(NEW YORK) — About 152 people across 30 counties in West Virginia have been exposed to measles, state health officials said Friday.
Earlier this week, the first confirmed case of measles in the state since 2009 was identified, according to the West Virginia Department of Health (WVDH). The patient was someone who was undervaccinated and had a history of recent international travel, the department said.
State health leaders said that since then, they’ve learned of dozens of exposed individuals including 128 West Virginia residents and 24 out-of-state contacts from four neighboring states.
Of the people who were exposed, 62% don’t have documentation proving they are protected against measles and are considered at risk, according to WVDH.
“The Bureau for Public Health is strongly recommending those exposed individuals with no evidence of immunity against the virus quarantine until May 9 or 10, 2024, depending on their last date of exposure,” the department said in a release.
The WVDH did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
The news about the possible exposure comes amid a rapid increase in the number of measles cases during the first quarter of 2024, in part due to several localized outbreaks, including at a children’s hospital and daycare center in Philadelphia, an elementary school in Florida and a migrant center in Chicago.
As of Friday, 128 cases have been reported in 19 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than half of those infected were under 5 years old and 81% are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, the federal health agency said.
Measles is a highly transmissible virus. It’s so infectious that a measles patient could infect up to 90% of close contacts who are not immune, either through prior infection or vaccination, according to the CDC.
The CDC currently recommends that everyone receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, with the first dose between ages 12 and 15 months and the second dose between ages 4 and 6.
Why does the US keep experiencing measles outbreaks?
One dose of the measles vaccine is 93% effective at preventing infection if exposed to the virus, and two doses are 97% effective, according to the CDC.
The WVDH said it is working closely with the Monongalia County Health Department, where the positive measles case was identified, to make sure health officials have adequate testing supplies and MMR vaccine availability.
“The Bureau for Public Health recommends the safe and effective MMR vaccination as part of a routine vaccination schedule for all children and adults,” the department said in the release. “With summer travel coming up and people going to and coming from countries that have seen sharp upticks in measles cases, the time is now to be sure you and your family members are up-to-date on their MMR vaccine.”
(NEW YORK) — Public health officials are continuing to monitor as an outbreak of avian flu, also known as bird flu, continues to spread across the country.
The strain, known as H5N1, has sickened several mammals this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Several dairy cows have been infected, resulting in milk samples showing inactive remnants of the virus, and one human case has been confirmed.
Health officials say the food supply is safe and the risk to the general public is currently low.
Here’s the latest to know on the outbreak:
What is bird flu?
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is an infectious viral disease that primarily spreads among birds and is caused by infection with Influenza A viruses.
These viruses typically spread among wild aquatic birds but can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species, according to the CDC.
Although bird flu viruses normally don’t infect humans, there have been rare cases of infection. To confirm infection, laboratory testing is required.
Signs and symptoms of infection in humans often include sore throat, cough, fever, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle or body aches, fatigue and shortness of breath. Less common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.
Infections can range from no symptoms or mild illness, such as flu-like symptoms, to more severe illness, such as pneumonia that could require hospitalizations, the CDC says.
How did the outbreak begin?
In early March, the USDA announced a bird flu strain that had sickened millions of birds across the U.S was identified in several mammals this year.
At the time, three states had reported cases of bird flu in mammals in 2024, including striped skunks found in Washington state, a mountain lion in Montana and a raccoon in Kentucky.
A few weeks later, federal and state public health officials said they were investigating an illness among primarily older dairy cows in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas and causing symptoms including decreased lactation and low appetite.
The USDA said in a statement at the time that “there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health.”
First human case of bird flu
Earlier this month, the CDC said a human case of bird flu was identified in Texas and linked to cattle. The infected individual worked directly with sick cattle and reported eye redness as their only symptom.
8 years after the National Enquirer’s deal with Donald Trump, the iconic tabloid is limping badly This is the second human case of H5N1 ever reported in the U.S. but the first linked to cattle.
However, there have been no reports and no evidence to indicate there is person-to-person transmission, a CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen told ABC News at the time.
The CDC said it considers the health risk assessment to the general public to be low.
Inactive fragments found in milk samples
Earlier this week, reports emerged of bird flu fragments found in samples of pasteurized milk. However, the fragments are inactive remnants of the virus and cannot cause infection as the commercial milk supply undergoes pasteurization.
