Doctors Without Borders shuts down Access to Medicine campaign

Plus: Should gestational diabetes be tested at 10 to 14 weeks?

June 21, 2024 Check out STAT+

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By Annalisa Merelli General Assignment Reporter

Ciao, and congrats on making it through the longest day of the year! In the news for you today: A new PrEP injection proved effective in preventing HIV in women, Doctors Without Borders shut down a high profile program, and it's 25 years since the U.S. Supreme Court desegregated disabled people. Keep reading for more.

maternal health Experts call for earlier gestational diabetes screening ADOBE Gestational diabetes, when blood glucose levels spike during pregnancy, is dangerous for both the mother and the child — it's associated with higher risks of preeclampsia, stillbirth, and neurodevelopmental challenges for the baby. Usually, doctors catch it when pregnant people are screened between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation. But recent research has shown that as many as 70% of cases could be identified by week 14, opening up the possibility of earlier treatment.  Based on these findings, a global group of endocrinologists published a series in The Lancet yesterday, calling for earlier gestational diabetes screening: First, between weeks 10 to 14, and then again between weeks 24 and 28. I wrote about the details of this proposed approach, which will be presented at the American Diabetes Association's conference, here. health equity Doctors Without Borders will shut down access to medicine effort In a surprise move, Doctors Without Borders announced yesterday that it will close its Access to Medicine campaign, an advocacy effort credited with providing drugs for millions in low-income countries. The organization plans to replace the campaign by the end of the year, focusing instead on procuring the medical products that are directly necessary for the organization's own relief efforts, reports STAT's Ed Silverman. The news has caused shock and disappointment among access to medicine experts and activists, who saw the campaign as a rare success story especially as the pandemic treaty negotiations delivered a setback when it comes to patent sharing in emergencies. "It is a shocking blow, because the Access Campaign, with its deep knowledge and expertise, is a cornerstone of the wider access to medicines movement," said Ellen 't Hoen, the former head of Medicines Patent Pool. More here. disability 25 years after desegregation of disabled people, progress has been slow A quarter of a century ago, a Supreme Court decision declared that involuntarily keeping people with disabilities in institutions for treatment was unconstitutional. Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice hosted a celebration of the landmark decision, which allowed many disabled people to receive care in integrated community settings. But while home and community-based services are often the norm, my colleague Timmy Broderick reports, availability of integrated services can vary a lot by state. In Georgia, even after a lawsuit and a DOJ investigation, the state isn't doing enough to integrate disabled people, advocates say. In other states, waiting lists are long — three years on average. Read more here.

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first opinion Expert witnesses are key to health justice David Goldman/AP When an infant tragically dies, there can be an added layer of horror. Parents who are accused of killing their children because their case was flagged as potential abuse in the emergency room may in fact be innocent — and doctors are rarely available to testify on their behalf at trial.  People of color are disproportionately accused of child abuse because of racism and other social biases, write Zoe Adams, a internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Asher Levinthal, a public defender in the Bronx, in a new First Opinion. While prosecutors have access to expert pediatrician witnesses — testifying, for example, to the symptoms of shaken baby syndrome — the same is often not true for defendants, especially ones coming from underprivileged backgrounds. Read more about why availability of expert witnesses is an issue of health justice. prep A new trial showed Gilead's antiviral protected women from HIV Lenacapavir, a new antiviral drug from Gilead, was found effective in protecting women against HIV after two yearly injections in a large Phase 3 trial. Out of the 2,134 women who received the injections, none contracted HIV, while 16 of about 1,068 who took the daily pill Truvada did, and 39 out of 2,136 who took a newer daily pill, Descovy. Part of the study was designed to assess the efficacy of Descovy, and failed to prove it preferable to Truvada. If approved, this would be the second long-lasting PrEP option, with two yearly injections compared to Apretude's every-other-month injections, writes STAT's Jason Mast. "This is going to change, I think, how we think about prevention in cisgender women," said an expert who was not affiliated with the study. More here.

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annalisa.merelli@statnews.com

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