Health

(WASHINGTON) — Last week’s decision from a federal judge in Texas has thrown access to a common abortion pill into limbo.

In the ruling, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas reversed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, potentially blocking access to the abortion medication across the country.

Kacsmaryk stayed his own order for seven days to give the federal government time to file an appeal, which it has already done.

However, immediately after that decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice in Washington state issued a ruling barring the FDA from pulling mifepristone off the market.

For the time being, the medication is available, but the conflicting decisions mean a battle is almost certainly heading to the Supreme Court — and are confusing for patients who may need access to the pills.

‘Understanding what it means, how soon that might go into effect, all of these things are sort of unclear for a lot of a lot of people,” Dr. Sadia Haider, an OBGYN at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News. “And I do think it’s confusing, and it’s concerning, both from a provider and patient standpoint.”

Mifepristone is a drug typically used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to induce an abortion or to help manage an early miscarriage.

The medication works by blocking progesterone, a hormone that the body needs to continue a pregnancy.

This causes the uterine lining to stop thickening and to break down, detaching the embryo. The second drug, misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel the embryo.

The FDA authorized mifepristone for medication abortion in September 2000 for up to seven weeks’ gestation, which was then extended to 10 weeks’ gestation in 2016.

However, the World Health Organization says the two drug-regiment can be taken up until the 12-week mark of pregnancy.

Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.

In December 2021, the FDA announced it permanently lifted its restriction that abortion pills had to be dispensed in-person. In January, it went further by allowing retail pharmacies to provide the drug too, either by mail or in person, so long as they meet certain requirements.

“It’s a very safe medication and it’s highly effective in optimizing treatment of medical abortion, but also miscarriage management as well as helping improve outcomes with induction of labor for fetal demise,” Haider said. “All of these usages have been studied extensively from a safety standpoint, efficacy standpoint, patient acceptability standpoint, patient experience standpoint, et cetera.”

However, Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal advocacy group — the plaintiff that the Texas judge ruled in favor of — claims mifepristone is not safe and that the FDA didn’t study it closely enough before it was approved.

Haider said she and her colleagues will continue to prescribe mifepristone over the next week for medical abortion and miscarriage care and encourages patients who are planning to receive the drugs to get them.

At the end of the week, they will analyze to see if they can keep using the drugs or not.

Misoprostol would still be available for both abortions and miscarriages on its own, but as an off-label use.

Data from around the world shows misoprostol is safe and effective — and that they’re ready to provide misoprostol-only abortions — but that the two-dose regimen is more effective and has fewer side effects.

When given alone to induce an abortion, patients need to take three to four doses of misoprostol about three hours apart.

“We can provide this, we will provide it if needed, we will just have to do a lot of a lot more counseling and support for the patients to go through it in this way, and just really prepare them for the scenarios where the side effects might experience that higher side effects,” Haider said. ‘In my career — I’ve been practicing for over 20 years — and never had to go to this route of medication abortion, so it’s going to be a new experience for our patients and providers.”

It’s unclear how the ruling will affect clinicians and companies that are currently able to send abortion pills through the mail.

If mifepristone does end up being restricted, Haider said clinical care teams, platforms and groups that currently mail mifepristone will likely not continue to do so, therefore patients need to be careful that they’re not being duped by receiving bogus pills.

‘Using a trusted resource would be really important,” she said. “I think patients just asking questions of whoever they are utilizing for these medications. It’s just being aware of where they’re getting it.”

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(NEW YORK) — Two lettuce and salad kit producers have recalled products due to potential contamination of listeria monocytogenes.

Revolution Farms expanded upon an earlier voluntary recall first announced on April 5 to include all products sold under the Revolution Farms brand.

“The recalled product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” the company said in a recall announcement posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development first received “a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test of a package of Revolution Farms Green Sweet Crisp 5 oz. Retail with Best By date of April 2, 2023,” the company stated.