Federal agencies maintain the U.S. commercial milk supply remains safe because milk is pasteurized and dairy farmers are required to dispose of any milk from sick cows, so it does not enter the supply.
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in an update.
The FDA said in its update that fragments of the virus are likely inactivated by the pasteurization process.
“The discovery of bird flu virus fragments in commercial milk is significant, not because it poses a direct threat to public health, but because it indicates a broader exposure among dairy cattle than we previously understood,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “This calls for an expanded surveillance of both the virus’s presence and its potential impact on food safety.”
He added, “It’s crucial to continue rigorous testing to determine if any live virus can survive the process. Understanding the dynamics of this virus in dairy products will help us refine our risk assessments and ensure public health safety.”
The FDA said it is collaborating closely with the CDC’s food safety group surveillance team to monitor emergency department data and flu testing data for any unusual trends in flu-like illness, flu or conjunctivitis. There is currently no data showing any unusual trends or activity.
(NEW YORK) — The overall number of births in the United States dropped in 2023 as teenage births reached a record low, according to new provisional federal data published early Thursday.
In 2023, there were 3.59 million births recorded, a 2% decline from the 3.66 million recorded in 2022, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
This follows what has been a general decline since the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2020, the number of births fell an average of 2% per year from 2015 to 2020, including a decline of 4% from 2019 to 2020.
Births slightly rose, by 1%, from 2020 to 2021, and the number remained generally steady from 2021 to 2022, according to the report.
By maternal age, provisional birth rates declined for several age groups including teenagers between ages 15 and 19. For this group, the rate in 2023 was 13.2 births per 1,000 females down 3% from the rate of 13.6 per 1,000 in 2022, another record low for that age group.
Aside from an increase in 2006 and 2007, the teen birth rate in the U.S. has been continuously declining since 1991. From 2007 through 2023, rates for younger teens (ages 15-17) and older teens (ages 18-19) declined by 8% and 6% per year, respectively, the report found.
Reasons for the decline in teen pregnancy are not clear but the CDC says evidence suggests it’s due to a mix of more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more sexually active teens using birth control.
Birth rates also declined for women between ages 20 to 29 and ages 30 to 39. For pre-teens and teens between ages 10 and 14 and women aged 40 and older, rates were relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023.
Additionally, the fertility rate for women between ages 15 and 44 was 54.4 births per 1,000, down 3% from 2022, the report said. Similarly, the fertility rate had been declining from 2014 to 2020, rose from 2020 to 2021, and then began declining again.
“The total fertility rate in 2023 remained below replacement — the level at which a given generation can exactly replace itself (2,100 births per 1,000 women),” the report read. “The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007.”
When broken down by race/ethnicity, nearly every group saw a decline in the provisional numbers of births with the biggest drop being 5% for American Indian and Alaska Native women. Hispanic women were the only group to see births rise, increasing by 1%, and the number was essentially unchanged for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women.
The report also looked at Cesarean delivery rates and found that in 2023, the overall rate increased to 32.4%, from 32.1% in 2022. According to the report, this is the fourth annual consecutive increase after the rate had been in decline since 2009 and the highest rate since 32.7% in 2013.
(NEW YORK) — The nearly 30 million kids who eat meals at schools each day in the United States will soon see some changes to the food they are served.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a series of changes to nutrition standards for school meals, including one that is a historic first.
Here are three things to know about the changes coming to breakfast and lunch meals served at school:
1. Added sugars will now be limited in meals
The biggest change announced by the USDA is that, for the first time, there will be limits on added sugars in school meals.
Currently, schools only have to meet weekly calorie limits, regardless of the added sugars in the foods they serve, according to the USDA.
With this new change, beginning on July 1, 2025, breakfast cereals served at schools will be limited to no more than 6 grams of added sugars per dry ounce; yogurt may have no more than 2 grams of added sugars per ounce; and flavored milk may have no more than 10 grams of added sugars per 8 fluid ounces.
In addition, a second rule, which will take effect on July 1, 2027, requires that added sugars be less than 10% of calories across the week in the school lunch and breakfast programs, according to the USDA.
“USDA heard concerns from parents and teachers about excessive amounts of added sugars in some foods, which factored into this new limit,” the agency said in a news release announcing the changes. “Research shows that these added sugars are most commonly found in typical school breakfast items.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children under the age of 2 should not have any added sugars in their diet.
