Health

(NEW YORK) — One couple found out that they are truly a match — in more ways than one.

After being together for more than 20 years, a husband and wife pair learned they were rare matches as living donors.

Dexter Holaday had been living with a rare genetic disorder called polycystic kidney disease, when in late 2021, he was told he needed a kidney transplant.

“The average timeframe for a kidney, with my blood type, is five years for a deceased donor,” Holaday told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “So it’s kind of a waiting game.”

Living donor kidneys are generally healthier than deceased donor kidneys, which leads to greater long- and short-term survival rates. However, in 2022, living donors accounted for only 29.7% of all kidney transplants nationwide, highlighting the need for living donors, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Despite the rarity of living donor kidneys, Holaday and his wife June began their search for a match.

“We had flyers, we had sent out over 400 Christmas cards,” June Holaday told GMA.

More than 90,000 people nationwide are currently waiting for a kidney; the average wait time for a deceased donor kidney is three to five years, and more than 22 people a day die in the U.S. while waiting for a transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Up against time and despite having different blood types, June Holaday decided to still get tested to see if she could be a living donor for her husband — even if the chances were extremely thin.

After months of testing, June Holaday found out she defied the odds. She was a match and was approved to give her husband the gift of life.

“I think we finally breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in the whole journey,” June Holaday said of learning she was a match for her husband.

Living donor transplant surgeries happen simultaneously in rooms next to each other to ensure the organ is transplanted quickly and safely. On March 28, the Holadays went into the lifesaving operation room, together.

Dr. Leigh Anne Dageford, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, performed June Holaday’s nephrectomy. She said the Holaday’s situation was “beautiful.”

“To be a true perfect match, it’s one out of 100,000, but given the advances we have these days, we don’t always have to have that exact perfect match,” Dageford said. “It is an amazing love story. Her willingness to do this, to continue to have a wonderful life with him. For the rest of their lives together is beautiful.”

Dr. Nahel Elias, the surgical director of the kidney transplant program at Massachusetts General Hospital, was right next door to transplant June Holaday’s kidney into her husband Dexter.

“It is not only life-changing,” Elias said. “It’s life-enhancing and it’s life-extending.”

Dexter Holaday said he is “absolutely grateful” for his wife, describing what she did as “amazing.”

June Holaday called her donated kidney just a “spare,” and wants to encourage others to sign up to be living donors.

“Anyone can function on one kidney. I want to shout it from the rooftops like, ‘Share your spare, share your spare!'” she said. “Someone in this country will need you at some point.”

If you are interested in becoming a living organ donor, visit www.kidney.org/transplantation/how-to-donate to find a transplant center near you.

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(NEW YORK) — A new bill introduced in California could potentially do away with some additives that appear in ingredient lists of processed foods from candy to cereals.

Earlier this week, the California State Assembly health committee approved the landmark piece of legislation, AB 418 , which would prohibit brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, Red dye No. 3 and titanium dioxide in food products sold throughout the state.

If enacted, California would be the first state to impose such a prohibition.

With the narrow exception of Red No. 3 used in candied cherries, regulators in Europe previously banned the other four substances outright. In the U.S., such a move would set a precedent for processed food safety going forward.

The bill’s proponents have raised concerns over the potential adverse or negative health impacts, both short-term and long-term, of these chemicals.

“Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals,” Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the legislation’s sponsor, said in a press release in February. “This bill will correct for a concerning lack of federal oversight and help protect our kids, public health, and the safety of our food supply.”

Because these chemicals exist in non-natural foods that Americans already eat, it’s important for consumers to understand the impact, but “not make themselves crazy” over their exposure, especially in small amounts, said Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an ABC News medical contributor, board-certified emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist.

“These chemicals are all kind of in different foods and all exert different effects and different concerns — some of them are associated with neurological problems, some are reproductive problems, some have been linked to cancer. It really depends on the substance,” Widmer told “Good Morning America.”

“I don’t know if there is, for any of these things, a safe level,” she added, underscoring instead the importance of “moderation and variety in diet.”

According to Widmer, “there are tons of chemicals and substances that are in our foods that are not necessarily supposed to be there.”

“But we’re not necessarily being exposed to them in high amounts,” she said. “And you can’t go nuts trying to track down everything in your food.”