Once the recalled product “was epidemiologically linked with a multi-state outbreak of Listeriosis” the recall was voluntarily expanded on April 6, 2023, Revolution Farms said, adding that an investigation into the matter is “ongoing.”

The affected products were sold to retailers and food service distributors in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. For a full list of retailers and detailed packaging information as well as product codes, click here .

“Revolution Farms, LLC is cooperating with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on this ongoing investigation,” the company said in a statement with the recall.

All recalled products were distributed under the Revolution Farms brand name, and all Revolution Farms products and date codes are included in the recall.

Fresh Express Incorporated also announced a voluntarily recall on Friday of a “limited quantity of three varieties of already-expired branded and private label salad kit products” which it said was done “out of an abundance of caution due to a possible health risk from Listeria monocytogenes.”

According to a company recall announcement posted on the FDA website, the recalled products were distributed through retailers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and are no longer available for sale.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the Fresh Express recall, as of time of publication.

The affected items include Fresh Express Caesar Chopped Kit, Fresh Express Chopped Kit Chipotle Cheddar and Publix Makoto Honey Ginger Salad Kit. Click here for full product codes and use by date information.

Consumers who may have the recalled products in their refrigerators have been urged by both companies in both recalls to discard and not consume them.

Refund and return information can be directed to the company response teams found in the recall announcements.

Symptoms, side effects of listeria monocytogenes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , listeria can cause severe illness “when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body” after a person consumes contaminated food. Those at higher risk include pregnant people, those aged 65 or older, or anyone who has a weakened immune system, the CDC says.

“If you are pregnant, it can cause pregnancy loss, premature birth, or a life-threatening infection in your newborn,” the CDC states on its website. “Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.”

According to the CDC, anyone infected with listeria may experience “mild food poisoning symptoms” such as diarrhea or fever, and many recover without antibiotic treatment.

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(NEW YORK) — Well before a federal judge in Texas issued his ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone, abortion providers across the country said they had been preparing for what they called a “worst-case scenario.”

In his April 7 decision, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of Alliance Defending Freedom — a conservative Christian legal advocacy group — that asked him to reverse the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, an oral medication typically taken with misoprostol to end a pregnancy.

The advocacy group’s lawsuit said mifepristone is unsafe and that the FDA didn’t study it closely enough before approving its use. The FDA and mainstream medical doctors insist this isn’t true, and that there have been no safety concerns during the 23 years the drug has been on the market.

Now, Kacsmaryk’s issuing of a nationwide injunction on mifepristone — set to take effect by Friday — may impact as many as 64 million women of childbearing age in the U.S.

“This is something that can cause confusion. It’s something that can cause fear,” Dr. Gopika Krishna, a board-certified OB-GYN in New York, told ABC News of both the lawsuit and the judge’s decision. “And that affects our patients and our patients’ understanding of what’s available to them and what options are safe.”

Here are six questions answered by abortion providers and reproductive policy experts about how the judge’s decision may impact women:

1. If I live in a state where abortion is legal, does the Texas abortion pill ruling impact me?

Yes, the injunction on mifepristone is nationwide, affecting even states where abortion, including medication abortion, is legal.

That means drug manufacturers will have to halt production and distribution of mifepristone for the U.S. market.

Eventually, after supply of the drug dwindles, patients will not be able to access mifepristone from any provider, whether it’s via telehealth or inside a clinic.

In states where abortion is legal, providers would only be able to offer in-clinic surgical procedures or opt to provide medication abortions using only one other medication, misoprostol. Doctors say that method is safe and mostly effective but can also cause more side effects.

2. When does the ruling go into effect?

For now, mifepristone remains accessible because Kacsmaryk gave the federal government seven days to appeal his ruling.

On the same day Kacsmaryk’s decision was released, April 7, the Department of Justice and drugmaker Danco Laboratories, which produces the brand name version of the drug, appealed it to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”

GenBioPro, the manufacturer of generic mifepristone, responded to Kacsmaryk’s ruling and said they were confident in the legality of the drug.