For people age 2 and over, added sugars should constitute less than 10% of their daily calories, according to the CDC. If a child consumes 1,600 calories per day, for example, no more than 160 calories of those should come from added sugars.
Eating too many added sugars — common in processed foods, desserts, and sugar-sweetened beverages — is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, tooth decay and heart disease, according to to the CDC.
2. Sodium is being gradually reduced in school meals
Beginning on July 1, 2027, school lunches will see a 15% reduction from current limits, while sodium in breakfast meals will see a 10% reduction, according to the USDA.
The USDA said it is allowing current sodium standards to remain for the next three years to give schools, manufacturers, and the general public time to adapt.
“USDA is providing about three years for implementation of the sodium reduction in response to public comments that suggested it takes about three years for manufacturers to reformulate products,” the agency said. “Public comments also indicated that children are more likely to accept lower sodium school meals if the meals they consume outside of school are lower in sodium. To that end, other federal agencies are supporting efforts to improve dietary behaviors among the U.S. population.”
Eating too much sodium, the majority of which comes from processed foods, can “increase your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and stroke,” according to the CDC.
3. Chocolate milk will still be served, but with limits
The USDA said it will allow schools to continue to sell fat-free and low-fat and flavored and unflavored milk to students.
Beginning on July 1, 2025, however, flavored milk sold at schools will have to meet the new added sugars limits.
Flavored milk offered to K-12 students in school breakfast and lunch must contain no more than 10 grams of added sugars per 8 fluid ounces, according to the USDA, while flavored milk sold a la carte in middle and high schools must have no more than 15 grams of added sugars per 12 fluid ounces.
(NEW YORK) — As federal agencies and state partners continue investigating outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) — more commonly referred to as bird flu — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it discovered fragments of the virus in some samples of milk.
In an update from the FDA, the agency said it tested milk samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and found the presence of fragments of the virus, which is not the same as infectious virus and currently poses no increased risk to human health.
“Based on available information, pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus, however the process is not expected to remove the presence of viral particles,” the FDA said.
“At this point, when you look for something in public health, science and medicine, your chances of finding it go up,” ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said.
Citing a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ashton said, “the overall risk to the general American population is low, particularly from dairy cows, however, ‘they are taking this very seriously.'”
What to know about bird flu and safety of milk supply
Importantly, the FDA stated, “we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe” and expect new results from multiple studies “in the next few days to weeks.”
Concerns were first raised last month when HPAI was detected in dairy cows across multiple states, but the USDA and FDA maintain that the U.S. commercial milk supply remains safe due to “the pasteurization process and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.”
“Nearly all (99%) of the commercial milk supply that is produced on dairy farms in the U.S. comes from farms that participate in the Grade ‘A’ milk program and follow the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), which includes controls that help ensure the safety of dairy products,” the FDA update continued.
Aside from pasteurized milk, both the FDA and CDC warn against drinking raw milk or products made with it that are typically bought at farms or local stores, due to possible viruses or bacteria that can lead to infection or foodborne illness.
Twenty states explicitly prohibit raw milk sales in some form. And milk that travels across state lines must be pasteurized, according to federal regulations.
HPAI was first detected in 1996 and there have only been two cases of human H5N1 in the U.S. so far. There have been no reports of human-to-human spread in the U.S.
(NEW YORK) — In a first-of-its-kind procedure, a terminally ill patient has become the first person in the world to undergo a gene-edited pig kidney transplant and also have a mechanical heart pump surgically implanted.
Surgeons at NYU Langone Health, in New York City, performed the operation in two steps, the first being the implantation of the heart pump. The second took place days later, with the transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney and the pig’s thymus gland — which makes white blood cells to help the immune system fight disease — to help prevent rejection.
The patient is 54-year-old Lisa Pisano, from New Jersey, who was facing heart failure and end-stage kidney disease, NYU Langone said Wednesday. Due to several chronic conditions, including being on dialysis, she was not a candidate for a heart transplant or a kidney transplant, the hospital said.
Additionally, Pisano has high levels of antibodies harmful to human tissue that would make it difficult to find a match for a human kidney transplant, according to the hospital. However, these antibodies were not harmful to gene-edited pig organs.
“All I want is the opportunity to have a better life,” Pisano said in a statement. “After I was ruled out for a human transplant, I learned I didn’t have a lot of time left. My doctors thought there may be a chance I could be approved to receive a gene-edited pig kidney, so I discussed it with my family and my husband.”
