first opinion
What RFK Jr. gets wrong about infectious & chronic diseases
For Larry Schlesinger, a physician-scientist, the connection between infection and chronic disease isn't just a professional question. It's a personal one. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with oral cancer that his doctor traced back to an HPV infection he'd had decades earlier.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the next potential head of HHS, has called for government-funded research to focus on chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer, while taking "a break" on infectious disease research. In a new First Opinion essay, Schlesinger writes that this isn't actually an either/or situation. Read more.
addiction
Needle exchanges work in Canadian prisons
In 2019, just 9 out of 43 federal prisons in Canada had needle exchange programs to combat hepatitis C and other blood-borne infections for those who are incarcerated. But if the country began adding more programs so that, by 2030, half the federal prisons offered needle exchange, it could prevent 15% of new hepatitis C cases and 8% of injection-related infections, according to a study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Of course, expansion isn't free, but the researchers also found that every dollar invested in the current program or its expansion is estimated to save $2 in hepatitis C and injection-related infection treatment costs. And saved money can save lives — you may recall Nick Florko's investigative series from last year about how many U.S. prisons blatantly refuse to test and treat people with hepatitis C.
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