Widmer explained that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, while “trying to do everything they can, are just constantly playing a game of catch up” when it comes to tracking new substances coming onto the market.

“It’s nearly impossible to be able to regulate everything,” she added. “We’re learning more and more about the food we eat every day and they’re trying to do the right thing.”

Widmer said it was “unfortunate” that “a lot of these different additives and preservatives that can be harmful have ended up in our food supply,” but added, “I think [the FDA is] trying to stay on top of it as best they can — it’s almost overwhelming.”

Over 10,000 chemicals are allowed for use in food sold in the U.S., 99% of which were approved by the food and chemical industry, but not the agency tasked with ensuring the safety of America’s food supply.

Widmer’s biggest takeaway and advice to others, she said, is to “limit exposure as much as you can and when it comes to diet.”

“Try to just do things in moderation and have variety in your diet — as long as you’re not being exposed to the same thing over and over again in high quantities, you should be OK,” she said.

Potentially harmful effects of 5 food chemicals

Widmer broke down, at a basic level, what science-backed research has found as far as potential links to health problems for the five substances that would be banned under AB 418. At this time, while some evidence is stronger than others, there isn’t conclusive proof that any cause adverse health conditions for humans — just that there could be a risk.

Brominated vegetable oil: In high quantities, Widmer said, it has “often been linked to neurological changes, like balance problems and memory problems” in humans.

Potassium bromate: “Potassium bromate is found in certain soft drinks and can cause issues with hearing and kidney function,” Widmer said.

She noted that “there have been studies suggesting that it’s been linked to cancer in some animals in the laboratory,” but there isn’t research on that link in humans.

Propylparaben: “Propylparaben has been proposed to be a reproductive toxin [that] can cause hormonal dysregulation, which is concerning for some people — there [have] been documented studies where it caused earlier or delayed menstration,” Widmer said.

While the research has hinted at those links to disruptions in the hormone systems in humans, the evidence is weak and research is ongoing.

Red dye No. 3: Red No. 3, which “gives that reddish or pink color, like in those pink Peeps,” Widmer said, is banned in cosmetics as it “is a known carcinogen,” a substance capable of causing cancer. Research in California linked it to behavioral problems in children.

Titanium dioxide: This “is in sunscreen, but it’s also Skittles,” Widmer said, noting that it is a “possible carcinogen and food color additive that can be very irritating to mucous membranes like the eyes, nose and throat.”

She said it has also been “linked to cancer in rodents.” There is no research on that link in humans.

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(NEW YORK) — Nearly 100 cases of a rare, fungal infection have been linked to a Michigan paper mill.

Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties (PHDM) said 19 cases of blastomycosis have been confirmed while another 74 are suspected.

The department was notified about the first cases on Feb. 28 among workers with Escanaba Billerud Paper Mill on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

“The health and safety of our Escanaba employees is our first priority,” Brian Peterson, vice president of operation at the mill, said in a statement. “Although the source of the infection has not been established, we continue to take this matter very seriously and are following recommendations from health and government officials.”

Public Health Officer Michael Snyder told ABC News the health department sees a few cases of the infection every year but rarely an outbreak of this magnitude.

Here’s what you need to know about blastomycosis and how it can be treated:

What is blastomycosis?

Blastomycosis is a fungal infection caused by a group of fungi known as Blastomyces.

“These are fungi that live in the environment as a mold and they make spores,” Dr. Teresa O’Meara, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “And what happens is that when people inhale too many of those spores, they can sort of set up and evade some of these innate immune responses and cause pneumonia and spread throughout the body.”

The fungi are found in the environment, mainly in moist soil and in decomposing organic material such as wood and leaves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most cases of the infection occur in the United States and Canada but are very rare, with the annual incidence being about one to two cases per 100,000 people, the CDC said.

In the U.S., O’Meara said blastomycosis is most common in eastern parts of the Midwest — including states like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — the Great Lakes region and Southwest.

“On average over the past five years, only 26 cases have been reported for the entire state of Michigan annually,” PHDM said in a release. “However, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a known risk area for blastomycosis infection.”

The infection is not transmitted from person to person or from animals to people and can only be contracted by breathing in the microscopic spores, often after activity that disrupts the soil or the decomposing material.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms can be wide-ranging, O’Meara said. Some patients are asymptomatic while others develop symptoms including coughing, fever, chest pain, muscles aches and fatigue.