“Nothing in the court’s order changes the decades of science and evidence regarding mifepristone’s safety and efficacy. As we review the court’s order, we will continue to make our product available,” Evan Masingill, CEO of GenBioPro, said in a statement.

3. What is mifepristone and what role does it play in medication abortion?

A medication abortion involves the use of two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, taken orally.

It is not a surgical procedure, and the FDA says both medications are safe enough to be mailed to a patient following a telehealth or in-person visit from a certified provider.

In most cases in a medication abortion, mifepristone is taken first to block the hormone progesterone. Then 24 to 48 hours later, a second pill, misoprostol, is taken to empty the uterus.

“Mifepristone is a medication that’s been on the market for decades. It has many, many scientific articles and research that have supported it’s safety, and it’s something that is used quite often for abortion care but in other situations as well,” said Krishna, also a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “Misoprostol is a medication that, again, has been used for many, many years, has lots of good evidence and data supporting its safety, and it’s a medicine that we use not only in abortion care but in other aspects of OB-GYN care as well.”

In addition to its use in abortion care, mifepristone is also used currently for miscarriage care, according to Krishna. It remains unclear how the judge’s ruling will impact miscarriage care. The plaintiff had asked for the judge to only block the drug for purposes of abortion, but it’s possible availability will dry up since it’s primary purpose was to end a pregnancy.

The medication is also FDA-approved to treat patients with Cushing’s syndrome, a disorder in which the body makes too much of the hormone cortisol, according to the National Institutes of Health. That medication, however, is manufactured and provided to patients at a different dose. The judge’s ruling would still allow for the availability of that drug.

Guidelines from the FDA, which first approved medication abortions in 2000, advise that abortion-inducing pills are safe to use up to 70 days, or 10 weeks, of pregnancy, though evidence shows it can be safe even later in pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

While the FDA has continued to approve mifepristone for abortion care, individual states can still set laws about dispensing mifepristone within their state.

Last week, Wyoming became the first state to ban medication abortions separate from a ban on all abortion services.

4. Does the Texas ruling mean medication abortion is no longer available?

The Texas judge’s ruling means that, for now, the FDA-approved method of medication abortion — using both mifepristone and misoprostol — is available. But that could change by Friday unless the higher court intervenes.

Abortion providers told ABC News though that they are prepared to offer misoprostol-only medication abortions in states where it is allowed.

“We are preparing a misoprostol-only regimen,” said Dr. Ashley Jeanlus, a board-certified OBGYN in California. “The misoprostol regimen is a bit longer and it utilizes more pills to complete it, so we’re just adjusting our clinic to be able to help patients that way.”

More than one dozen states currently restrict access to medication abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute .

5. What is misoprostol?

Misoprostol is a medication that the FDA currently approves for the use of treating gastric ulcers.

However, there are several off-label uses for obstetrical and gynecological purposes including treating postpartum hemorrhaging and softening and opening the cervix for patients ready to give birth vaginally, experts told ABC News.

When it comes to its use in pregnancy, misoprostol causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel an embryo.

A misoprostol-only regimen for abortion not only takes longer to complete, but can also come with more side effects, including nausea and diarrhea, Dr. Laura Laursen, an OB-GYN at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, previously told ABC News.

Studies though show that while using misoprostol with mifepristone is more effective, using misoprostol-only is safe. One 2019 study found “misoprostol alone is effective and safe and is a reasonable option for women seeking abortion in the first trimester,” while a larger review of data published in 2020 also found it safe and effective in terminating a pregnancy.

Rachel Jones, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, said in many cases, it will not be a quick fix for abortion providers to pivot to using a misoprostol-only regimen.

“It’s not a regimen that has been used in clinical settings in the U.S. very often,” Jones said, adding, “And anytime a medical practice is changed, it takes it a while for everything to get in place and running smoothly.”

