoids. The drugs may also be able to reduce the need to drink, which could "kill two birds with one stone," said lead author Raj Shah: "Treat their pains as well as their alcohol use disorder." Read more. emergency care With new EMTALA option, CMS will take your complaints Patients can now file complaints directly with the federal government if they were denied emergency care including emergency abortions on a new web portal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday. The Biden administration has said that such denials of care violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or EMTALA, a law that requires hospitals to provide emergency care to any patient.  The new portal is designed to make reporting denials of care easier for patients and help CMS, which enforces the federal law, to investigate patient claims. "We want to make sure that everyone knows their rights and can take action to help make sure the health care system is safe for everyone," CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement. The application of EMTALA to abortions is currently at the center of a Supreme Court case that will weigh whether an exception should be made in certain cases for emergency abortions.

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first opinion What real-world data can do for patients and providers Adobe New drugs are entering the clinic faster than ever. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy designation program is an example of regulatory innovation that helps speed drugs to market, writes Boston-based health and life sciences consultant Jenna Phillips — but it also means that there's less time to train clinicians on best practices with a new therapy. In a new First Opinion, Phillips argues that real-world clinical data can offer insights about how to best use new medicines. It can help pinpoint clinician and patient experiences with new drugs: Real-world data on GLP-1 weight loss drugs, for example, shows patients present to the emergency department with side effects like gastrointestinal distress. Read more about how these kind of insights could help health workers improve care. artificial intelligence Scientists call for a strategic council to guide AI use The advent of increasingly powerful AI algorithms has scientists both excited and nervous. Artificial intelligence offers new research opportunities and problem-solving abilities — but it also opens the door to new kinds of ethical violations, as a new editorial in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points out.  The authors discuss five ways to help maintain scientific integrity in the context of AI. Scientists should be accountable for the content or inferences they might draw from generative models, for one, and AI-generated work or data should be clearly documented. AI should also be vetted to avoid causing harm, including perpetuating biases — and to lead the way, the authors suggest the National Academies create a "strategic council on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in science."

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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,

angus.chen@statnews.com

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