Because symptoms resemble other types of infections, it can be hard to diagnose the illness in a person, O’Meara said.

“And so diagnosis is pretty hard, even in places where it’s endemic, just because it’s so rare,” she said.

O’Meara added that evidence suggests symptoms can appear anywhere from three weeks to three months after inhaling spores.

According to the CDC, the infection can spread from the lungs to other areas of the body, including the joints, bones, brain and spinal cord among those who are immunocompromised.

Which treatments are available?

Those are infected with blastomycosis needed to be treated with a prescription antifungal medication.

Those with mild to moderate cases can take a medication known as itraconazole, which stops the growth of fungi.

Patients with severe infections are usually given amphotericin B, an intravenous medication. Because it can have a wide range of side effects, it’s only given to critically ill patients or those who are immunocompromised.

Treatment can range from six months to a year and can depend on how severe a person’s infection is as well as the strength of their immune system.

“One of the really important problems I would like to highlight just for people to know is that we often think about antibiotic resistance as being a real problem,” O’Meara said. “But there’s actually dozens of classes of antibiotics and antifungals. There’s only three classes of antifungals available.”

She continued, “And so this is going to be a big problem going forward just because there are more and more fungal infections that are on the rise and we need to develop new antifungal treatments.”

Is blastomycosis deadly?

It is very rare for blastomycosis to result in death. According to the CDC, there have been 1,216 blastomycosis-related deaths between 1990 and 2010.

What’s more, the age-adjusted mortality rate is 0.21 per 1 million person-years, the federal health agency said.

How can I protect myself?

Because there is no vaccine and it is endemic in some environments, it may be hard to protect yourself against the fungus.

If you work in areas where the fungi is prevalent or you might disturb soil, O’Meara said you can consider wearing protective equipment.

If you think you’ve been exposed, get tested and — if positive — start antifungal treatment if needed.

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(NEW YORK) — Shalon Irving knew her newborn daughter Soleil for less than one month.

Three weeks after giving birth to Soleil, now 6, Shalon Irving, who is Black, died from complications of high blood pressure on Jan. 28, 2017 .

“My daughter had wanted a child more than anything on this earth,” Wanda Irving, Shalon Irving’s mother and Soleil’s grandmother, said in an interview with ABC News. “Soleil came to me and said, ‘Nonna, I want to die because I want to go where my mommy is. That’s the only way I’m going to get there.'”

Shalon Irving is part of a growing group of individuals, particularly Black women, dying from pregnancy-related complications several weeks or months after childbirth.

After her daughter’s death, Wanda Irving founded Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project, an organization devoted to connecting Black women to resources and information about maternal mortality.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Black women die during and just after pregnancy at a rate 2.6 times that of white women.

A recent CDC report found the majority of maternal mortality cases — about 53% — occur after the first week of childbirth. Maternal deaths occur up to a year after delivery.

The causes vary based on race, with Hispanic and white women more likely to die from mental health conditions and Black women more likely to die from cardiac conditions, like the high blood pressure complications that killed Shalon Irving.

While every case is unique, CDC researchers estimated more than 80% of those deaths are preventable. Dr. Kamilah Dixon , a board-certified OB-GYN and maternal mortality expert at Ohio State University, said more awareness is needed.

“We still have to make sure that we are vigilant [even after childbirth],” Dixon told ABC News. “A lot of people think, ‘OK, we did it. All the risk is gone, and we don’t have to worry anymore.'”

One of the risks long after delivery is death from mental health conditions, which is the leading cause of maternal mortality overall, the CDC report found.

That includes deaths from suicide and accidental drug overdose. Blood loss is the second leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths.

The ongoing opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. contributes to the high rate of deaths from mental health conditions, said Dixon.

She said access to overdose-reversing drugs like Narcan is important to combat these deaths. Access to doulas and midwives could serve as mental and emotional support for individuals during pregnancy and after pregnancy.

Attention to cardiac health is key for Black women, who have the highest overall maternal mortality rates overall and are most at risk from heart conditions.

While the data doesn’t explain why pregnant Black women are more likely to die from cardiac conditions, CDC data from 2019 found Black Americans were 30% more likely to die from heart disease than their white counterparts.