The NYU team says it believes this is the first documented case of a patient with a mechanical heart pump receiving an organ transplant of any kind. What’s more, this is just the second case of a gene-edited pig kidney transplanted into a living person, and the first with the thymus combined, according to the hospital.
The first case occurred last month when a surgical team at Massachusetts General Hospital connected the pig kidney’s blood vessels and ureter with those of 62-year-old Richard Slayman, a man living with end-stage kidney disease. The hospital has said he continues to recover well.
Pisano’s two procedures were performed by separate surgical teams about nine days apart. The first, on April 4, involved the surgical insertion of a device called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), which helps pump blood from the lower left heart chamber to the rest of the body.
NYU Langone says it typically is used in patients who are waiting for a heart transplant or are ineligible to receive a transplant. The hospital added that Pisano would only have days or weeks to live without the LVAD.
Although end-stage kidney disease typically rules out patients from receiving an LVAD, the novel approach of using a gene-edited pig kidney helped get her approved for the procedure, according to doctors.
“Without the possibility of a kidney transplant, she would not have been eligible as a candidate for an LVAD due to the high mortality in patients on dialysis with heart pumps,” said Dr. Nader Moazami, chief of the division of heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support for the department of cardiothoracic surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who was one of the doctors who performed the LVAD surgery.
“This unique approach is the first time in the world that LVAD surgery has been done on a dialysis patient with a subsequent plan to transplant a kidney. The measure for success is a chance at a better quality of life and to give Lisa more time to spend with her family,” Moazami continued.
Doctors say the pig kidney has a single genetic modification, to “knock out” the gene that produces a sugar known as alpha-gal. Studies have shown that removing alpha-gal helps prevent rejection of xenotransplanted, or non-human, organs.
“By using pigs with a single genetic modification, we can better understand the role one key stable change in the genome can have in making xenotransplantation a viable alternative,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the transplant surgery and is chair of the department of surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, said in a statement.
“Since these pigs can be bred and do not require cloning like more complex gene edits, this is a sustainable, scalable solution to the organ shortage. If we want to start saving more lives quickly, using fewer modifications and medications will be the answer,” Montgomery said.
Pisano’s two-step procedure required clearance by NYU Langone’s institutional review board and approval from the Food and Drug Administration under its “compassionate use” program, which often allows non-traditional methods to be used when a patient has a serious or life-threatening condition.
The xenotransplantation was performed on April 11 and Pisano continues to recover well, the hospital said.
Last year, researchers at NYU Langone Health in New York City conducted a two-month study of a genetically engineered pig kidney that had been transplanted into a 58-year-old man who had been declared brain-dead, with his family’s consent. The team observed only mild rejection that required intensifying immunosuppression medication to reverse it.
Experts have expressed hope that being able to transfer animal organs into human patients will help the future of the organ supply.
Currently, more than 103,000 men, women and children are on the national transplant waiting list, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. Each day, 17 people die waiting for a transplant and, every eight minutes, someone is added to the transplant list, according to the HRSA.
What’s more, many donor organs — including kidneys — are needlessly discarded every year, research shows. If these types of transplants for kidneys prove to work and be safe — this could one day make dialysis unnecessary for the more than 500,000 people in the United States who require it to live, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
“It is incredible to consider the scientific achievements that have led to our ability to save Lisa’s life, and what we are endeavoring to do as a society for everyone in need of a life-saving organ,” Montgomery said.
However, the edited animal organs bring up questions about if they will work long term, if they are safe and if it is ethical raising animals for human organ transplantation.
(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) — People who attended a total solar eclipse event at a children’s museum in Indiana may have been exposed to measles, according to museum and health officials.
An infected individual traveled to the event at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on April 8 from out of state, the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) said in a news release late Friday afternoon. Melissa McMasters, administrator of infectious disease and immunizations at the MCPHD, told ABC News the local county department was informed about the infected patient from the state Department of Health.
“Measles is one of those reportable diseases that’s required to be reported by law because of the public health significance of it,” she said.
No information will be made available about the patient including name, age, sex, race/ethnicity or what state they are from due to privacy laws, McMasters said.
Anyone who was exposed to measles, and is susceptible, would likely see symptoms before Monday, April 22, but symptoms could appear as late as April 29, according to the health department.