Krishna said she worries the judge’s ruling means providers like herself will not be able to offer patients comprehensive reproductive care.

“As clinicians, we really want to make sure that we are offering our patients all of these options and they can make a decision based on what they feel is best for them, not a decision that they have to make because of what’s limited to them by law,” she said. “So there are options for medication abortion with the removal of mifepristone, but it is still something that we’re really worried about because it’s the medically unnecessary removal of a medication that we know is safe.”

6. Could the Texas judge’s abortion pill ruling be overturned?

Yes, the ruling can go through an appeals process, meaning it would move to higher courts for other judges to decide.

Jones said that for abortion rights advocates, there is “not a lot of hope” for the appeals process given previous rulings by courts that would see the case.

Ultimately, the case could go as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, the same court that last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion that had been the law in the U.S. for almost 50 years.

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(AMARILLO, Texas) — A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled to suspend the abortion drug mifepristone, which was approved by regulators 23 years ago and has now become one of the most common methods of abortion in the country.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The ruling is paused for seven days so the federal government may appeal.

Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, held a hearing on the issue on March 15 in Amarillo, Texas, where the conservative plaintiffs in the case argued the Food and Drug Administration was wrong to approve mifepristone.

About half of all abortions in the U.S. were medication abortions as of 2020, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such methods usually rely on mifepristone in a two-drug regimen along with misoprostol.

Erik Baptist, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that filed the lawsuit, said after the hearing that the judge needed to provide a check on the FDA, which he said ignored safety concerns with mifepristone — an allegation the government and most medical doctors refute.

“The FDA never had the authority to approve these drugs and remove important safeguards,” Baptist said.

Government lawyers defending the FDA said at the hearing that the government has reviewed extensive data and found no such safety concerns.

“The public interest would be dramatically harmed” by siding with the plaintiffs, said Julie Straus Harris, an attorney for the Justice Department, while Baptist urged the judge: “Relief must be complete and nationwide.”

Outside, pro-abortion access advocates were blunt. “There are a whole host of reasons why this court should just dismiss [the lawsuit] out of hand,” said Carrie Flaxman, senior director for public policy litigation and law with Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

An appeal is likely.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning Thursday for clinicians and public health departments in the United States to be on the lookout for cases of a rare Ebola-like virus.

The warning is in response to outbreaks of Marburg virus disease, one in Equatorial Guinea and the other in Tanzania — with neither country reporting outbreaks before this year.

So far, no cases have been reported in the U.S. nor have any other outbreaks been reported, but the CDC says the warning “provides information about these outbreaks to increase awareness of the risk of imported cases in the United States.”

In a press conference on March 21, Tanzania’s health minister announced an outbreak among a group of fishermen. Of the eight cases, five were fatal.

Meanwhile, in Equatorial Guinea, there have been 14 confirmed cases since Feb. 7, with 10 of the patients dying, according to the CDC.

Currently there is no evidence that the outbreaks in the two countries are related, and they appear to be independent clusters in which the virus spilled over from animals to humans, the federal health agency said.

Marburg virus disease is a rare illness caused by the Marburg virus, which is a so-called cousin of Ebola virus.

The first cases were identified in European laboratory workers who were handling African green monkeys imported from Uganda.

The virus can spread either from animals to humans or via person-to-person contact either through contact with infected blood or other fluids or objects contaminated with those fluids.

According to the CDC, the incubation period — the time between infection and onset of symptoms — can last anywhere from two to 21 days.

A person is not contagious until symptoms appear, which can include sudden fever, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, loss of appetite, gastrointestinal symptoms, or unexplained bleeding.

The CDC says doctors should screen for the disease if someone has symptoms and may have been exposed to the virus while in an affected area — such as if they attended a funeral or visited a healthcare facility.

The disease can cause serious complications include internal bleeding and organ damage.