Structural racism also plays a role in the stark inequities in maternal mortality, according to Dixon, who said differences between the types of conditions and issues affecting different demographic groups make it difficult to tackle the issue in a consistent way.

“I think it’s important to … understand what’s happening in particular communities so we can really target that,” she said, noting that different groups might need different types of interventions.

Still, big-picture policy changes can also play a role in driving change.

Congress passed a law in 2021 expanding Medicaid coverage for pregnant people from about two months to up to one year after childbirth, which will make resources more accessible to pregnant individuals.

“People need to know this is a problem we have here in the U.S.,” Dixon said. “I’ve had many patients in my office who’ve told me that they’ve chosen not to get pregnant because they don’t want to die.”

While pregnancy-related deaths are rare, individuals who want to become pregnant should be aware of the risks, according to David Goodman, Ph.D., a maternal mortality expert at the CDC.

“Be informed. Make sure that you are working with providers that you trust and have a relationship with,” Goodman told ABC News. “Don’t be afraid to walk away and find another provider as much as you are able.”

Home births are also on the rise, but Dixon and Goodman stressed that childbirths performed outside the hospital are riskier.

They said home births are unlikely to be a safe alternative for many pregnant people, who should consult their medical provider to discuss the options that might be safest for them.

In the meantime, families affected by pregnancy-related deaths, like Shalon Irving’s family, are taking their own steps to combat the problem.

Through the organization named for her late daughter, Wanda Irving helped create Believe Her , an app that provides maternal health resources for Black women and gives them a space to share their experiences.

Wanda Irving underscored that policy work is important, but she said lawmakers need to address structural racism to combat maternal mortality.

“Our whole system — everything — our foundation of America is built on racism, on the backs of Black and brown people. We need to recognize that, accept that and change it,” she said.

She added, “If we don’t start holding doctors accountable for the way that Black women are treated in the medical system, nothing is going to change.”

Aisha Bowen, M.D., is a resident physician in family medicine from Grant Family Medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

Michal Ruprecht is a medical student at Wayne State University School of Medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — The abortion pill mifepristone will remain on the market for now — but come Saturday morning, access should be severely restricted, a federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday in partially blocking a lower court order.

It’s a bittersweet victory for abortion rights advocates who feared the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would side with conservative plaintiffs in the case and force manufacturing and production of the drug mifepristone to stop entirely by Saturday morning. Instead, the three-judge panel is allowing the drug to stay on the market — for now — but with tough restrictions on the drug that haven’t been in place since 2000 when it was first approved and regulators wanted to monitor its safety more closely.

“We are going to continue to fight in the courts. We believe that the law is on our side and we will prevail,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Abortion rights opponents said they were pleased with the decision because it paves the way for approval of the drug to be suspended entirely.

“We are very encouraged by this landmark win for women and girls. The Court recognized that the abortion pill is dangerous and rolled back Biden’s reckless mail-order abortion scheme,” said Katie Daniel, the state policy director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.”

The Justice Department could still take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court before the appeals court ruling takes effect.

But for now, the drug would be available only up to seven weeks instead of 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Three in-person office visits would be required: the first to administer mifepristone, the second to administer misoprostol — which causes the pregnancy to be expelled — and the third to assess any complications and ensure there were no fetal remains in the womb.

It would require the supervision of a qualified physician and the reporting of all adverse events from the drugs.

Overall, it would roll back every win the abortion rights movement had on this drug in the past two decades.

“The FDA followed decades of science and evidence when it expanded access to mifepristone — a court with no medical experts that has a long history of extremist rulings on abortion has no place taking that away,” said Kirsten Moore, director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access (EMMAA) Project.

While the appeals court’s decision is temporary while it considers the merits of the case, the panel of judges signaled it was sympathetic to conservative arguments made in the lawsuit, calling the Food and Drug Administration rules around mifepristone “exceedingly unusual” because they allow patients to obtain the drug without seeing a doctor in person.

“Because applicants chose to cut out doctors from the prescription and administration of mifepristone, plaintiff doctors and their associations will necessarily be injured by the consequences. This is an exceedingly unusual regime. In fact, as far as the record before us reveals, FDA has not structured the distribution of any comparable drug in this way,” the panel of appeals court judges wrote.

Danco Labs, which produces the brand name version of the drug Mifeprex, said the FDA’s decisions in recent years to loosen regulation of the drug were based on safety and efficacy data.