There were 3,527 people in attendance on April 8, the children’s museum said, adding that it sent out emails notifying households in attendance that day for whom it had contact information, as well as notified all staff and volunteers.
The first symptoms of measles typically begin seven to 14 days after exposure and include fever, cough, a runny nose and red, watery eyes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About two to three days later, tiny white spots, known as Koplik spots, may appear inside the mouth, the CDC says. Not long after that, a rash breaks out, usually beginning on the face — at the hairline — and spreading downward, according to the CDC.
Complications from measles can be relatively benign, such as rashes, or they can be much more severe, including viral sepsis, pneumonia or encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain.
McMasters said the risk to the general public is low because most people are vaccinated against measles and no cases have been reported yet in the county. However, anyone who suspects they may have measles is advised to stay home and to call a health care provider immediately, she said.
“We take the health and safety of our visitors, staff, volunteers and community very seriously and are following the lead of the Indiana Department of Health and the Marion County Public Health Department,” the children’s museum said in a statement to ABC News.
“In support of their communication, we have also shared information regarding the possibility of a measles exposure with as many individuals as possible who were here on Monday, April 8, 2024. We urge anyone with questions or concerns to reach out to their local health department or a medical professional.”
This comes amid a rapid increase in the number of measles cases during the first quarter of 2024, in part due to several localized outbreaks, including at a children’s hospital and daycare center in Philadelphia, an elementary school in Florida and a migrant center in Chicago.
In February, the Indiana Department of Health confirmed the state’s first measles case in five years in a Lake County resident who sought medical care at three Chicago hospitals, Chicago ABC station WLS reported.
Measles is a highly transmissible virus. It’s so infectious that a measles patient could infect up to 90% of close contacts who are not immune, either through prior infection or vaccination, according to the CDC.
The CDC currently recommends that everyone receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, with the first dose between ages 12 and 15 months and the second dose between ages 4 and 6.
One dose of the measles vaccine is 93% effective at preventing infection if exposed to the virus, and two doses are 97% effective, according to the CDC.
“It’s really upsetting that we’re investing so much time and energy, money, resources into this when we know that if we have a highly vaccinated public, we won’t be seeing these cases,” McMasters said. “Yes, I’ve been in public health for 25 years, and it kind of feels like going backwards.”
(NEW YORK) — A public health alert has been issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service for ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
Raw ground beef produced by Greater Omaha Packing Co., Inc. on March 28, 2024, is no longer available for purchase so “a recall was not requested.” Still, the government agency issued an alert last week to warn consumers and food service institutions who may have the product in their freezers.
“Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them and food service institutions are urged not to serve these products,” the USDA alert stated. “These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
The beef products have a “Use/Freeze by” date of April 22, 2024, and a packaging date of “032824.”
Click here for the full list of products subject to the public health alert with additional label information from FSIS here.
The products have an establishment number, “EST. 960A,” inside the USDA mark of inspection.
“The problem was discovered by the establishment while conducting an inventory of product that was on hold because it was found positive for E. coli O157:H7,” the USDA stated. “The company notified FSIS that they inadvertently used a portion of the contaminated beef to produce ground beef products that they subsequently shipped into commerce.”
At the time of publication, there have been no confirmed reports of illness due to the consumption of these products.
Greater Omaha Packing Co., Inc. did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for additional comment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some E. coli can cause diarrhea, and germs can spread through contaminated food or water.
Anyone can get sick from E. coli, but adults over the age of 65, children younger than 5 and people with weakened immune systems, have an increased chance of infection.
Symptoms of E. coli, which can usually last five to seven days, include “diarrhea, which can be bloody, and most have stomach cramps that may be severe,” according to the CDC, as well as vomiting and possible high fever.
(GRANADA HILLS, Calif.) — A mom-of-three in California is speaking out after surviving two near-death experiences in a span of six weeks.
Christina Aleksanian, 36, of Granada Hills, was recovering in the hospital after giving birth to her third child, a daughter named Stephanie, when she said she felt her hand start to go numb.
Aleksanian said she thought she was getting a migraine, but as she was talking to her daughter’s pediatrician, who happened to be in the room at the moment, she became unresponsive.
“My pediatrician came in and was trying to talk to me and I don’t remember after that,” Aleksanian told “Good Morning America.” “My husband describes me as laying there with a very blank face.”
Aleksanian’s husband, Gary Galfayan, told “GMA” that just hours after he watched his wife deliver their healthy child on May 23, 2023, he saw her being rushed away for lifesaving treatment.