“Clinical diagnosis of Marburg virus disease be difficult,” the CDC said. “Many of the signs and symptoms of MVD are similar to other infectious diseases (such as malaria or typhoid fever) or viral hemorrhagic fevers that may be endemic in the area (such as Lassa fever or Ebola). This is especially true if only a single case is involved.”

There is currently no known treatment for the disease with therapies focused on supportive measures such as balancing fluids, maintaining oxygen levels and blood pressure.

According to the World Health Organization, past outbreaks have had case fatality rates of between 24% and 88% with an average rate of 50%.

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(NEW YORK) — As temperatures begin to warm up, announcing the arrival of spring, it also means the arrival of allergy season for millions of Americans.

Health departments across the U.S. have started to warn that high pollen levels could mean exacerbated symptoms including itchy and watery eyes; runny noses; sneezing; hives; and coughing.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), recent research has shown that pollen seasons start 20 days earlier and are 10 days longer than they were in 1990.

Allergists told ABC News a mix of climate change and more carbon emissions in the atmosphere have led to plants in many areas having a longer growing season and, therefore, higher pollen levels.

In fact, the USDA said allergy seasons feature 21% more pollen than three decades ago.

“Each earlier, longer growing season just leads to more time for exposure to those things which patient may react to,” Dr. Arveen Bhasin, an allergist-immunologist at Mayo Clinic, told ABC News.

Here’s what people with seasonal allergies can do to help handle their symptoms and get some relief:

Why do seasonal allergies occur?
Allergies occur when the immune system views food, medicine, things in the environment or something else as harmful and overreacts.

“Seasonal allergies occur when your immune system, which is normally designed to fight unwanted things like germs, becomes hyperactive in an abnormal way against anything, in this case airborne allergens,” Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News. “Pollen is the biggest culprit for season allergies,” which can come from plants such as trees, grasses and weeds.

The immune system then releases chemical compounds, such as histamine, which causes those hallmark symptoms of allergies.

Reactions can range from mildly annoying symptoms to life-threatening reactions including anaphylactic shock, which is when blood pressure drops suddenly and the organs can’t get enough oxygen.

In 2021, approximately 81 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with seasonal allergies, otherwise known as hay fever, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA).

How long do seasonal allergies last and are they getting worse?
Typically, spring allergies begin in March and last until the early summer while fall allergies begin in late August and last through autumn.

However, a report released last year from the AAFA found cities throughout the country — from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to San Antonio, Texas — are reporting worsening seasonal allergies.

Additionally, research has suggested that allergy seasons were getting longer and worse.

“Because our planet is warming up, it’s taking longer to get that first frost in the fall and so, there’s just longer growing seasons, and then we’re seeing the pollen in the spring start to come up earlier,” Bhasin said.

Parikh said that because more carbon dioxide has been released into the air, and plants feed off of carbon dioxide, this has released more pollen into the air, too.

“It’s a trend that we’ve been seeing over the past decade and [allergy seasons have] been gradually getting worse,” she said. “This year was especially bad. Usually we start seeing patients mid-March and this year we started seeing patients come in February with symptoms, and I think it’s because we had such a warm winter.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also had an effect on allergies. According to the AAFA report, few people reported pollen allergies in 2020 because people were inside due to workplace and school closures and stay-at-home orders.

“These trends continued in spring 2021,” according to the report. “But by fall 2021, the number of people affected by seasonal allergies rose to pre-pandemic levels. Experts believe this jump was due to fewer COVID-19 restrictions and more people going out, likely because of the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines.”

How can I treat my seasonal allergies?
“First and foremost is trying to identify what specifically patients are reactive to, so then we can talk about trying to control exposures or avoidance measures,” Bhasin said. “A lot of times that’s not effective for outdoor pollen allergies, but whatever we can do to try to mitigate some symptom exposure helps.”