“FDA has been empowered by Congress to make decisions about what drugs are safe and effective and how they should be available to patients,” the company wrote in a statement. “Danco remains unchanged in its commitment to do all that we can to support and protect the availability of and access to Mifeprex for healthcare providers and all people in the United States.”

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(NEW YORK) — One of only five people in the world to achieve full remission of HIV is stepping forward to share his story in an ABC broadcast exclusive.

Paul Edmonds’ journey into medical history began decades ago. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 — a time when it was a potential death sentence. Thanks to his own perseverance and advances in treatment, he survived — even thrived — after his diagnosis.

Edmonds met his future husband Arnie House and convinced him to be tested. House also was HIV positive. As years past, better antiretroviral treatments brought both of their HIV levels to undetectable, which means the virus was untransmissable.

But for Edmonds, another diagnosis was looming. In 2018, he learned he had leukemia. Although his heart sank, Edmonds told ABC News’ Juju Chang, “I wasn’t ready to die.”

Edmonds and House sought care at City of Hope Medical Center in California. There, while undergoing treatment for leukemia, Edmonds’ doctors saw a unique opportunity to try to cure him of his HIV, too. After chemotherapy, Edmonds received a stem cell transplant from a donor with a mutation that makes them resistant to HIV. Stem cell transplants carry a significant risk in themselves, as they must be preceded by wiping out the whole immune system. During this time, which can be months, patients have to stay in protected areas of the hospital to reduce the risk of life-threatening infections.

“It’s a very rare mutation. It exists in roughly 1% of the population. So it’s not, it’s not something we find very commonly,” said Edmonds’ physician, Dr. Jana Dickter, City of Hope associate clinical professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine.

The transplant worked. Not only did Edmonds go into remission for his cancer, he also became the fifth person ever to go into remission from HIV. Now, four years after his transplant and two years after doctors took him off HIV medications, the virus shows no signs of coming back.

“We can’t find evidence of replicating HIV in his system,” Dickter said. “It’s been really amazing. It’s been such a journey.”

Dickter and her colleagues announced the details of Edmonds’ case in July 2022, but he was known anonymously as the “City of Hope patient” at the time. Now, he is stepping out of the shadows. He and his husband sat down with ABC’s Chang for an in-depth interview in their California home.

Edmonds said he still struggles to come to terms with being cured after living with HIV for more than three decades and after watching so many of his friends die of AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s.

“I was incredibly grateful. I’m grateful to be alive. I was grateful there was a donor,” he said.

House said he was thrilled when Edmonds’ HIV went into remission.

“I was so happy for him. Because it was like a liberation for me. That he didn’t have to take his HIV medications anymore – it was wonderful,” House said.

There is still no cure for most of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV today. Rare cures happen only among people with HIV who are also diagnosed with certain types of cancer, and subsequently receive the unique stem cell transplant that cures their cancer and HIV simultaneously.

But scientists say Edmonds’ story is helping them get one step closer. His story is unique because his treatment was less medically intensive than prior cases, giving scientists hope that the procedure he received could be applicable to a wider range of HIV patients with cancer who are aging. At 66, Edmonds is the oldest person to be cured of HIV — and he had been living with HIV the longest.

Edmonds was able to receive a newer, less intensive chemotherapy regimen that City of Hope helped develop for older patients, and his transplant had only mild medical complications, according to Dr. Ahmed M. Aribi, assistant professor with City of Hope’s Division of Leukemia, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Although scientists are still searching for an HIV cure, significant medical advances mean people living with HIV are living longer and healthier lives. In fact, doctors say, modern medication is so effective that many people with HIV can lower the amount of virus in their blood to the point where it is impossible to pass the virus on to others, even after unprotected sex and other high-risk exposures.

Edmonds and House both urged everyone to get tested for HIV, because knowing your status can save a life. They said ignorance is the only killer.

“We have to go out, get tested. It’s so easy to be able to get put on medications. Have yourself followed by a doctor like me,” House said.

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(NEW YORK) — Suicides increased during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, new federal data shows.

There were 48,183 people who died by suicide in 2021, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It comes after two consecutive years of declines and is an increase of 4.7% from the 45,979 deaths recorded in 2020. It’s also the highest number recorded since 2018, when 48,344 Americans died by suicide.