“I heard, ‘Code blue, code blue, stroke,’ and I remember doctors just coming in,” Galfayan said.
Aleksanian was rushed into an operating room, where doctors performed a cerebral angiogram to check the blood vessels in her brain. She then underwent an emergency thrombectomy to remove a blood clot from her brain, according to Dr. Onkar Marwah, the interventional cardiologist who led Aleksanian’s care at Dignity Health – Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.
“This was quite immediate action that was taken to save her brain and save her life,” Marwah told “GMA.” We reestablished blood flow to that part of the brain so the brain could start recovering.”
Doctors later determined that Aleksanian suffered a stroke due to a patent foramen ovale, or PFO, a congenital heart defect she was unaware she had.
In Aleksanian’s case, the hole between the left and right atria in her heart, which typically closes shortly after birth, did not close naturally, leaving her with PFO, according to Marwah. When a blood clot formed in her body amid childbirth, it moved through the hole, bypassing her lungs and causing a stroke.
Marwah described what happened to Aleksanian as very rare, noting that most people with PFO are unaware they have the condition and that most women with PFOs go through pregnancy and delivery normally, as Aleksanian did with her two previous pregnancies.
He pointed out, though, that pregnancy does increase the risk of stroke, so women should be aware of the signs and symptoms. Signs of a stroke include sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, sudden confusion or difficulty speaking, sudden vision changes, loss of balance or coordination and a sudden severe headache with no known cause, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC uses the acronym F.A.S.T. to remind people of what to do if a stroke is suspected — Check if one side of the Face drops, ask the person to raise both Arms and check if one drifts downward, check if Speech is slurred or strange and if you see any of the signs, call 911 right away to not waste Time.
“The risk [of stroke] increases at the third trimester of pregnancy and the postpartum time after delivery,” Marwah said. “And when a stroke happens, the most important thing is to recognize it early and get to a stroke center ASAP, so call 911, call an ambulance to get there immediately.”
Marwah said in Aleksanian’s case, had the pediatrician not been in the room with her and noticed her stroke symptoms, she may not have survived.
Galfayan said doctors told him his wife was a “ticking time bomb” as they rushed her off for treatment to save her life.
In the days after Aleksanian’s stroke, Galfayan rushed back and forth between her hospital room and his newborn daughter, who had to be transferred to the neo-natal intensive care unit, NICU, while Aleksanian recovered.
“I would go by the baby, and my mind is downstairs [with my wife],” Galfayan recalled. “I don’t know how we came out alive, but we did.”
Aleksanian survived the stroke with no lasting complications, but spent several days in the intensive care unit before she was able to be reunited with her newborn daughter, Stephanie.
“That 10 to 15 minutes [holding Stephanie] meant the world to me,” Aleksanian said. “When I saw her, I was like, ‘Okay, I have to get better. I have to do everything I possibly can, all for her.'”
Around one week after suffering the stroke, Aleksanian was discharged from the hospital, and was reunited with Stephanie and her older two daughters, ages 8 and 5, at home.
She returned to the hospital in mid-June to undergo a second procedure, known as a PFO closure, to close the hole in her heart.
While recovering from that procedure, Aleksanian’s life changed again when she and her family were in a multi-vehicle crash that sent them to the hospital once again.
Aleksanian, Galfayan and their three children were driving in between doctors’ appointments for Aleksanian and Stephanie on June 28, when a car careened off the highway and struck their car. Los Angeles ABC station KABC-TV reported at the time that the crash injured six people, including one person who had to be extricated from the car.
“I just remember waking up to [Galfayan] screaming my name, ‘Chris, wake up,'” Aleksanian said. “I get up … and I’m just profusely bleeding.”
Aleksanian and her family members were transported by ambulance to a local hospital, but all survived with no major injuries, including Stephanie, who was just 1-month-old at the time.
Now, as Aleksanian and her family prepare to celebrate Stephanie’s first birthday, she said it feels like her own second birthday, jokingly describing herself as a cat who has used two of her lives in the past year. Both Aleksanian and Galfayan added that they are thankful for the “guardian angel” they feel has kept their family safe.
“It’s incredible what we went through and that we’re out and we’re able to share our story,” Aleksanian said. “I tell the story. I’ve lived the story. But, emotionally, I have a hard time accepting the story.”
