Closer Look
Africa CDC head criticizes U.S. CDC recommendation
AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday criticized U.S. governmental recommendations that American citizens should steer clear of Rwanda as it battles its first Marburg outbreak. The Level 3 travel advisories were counterproductive and unfair, Kaseya complained, suggesting they could sow panic. A Level 3 advisory urges people to avoid unnecessary travel to a cited country, either for security or disease risk reasons.
For the second day in a row, the case count in the outbreak held at 58 cases and 13 deaths. Rwanda reported it had administered 346 doses of an experimental Marburg vaccine donated by the U.S. government. The vaccine is being used in an open-label approach — in other words, the country is giving it to everyone it deems to have been exposed to a confirmed case, and their contacts. Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said a clinical trial which would see some contacts vaccinated quicker than others to test the efficacy of the vaccine might be started later, but for now the goal is to "save as many lives as quickly as possible and also to stop the spread."
Read more from STAT's Helen Branswell.
Public Health
How encampment sweeps hurt the health of the homeless
Imagine if you had a supply of medication for your chronic condition and someone just stole it, leaving you without your medication and no way to get your insurance to cover a refill.
Now imagine the person who stole your medication was the governor.
This is a very real situation for people who are homeless and have conditions like diabetes and heart failure, writes primary care physician Max Jordan Nguemeni in a STAT First Opinion. He recounts a video of California Gov. Gavin Newsom tossing items from a homeless encampment in Los Angeles in a pile, as well as his experiences of treating homeless people whose medications had been stolen or lost in sweeps of homeless encampments.
These sweeps don't solve any problems, they just create different ones, says Nguemeni, and other solutions are needed. Read more.
Public Health
People with ADHD, already grappling with drug shortages, may further lose access
Jeremy Didier only realized she had ADHD after one, then two, then four of her five children were diagnosed with the disorder. Medication makes life manageable for both her, a mental health clinician and the president of the board of directors at an ADHD advocacy organization, and her kids.
But legislation that lets ADHD specialists prescribe medication via telehealth is about to expire at the end of the year, and in-person requirements will make it harder for people to get diagnoses and receive prescription renewals. Congress needs to extend these telehealth powers so that people don't lose access to the drugs they need, she writes in a STAT First Opinion.
"In 2023, there was a three-week period when we couldn't get my 16-year-old son's prescription filled due to the shortage," she writes. "During that time, he got into his first car accident (thankfully, everyone was OK), got his first speeding ticket, and failed to turn in 13 homework assignments. ADHD medication works."
Read more about Didier's family, as well as lawmakers' plans and telehealth providers' frustration with the situation.
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