What’s more, the total rate hit 14.1 per 100,000, slightly less than the 14.2 per 100,000 in 2018.

It’s also a 4% increase from the rate in 2020 of 13.5 per 100,000 — the largest seen in two decades.

Both males and females saw an increase of 4% in suicide rates from 2020 to 2021.

The rate for males went up from 22.0 per 100,000 to 22.8 per 100,000 while the rate for females rose from 5.5 per 100,000 to 5.7 per 100,0000.

Males were found to be more greatly affected, with rates increasing for those aged 15 to 24, 25 to 44, 65 to 74, and 75 and older.

By comparison, the only significant increase for females was in the age group 75 and older, the report found.

However, both Black females and white females saw suicide rates significantly increase.

Black females saw rates rise by 14% from 2.9 per 100,000 to 3.3 per 100,000 while white females saw a 3% increase from 6.9 per 100,000 to 7.1 per 100,000.

Although the increase was not significant from 2020 to 2021 for American Indian or Alaskan Native women, they had the highest rate during the second year of the pandemic at 13.9 per 100,000.

In addition, in 2021, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. While this is higher than in 2020, when it was the 12th leading cause, it’s lower than in 2019, during which it was the 10th leading cause of death.

Specifically, it was the second leading cause of death for Americans between ages 10 to 34.

The report did not discuss why suicides increased in 2021, but research has shown the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on mental health.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, four in 10 U.S. adults reported symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder during the pandemic, an increase from one in 10 adults who reported similar symptoms from January 2019 to June 2019.

The impact on young adults was particularly severe. According to a 2021 study from Boston College, rates of depression and anxiety rose 61% and 65%, respectively, among those aged 18 to 29 during the first year of the pandemic. Both disorders are known to increase the risk of suicide.

Researchers are also studying if there is a link between long COVID-19 patients and higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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(NEW YORK) — A Texas baby has been discharged from the hospital and reunited with her twin sister and parents Amanda Arciniega and James Finley of Saginaw.

Baby AmieLynn was released from Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, nearly one month after her twin sister JamieLynn returned home.

The 6-month-old and her twin were formerly conjoined at the chest and faced each other. They also shared a liver.

The girls were born via cesarean section last October at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth and were transferred in November to the neonatal intensive care unit at Cook Children’s Medical Center.

In January, the girls were successfully separated after an 11-hour surgery at Cook Children’s that involved a team of 25 medical professionals. They made history as the first pair of conjoined twins to be separated at the medical center, according to the hospital.

JamieLynn was able to be released from Cook Children’s in March but AmieLynn was kept at the hospital for additional monitoring.

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(NEW YORK) — A number of medical experts and health care officials are concerned about a rise in medical misinformation following the announcement by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, that he is running for president in 2024.

Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has become one of the most prominent faces of the anti-vaccine movement, according to experts. He is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization known mainly for its anti-vaccine efforts. The group was kicked off Instagram and Facebook last year for spreading misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization’s revenues doubled to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

Kennedy’s bid for the presidency “puts science squarely on the ballot,” said Brian Castrucci, president of De Beaumont Foundation, a group dedicated to advancing public health policy. “His campaigns make the benefits of vaccines a question up for debate rather than settled science.”

“His campaign would platform a set of dangerous beliefs with the possibility of not only harming the health of the public but the health of our communities and economy as well,” Castrucci told ABC News. “We would have a candidate who each day would be spreading scientific misinformation and, in the process, legitimizing vaccine hesitancy and resistance.”

Kennedy, whose vaccine skepticism stretches back to around the early 2000s, has yet to hold any public presidential campaign events or mention his anti-vaccine stance as a presidential candidate. But some experts ABC News spoke with expressed concerns about his previous efforts to push conspiracy theories and misleading claims about COVID-19 and vaccines.

“His name carries a lot of weight,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease doctor at the University of California San Francisco, told ABC News. “Anybody who is a leader of our country needs to be a voice of reason and somebody who stands up for science and does not discredit science.”

Hong said that one of his concerns about Kennedy is his attitude toward public health infrastructure and the necessary funding health care institutions need for future public health emergencies.