She said there are a number of over-the-counter medications that people can try as well as nasal sprays and rinses.

Some are tailored to relieve symptoms while others are used to prevent symptoms. Additionally, certain medications work for certain symptoms.

Parikh sad because some patients can have more severe reactions to allergens than others, not all medications will be effective for all patients.

If people are not sure if their symptoms are linked to allergies, or they’re having trouble controlling their allergies, they should visit an allergist or immunologist.

Bhasin also recommends being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to treating seasonal allergies.

“By that, I mean start your medications, a couple of weeks before the season is anticipated to start,” she said. “So, take your antihistamine, take your nasal spray, start those a couple of weeks before so that, when the pollen hits, you’ve already got some protective measures within you.”

How do I distinguish season allergies from COVID-19?
Although COVID-19 and seasonal allergies share many symptoms, there are some differences.

For example, itchy, watery eyes and sneezing are common symptoms of seasonal allergies but rarely are symptoms of COVID-19.

However, symptoms such as fever, headaches or loss of taste and smell are more likely due to a respiratory illness like COVID-19.

“I think if you’re concerned about COVID, get a COVID test and see,” Bhasin said. “But for the most part, patients will say, ‘Hey, listen, every spring or every summer, I seem to get these symptoms, and I’m miserable for a few years.'”

She continued, “So there’s some historical pattern for allergies, whereas COVID, you know, he’s going to tend to come out of nowhere, if you will.”

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(BROOKSVILLE, Fla.) — A young Florida doctor who discovered her own cancer last year is opening up about her personal health journey in the hopes of raising awareness and encouraging others to get a screening if they suspect something is amiss.

Dr. Lauren Juyia, a gynecologist at Elite Women’s Care in Brooksville, Florida, and Clearwater, Florida, told “Good Morning America” she started feeling “pelvic heaviness” last August but otherwise, had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. When she started feeling a “pelvic mass” however, she went to get an ultrasound at HCA Florida Oak Hill Hospital.

“Having a background in obstetrics, we describe size by weeks of pregnancy and so I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have a 16-week-size mass.’ From experience, I could tell that this was my ovary,” Juyia, 38, recalled.

After the ultrasound confirmed she did indeed have larger-than-normal masses by her ovary, Juyia said she started to consult other doctors and sought multiple opinions, especially since within two weeks of first noticing the pelvic mass, it grew in size, expanding 8 centimeters to about 24 centimeters.

“I had never seen anything benign, meaning not cancer, grow that fast before,” Juyia said. “So we kind of knew, deep down, that this was not going to be good. And we suspected ovarian cancer of course, because it was the ovaries being the masses.”

Juyia was 37 at the time and at that point, she hadn’t had any of the typical signs of the cancer she later learned she actually had — colon cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the symptoms of colon cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, include changes in bowel movements, blood in the stool, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramps or unexplained weight loss.

“I did have a little bit of fatigue. I was a little tired in the afternoon for about two months previous to this and as a mom with two little kids — I had been recently nursing them, they were still waking up in the night, I work full time — I didn’t think anything of saying, ‘Oh, I think I need a tea in the afternoon.’ Whereas maybe someone in their 50s or 60s would be much more tired from stage 4 tumors taking up their energy,” Juyia recounted.

The mom of two was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 (late stage) colon cancer and started six months of chemotherapy treatments with Dr. David Wenk, an oncologist at Florida Cancer Specialists. She also continued working throughout, something she said helped take her mind off her own cancer.

“For me, it was therapeutic to get to still be useful to my patients,” she said. “When I am with someone in a patient room, I forgot I was ill. Even the nausea, I wouldn’t feel it for that 15-20 minutes. So for me, it was most important to try to have a normal life and try to continue to be useful.”

Juyia, who along with her husband Dr. Rushad Juyia, a spine and sports medicine physician, are parents of a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, said she’s grateful for the care and support she’s received from her medical team and from her own community of family and friends.