(NEW YORK) — Jazmin Evans is one of more than 14,000 Black kidney transplant candidates who found out that an outdated medical test may have inappropriately calculated their need for a transplant.
Evans, 29, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in January 2012. She started dialysis and was put on the kidney transplant waitlist in 2019.
“I just remember feeling, like, this is never gonna happen for me,” she said, speaking with ABC News.
The U.S. faces a dire kidney organ shortage, meaning patients with kidney failure must meet certain criteria to be considered good candidates for a transplant.
One of those considerations is a test called the “eGFR” calculation, which is a measure of a person’s kidney function. This metric takes into account factors like age, sex, body weight and — until recently — a person’s race. The decision to include race was based on outdated studies that relied on an assumption that Black patients had differences in kidney function compared to other groups.
In many cases, the use of a race-based score may have contributed to Black patients being placed lower on the waitlist.
“That really was problematic, but it was very widely accepted,” said Martha Pavlakis, former chair of the kidney committee with the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, an organization that administers the transplant system in the U.S. and maintains transplant policies. “It was what we were taught. It was what we turned around and taught other people.”
In 2020, the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology established a national task force to reassess how race is taken into account when diagnosing kidney related illnesses. The task force’s final report outlined guidance stating that race variables shouldn’t be applied to kidney transplant candidates, which the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network later implemented.
As a result, some people suddenly found themselves higher on the waitlist.
In January 2023, the algorithm evaluating kidney disease changed, eliminating race as a factor.
Evans said she was shocked when she received notice of her movement up the transplant list in 2023. She shared the news on TikTok at the time, showing a letter stating that she was eligible for a “waiting time modification.”
“My original wait time started April of 2019,” she says in the TikTok video. “With the new calculation for Black Americans, my ‘start date’ would have started [in] 2015.”
“At this point, I am eight years on the transplant list,” she continues. “For my blood type, the average waiting time is about four to five years. I could’ve [had] a kidney already.”
Evans’ story is just one of many examples of health inequities historically ingrained in the kidney transplant system.
“Everyone says, you know, we live in this post-racial society here in America, but that’s really not the truth,” Evans said, speaking with ABC News.
The 29-year-old, who finally received a new kidney in July 2023, has since dedicated her TikTok account to kidney health advocacy and education.
Michelle Josephson, former president at American Society of Nephrology, called the inclusion of race factors in the previous kidney transplant waitlist evaluations inappropriate.
“Race is a social construct and it should not be included in these [tests],” she said. “It’s not appropriate.”
Dr. Samira Farouk, a transplant nephrologist and volunteer at the National Kidney Foundation, echoed that sentiment, stating that race is not a risk factor for kidney disease.
“One risk factor that is related to race is the racism,” Farouk said, “so, thinking about decreased access to care and decreased access to medications, decreased access to optimal diabetes, and high blood pressure control.”
Carole Johnson, administrator at the Health Resources and Services Administration, said the agency had long heard from families and people in the transplant field that there was room for improvement in the evaluating systems.
“Families were waiting too long and individuals were struggling with the system,” she said. “It is absolutely unacceptable that there would be anything in the algorithm for allocating organs that would in any way be weighted based on race, without the science to support that.”
As a result of the evaluation changes, 14,280 Black kidney transplant candidates were moved up the waitlist between January 2023 and mid-March 2024, according to Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data. Of that group, nearly 3,000 have received a kidney transplant.
Experts say this is an example of identifying the inappropriate use of race in medical care.
“We not only attempted to eliminate it from influencing care, but [can look at it] and say, for those people for whom it may have impacted their care, can we fix that?” Pavlakis said.
The inequities don’t end with kidney transplant waitlists, nephrologists pointed out. Racial biases also exist in calculations for the kidney donor profile index, which determines the quality of a donor kidney for a transplant.
“It really goes back to this initial assumption that race is a biological variable [which isn’t accurate],” Farouk said.
A new mandate is in the works which would omit the race bias in calculations for kidney donor allocations. An Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network vote to change the biased donor test is set for June.
“There’s a lot of issues in medicine and many other parts of our culture that speak to our very challenging history. And I think this is one of them,” Josephson said. “The good news is that we have pulled race out and we’ve tried to rectify some of the inequities that occurred because of it.”
Evans, too, said she feels “hopeful” for the future, adding that she hopes the changes end up “bringing more equity to the donation process or the transplant process.”