“If you don’t believe in vaccines, you’re probably not going to be sympathetic to funding many arms of public health,” said Hong. “Money talks in a pandemic, and if you’re not going to put funding resources and money behind what should be done, the whole country is going to fall flat.”

Dr. Nick Sawyer, an emergency medicine physician in Sacramento who founded No License for Disinformation, a group of doctors who came together during the pandemic to call on state medical boards to take disciplinary measures against doctors spreading misinformation, said that Kennedy represents “a huge threat.”

“He’s lying to people about critical things that have to do with our nation’s children’s health,” Sawyer told ABC News. “The health effects are incredibly dangerous and have already shown to be incredibly damaging.”

Last year, Kennedy’s nonprofit organization criticized Sawyer’s group for pushing a California bill that would strip licenses from doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation. In a blog post on the Children’s Health Defense website, the group said the bill would remove doctors’ medical licenses “if they express medical views that the state does not agree with.”

“On the national level, we must also stay vigilant against similar legislative proposals, and push back against phony front groups that promote this kind of medical tyranny,” the blog post said. “This includes the No License for Disinformation group.”

Dr. Elizabeth Glowacki, a health communication researcher at Northeastern University, told ABC News she is worried about Kennedy targeting marginalized communities, after he produced an anti-vaccine film about the dangers of vaccines aimed at Black and Hispanic people during the pandemic.

“There are some serious health consequences if people don’t have accurate information about vaccines, in particular communities that are underserved and that are marginalized — communities that already have a structure that prevents them from accessing vaccines and resources,” Glowacki said.

Last month, Castrucci’s group, De Beaumont, published a poll that found that nearly three in four physicians said medical misinformation has hindered their ability to treat COVID-19 patients.

According to the poll, 44% of physicians estimate that more than half the COVID-19 information they see, read and hear from patients is misinformation.

“We see [misinformation] continuing, if not gaining momentum,” Castrucci told ABC News.

Representatives for Kennedy’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — The number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States shows “no signs of slowing,” new federal data shows.

A total of 2.53 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were recorded in 2021, according to a new report published Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s a 5.8% increase from the 2.39 million cases reported in 2020 and a 7% increase from five years ago when 2.37 million STIs were recorded in 2017.

While certain STIs did not reach pre-pandemic levels, others — such as syphilis — are recording the highest numbers seen in more than 70 years.

A total of 176,713 syphilis cases — for all stages of the infection — were recorded in 2021, the highest since the 217,558 cases reported in 1950 and a 32% increase from the 133,954 recorded the previous year, the report said.

The report also found that cases of congenital syphilis, which occurs when a baby is born with the infection after the mother passed it on during pregnancy, rose by 32% from 2,148 to more than 2,800. This resulted in 220 stillbirths and infant deaths in 2021, the agency said.

Meanwhile, gonorrhea rates increased 4% from 206.5 per 100,000 to 214.8 per 100,000. Rates of chlamydia — which make up the majority of STIs — also rose by about 4% from 481.3 per 100,000 to 500 per 100,000.

However, unlike gonorrhea and syphilis, reported cases of chlamydia did not return to pre-pandemic levels, the CDC said.

However, the CDC cautioned that because the disease is typically asymptomatic, these decreases were more likely due to COVID-19-related disruptions than to drops in infections.

According to the CDC, STIs fell rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in March and April 2020, during shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders.

This is due to reduced screenings because many health care clinics either closed or had limited in-person appointments in the early days of the pandemic, limited resources due to programs shifting to help combat COVID-19 and social distancing measures limiting sexual behaviors and activity.

In response, the federal health agency is calling for more action from health care and public health experts with a focus on STI prevention and innovation efforts.

This includes rebuilding and expanding local public health services to offer STI testing and treatments, making these testing and treatment options more accessible and advancing research to prevent STIs through vaccines or post-exposure prophylaxis.

“The U.S. STI epidemic shows no signs of slowing,” said Dr. Leandro Mena, director of the CDC’s division of STD prevention, in a statement. “The reasons for the ongoing increases are multifaceted — and so are the solutions. For the first time in decades, we’re seeing promising new STI interventions on the horizon, but these alone will not solve this epidemic.”

The statement continued, “It will take many of us working together to effectively use new and existing tools, to increase access to quality sexual healthcare services for more people, and to encourage ongoing innovation and prioritization of STI prevention and treatment in this country.”

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