“What I remember from that time is just wanting to raise my children, to live long enough for them to remember me because they were 5 and 3,” Juyia said.

In late March, Juyia underwent one more surgery to remove an inactive tumor, and so far, tests have shown she has “no evidence of disease.”

Today, she wants others, especially those under the CDC-recommended age of 45, to get a colon cancer screening if they notice anything unusual.

“People that are younger than the screening age should still be paying attention to our symptoms because we’re not eligible for screening usually. We might not have any symptoms because we are young, our bodies are more resilient. We can tolerate more symptoms,” Juyia said.

“We just need to be aware if we’re not lucky enough to be in the range where we should be screened. And if you are in the range that you should be screened, take advantage of that. Don’t squander that opportunity. There’s a reason we want to screen you and keep you safe,” she added.

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(NEW YORK) — Around 40% of patients with long COVID have moderate to severe sleep issues, according to new analysis of patients treated at Cleveland Clinic’s ReCOver Clinic.

The report, published Tuesday in the journal of Internal Medicine, looked at the sleep patterns of 962 patients who had long COVID between February 2021 and April 2022.

More than half of the patients, 58%, reported normal to mild disturbances, while 41.3% indicated moderate to severe sleep disturbances.

Black patients were significantly more likely to have these disturbances, up to three times more than other races.

“Our findings not only emphasize the importance of identification of sleep disturbance in long COVID considering its impact on patients’ quality of life, daytime functioning and medical health status but they also draw the attention to the persistent inequities seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Pena Orbea in a statement.

Additionally, more than two-thirds of patients, 67.2%, reported moderate to severe fatigue, while 21.8% reported severe fatigue.

“There is an unmet need to understand the neurobiological mechanisms or pathways behind the association of sleep disturbances with long COVID and, per our findings, investigate the reasons for the increased vulnerability of PASC-related sleep disturbance in the Black population so that we can develop race-specific interventions to overcome disparities,” Dr. Reena Mehra, M.D., director of Sleep Disorders Research at Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the report, said in a statement.

The authors also highlighted that people who had greater anxiety severity were at higher risk of having sleep disturbances.

“In our practice, there has been kind of an unequal access to long COVID care, where individuals with inadequate insurance don’t tend to get referred to us as often… a lot of that falls under the lines of minority races…we need to be prepared to make sure that all patients, especially the most vulnerable, due to minority status, and socioeconomic status, they have access to the right physicians to provide the best clinical care for their post COVID complications” said Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., an assistant professor and physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“Any patients seeking good care for their long COVID needs to go to a multidisciplinary clinical setting,” he added.

​​Alaa Diab, MD, an internal medicine resident at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and MPH candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(ATLANTA) — As fears of a “tripledemic” die down, health officials say they are seeing an uptick of a particular strain of the flu: influenza B.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of tests that are positive for influenza B has increased from 0.12% the week ending Jan. 7 to 0.36% the week ending March 25.

Meanwhile, over the same period, the percentage of tests positive for influenza A — the most common flu strain — has declined from 8.58% to 0.58%.

Meanwhile, states are showing similar trends. In New York, as of the week ending March 25, of the 2,013 samples subtyped, 64.16% were identified as influenza B, state health department data shows.

Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, told ABC News that it’s not surprising to see an uptick of influenza B towards the end of the flu season.

However, due to few to no cases of influenza reported during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, people may have forgotten how the flu normally behaves.

“We have to remember that, overall, we’re returning to a somewhat normal respiratory virus season,” said Brownstein, an ABC News contributor. “Influenza B is often later in the season…It’s not a surprise at all that we’re seeing flu B and, as part of our return to normal, we have to remember that flu still has an impact on population health.”

Since the beginning of the year, hospital admissions for flu have been declining, from 12,883 the week ending Jan. 7 to 1,222 the week ending March 25.

Brownstein said the decline of other viruses as helped prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed but advised Americans to stay vigilant.

