discovery
There could finally be a new gonorrhea treatment
When the CDC's STD lab was shuttered this month by the Trump administration, I was surprised to learn from Helen Branswell's reporting that the whole world is down to just one single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea — a common STD born of a bacterium that's particularly good at picking up antibiotic resistant genes. But research published yesterday in The Lancet may have found a new, successful treatment option.
In a Phase 3 randomized trial of more than 600 people, an antibiotic pill called gepotidacin (normally used to treat UTIs) was found to be just as effective as the current standard course of treatment. The pill even worked against strains of the disease that are resistant to current antibiotics.
The study is one of a few recent early developments offering hope to providers and patients, an accompanying editorial in The Lancet explains. And it's about more than gonorrhea — this challenge "could extend easily to other bacteria with worsening of the antimicrobial resistance landscape," the editorial authors add.
But as federal institutions of American science continue to come unglued, it's unclear what role the U.S. could play in such developments. The Lancet study received funding from pharma company GSK, but also from sources within HHS's Administration for Preparedness and Response. With the recent cuts, that entire division is set to be consolidated into other divisions.
gatherings
Today's the day (for the previously cancelled ACIP meeting)
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will hold its first meeting of the year today and tomorrow. The regularly scheduled February gathering was postponed just days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to lead HHS. At the time, almost two dozen professional and advocacy groups wrote an open letter to Kennedy and acting CDC director Susan Monarez urging them to reschedule the meeting. Six former committee chairs wrote in STAT's First Opinion section about the importance of the committee.
Needless to say, STAT will be following the meeting closely. Reporter Jason Mast said he's particularly looking out for how the committee and government scientists discuss several topics that have fallen into Kennedy's crosshairs, including HPV vaccines (he's called Gardasil, "the most dangerous vaccine ever invented") and a new Covid shot from Moderna. There will also be an update on the measles outbreak — which Kennedy has claimed is under control, despite fear from public health circles that the country's measles elimination status could be at stake.
mental health
Can you imagine being a teen today?
Two studies published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics illuminate key mental health struggles for young people across the U.S.
From 2005 to 2021, rates of self-harm went up for all adolescents, with rates for girls rising at a particularly fast pace compared to boys. That's according to one study, which analyzed California inpatient and ED discharge data for more than 231,000 youths with identified injuries from self-harm. Females (gender-diverse people were not distinguished in the study) had nearly three times the rate of self-harm as males. Black, multiracial, and Native American youths also suffered from disproportionately high rates.
In the second study, researchers used data from the CDC's national Youth Risk Behavior Survey to examine teen exposure to adverse childhood experiences — potentially traumatic events like abuse and neglect that have been linked to a variety of poor health outcomes. Among around 17,000 students, trans and gender-questioning participants reported significantly higher exposure to these experiences than their cisgender peers. Nearly all trans participants (89%) reported experiencing emotional abuse, and most (51%) reported experiencing physical abuse.
In both of these studies, it should be noted that researchers could only work with the data they had. The first study used hospital records, which don't consistently record gender identity data, and of course cannot account for self-harm that goes unreported or unnoticed. Researchers for the second study used YRBS data, but under the Trump administration, the CDC told me that the agency will no longer process transgender identity data, meaning a study like this will not be possible going forward.
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