“Right now, the hospitals are benefiting from a little bit of a break,” he said. “We do have more breathing room in our hospitals than we have in the past, and that’s thankful, because that means that we can perform elective procedures, that means that our frontline health care workers are getting a little bit of a breather.”

Brownstein added, “We still have COVID circulating, there’s still other viruses that are still creating capacity challenges. A bad flu B peak could bring us right back to some of those capacity concerns.”

There are four types of influenza – A, B, C and D – however, A and B are the most common and cause seasonal epidemics in people, what we refer to as “fu season.”

However, flu activity across the U.S. remains in the “low” category and there Is currently no evidence that influenza B is more dangerous or more worrisome than Influenza A or any other strain.

“It just highlights the fact that, we still need to be vigilant about respiratory viruses, to being vaccinated against flu is still important,” said Brownstein.

According to the CDC’s weekly flu vaccination dashboard, about 48.3% of U.S. adults reported receiving a flu shot as of mid-February, higher than the 45.1% who reported doing so the same time last year.

Meanwhile, about 54.9% of all children in the U.S. are currently vaccinated against flu by the end of March, about the same as March 2022.

The federal health agency said flu vaccines are still very effective at preventing hospitalization and death. Flu vaccines administered this season reduced the risk of influenza A-related hospitalization among children by nearly three quarters and among adults by nearly half, the CDC said.

Brownstein said while it’s never too late for someone who hasn’t gotten the flu vaccine yet to be immunized, there will be availability issues as pharmacies and doctors’ offices give out their final doses.

“You will be challenged by availability and, of course, the longer you wait, the further the value of that vaccine is diminished,” Brownstein said. “The value keeps going down the longer you wait.”

ABC News’ Emma Egan and Youri Benadjaoudi contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Spring has sprung and summer is around the corner which means long strolls and rolling strides outside during the warm weather months.

Ahead of National Walking Day, Good Morning America tapped Dr. Liz Weinandy, lead dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to explain what to watch out for if dehydration hits, as well as the best things to drink and eat to keep your body nourished.

Symptoms of dehydration

“There are several signs a person might be dehydrated,” she said. “Headache or confusion, extreme thirst, very dark urine, infrequent urination, fatigue, muscle cramping and lightheadedness. In extreme cases of dehydration, it can lead to heatstroke or hyperthermia (abnormally high body heat).”

When it comes to preventative measures and staying hydrated, Weinandy said, “the best way to avoid dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty.”

“In some situations, it is easier to get dehydrated, like being active in hot temperatures,” she continued.

Best drinks for hydration besides water

While some supplements like hydration packets that are added to water can be helpful for some, Weinandy said H2O still reigns supreme for staying hydrated.

“Water is usually best and suitable for most people unless they are excessively sweating, then replacing electrolytes like potassium and sodium start to become more important,” Weinandy explained. “Sports drinks and electrolyte replacement solutions are very appropriate in this situation, although keep in mind most people do not need them.”

“As for food, most fruits and vegetables have a higher water content compared to other foods,” she said. “Melons, strawberries, pineapple, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce are especially high in water and can help prevent dehydration.”

Who’s at-risk for dehydration?

Weinandy said another factor to keep in mind is that “some groups are at a higher risk of becoming dehydrated.”

“Infants, elderly and people who cannot communicate clearly” can all be more prone to dehydration, she said. “Also, being dehydrated increases the risk of developing kidney stones because urine is more concentrated.”

How much water to drink to stay hydrated

ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said the amount of water you should consume daily depends on your age, height and where you live.

Most guidelines call for the average woman to drink around 2.7 liters per day, and 3.7 liters for men.

One liter is equivalent to 33 ounces.

“Your body’s own systems will tell you when you need more water and it’s called thirst,” Ashton said. “A lot of times people think they’re hungry and they’re actually thirsty. See how it works for you.”

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