Health

(NEW YORK) — Laura High has a brain tumor, but she says that’s not her defining characteristic.

High is a stand-up comedian whose routine consists of jokes about being a millennial and living in New York City. High also jokes about being a donor-conceived child and her search for her biological father.

“I’m what happens when a woman needs to become a mother and a man needs $200,” High joked at a recent appearance in New York City.

Behind all the giggles, High said she is fighting for concrete action to help protect donor-conceived people and provide them access to their medical records.

“It’s shocking to learn and to find out how many donor-conceived people [there are] especially in my age group, who have never been told, and who only found out by accident via a DNA test,” said High, 34, referring to donor-conceived people who discover their biological parent only through a DNA test.

High said her parents told her when she was 14 that she was conceived using donor sperm.

She took her own DNA test many years later, after she got engaged, because she said she feared that the man she loved might be her half-brother.

“I live in the same city that my donor was donating, so chances are the majority of my siblings are probably in New York City,” High said. “I have no idea if my neighbor is a sibling. I have no clue.”

High said she discovered she and her fiancé were not related — but through the DNA test, she found three of her biological siblings.

All of the siblings had similar genetic health issues. In High’s case, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016.

Without medical records, High said doctors can’t prove it is due to a genetic issue, but it’s suspected given her biological siblings’ own medical records.

When High found her father, she said he refused to give her and her siblings access to his medical records, which High claims could have helped catch her brain tumor sooner.

High said she and her siblings all have hormonal disorders that she said, in her case, put her at risk of developing her brain tumor. She said she was diagnosed when she was just 13.

“I’m very lucky I caught it in time before I needed surgery, and before I started trying to have children, because the tumor, while it is still in my head, essentially makes me infertile,” High said. “It’s taking a year for it to [decrease in size], so thank God I caught it now.”

As she continues to undergo treatment, High is continuing to fight for access to her own medical records and to pave the way for other donor-conceived people.

A bill proposed in High’s home state of New York would require disclosures from donors on diagnosed medical conditions, family medical conditions, doctors seen, names of schools attended and criminal felony convictions.

The bill, called the Donor Conceived Person Protection Act, would require fertility clinics to give donor-conceived people access to their updated medical records.

“It’s not going to just save my life, it’s also going to potentially save my children’s lives,” High said, adding that donor-conceived people “are just asking for the same knowledge you would get if you knew your parents.”

The fight for donor-conceived rights

New York State Sen. Patrick Gallivan, a Democrat, is the sponsor of the bill, S7602A. He said he believes most people are not aware of what he described as the loose regulations that currently exist around the fertility industry.

“People have the same reaction I did,” Gallivan told ABC News. “So far, they’re completely shocked.”

Gallivan explained that state requirements vary, but in New York, there is no requirement for screening for mental health, physical health or criminal records in order to be a donor.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires that sperm donors be tested within a week of their donation. Donations are tested for nine sexually transmitted diseases, but certain donors could be tested for more, according to a 2020 FDA pamphlet.

Gallivan’s bill would create action against fertility fraud and a doctor would not use reproductive tissue from a donor if the recipient did not consent. If a doctor used a donation that was not the one a client consented to use, it would become a crime of aggravated assault, according to the bill.

In High’s case, she claims the sperm donation her mother received was not the one her mother and father selected. She said she later found that her biological father was a colleague and friend of her mother’s OB-GYN.

High has advocated for Gallivan’s bill on TikTok, where she has more than 10 million likes on her platform.

Gallivan said his bill would help provide structure to New York fertility procedures. Currently, for example, it is not illegal for a doctor to switch out a promised sperm donation with any other donation or a doctor’s own sample.

The bill also would give a definition of professional misconduct for physicians, physician’s assistants and specialist assistants. Fertility clinics would have to disclose donor information such as medical records, prior felonies and previous doctor visits, according to Gallivan.

The bill would require that information would have to be updated as children become adults and donors find more potential medical issues as they age.

New York State Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, co-sponsored the bill and said there is no reason for donor-conceived children to suffer mental and physical health issues when genetic testing and background checks are widely available.

“If you buy a vehicle, that used car that has some problems, you have recourse,” Borrello said. “In this, you’re talking about a human being, a life.”

Gallivan and Borrello said that no one from the fertility industry has reached out to their offices directly, but emphasized that this area in protecting children is one of the few bipartisan efforts they think everyone can support.

The bill is currently in the New York Senate’s Health Committee, where Gallivan and Borrello say they are pushing their colleagues to see the necessity of this bill.

While there are other bills around the U.S. that deal with donor anonymity, this is the first proposed bill that would directly provide access to medical records for donor-conceived people.

ABC News reached out to six fertility clinics in the New York area for comment on the bill. None have responded.

Richard Vaughn, the founder of International Fertility Law Group, said that the New York bill is a good start, but that laws need to look at the fertility industry as a whole.

“The issue with donor-conceived persons and their right to know is a bit of a love triangle,” Vaughn said.

He said the donor-conceived children, the donors and the parents all have to be represented, but the bill only looks at protection for the children.

“I don’t think anybody disagrees with the part that it’s so important that donor-conceived kids have accurate information about their medical history and their genetic heritage,” Vaughn said. “So the trick is balancing all three of those, and in the middle, you’ve got medical providers.”

Vaughn said in his practice, about half of parents choose to tell their kids if they are donor-conceived.

Vaughn said the issue is balancing the health of the family with the accessibility of donors. He said there is a fear that shifting to making more personal information about donors accessible would cause fewer people to donate.

“All donations should be open,” Vaughn said. “That’s healthy for the donor-conceived children, it’s healthy for the parents to know that this isn’t something you really have to hide.”

Georgetown Law professor Susan Crockin, who specializes in fertility ethics, said she believes New York’s law could be the start of a national trend.

She said she hopes new laws don’t go too far to place an “impossible burden” on providers to fully investigate every donor.

“My biggest hope is that we have laws that are reasonable, and that provide more assurances, that donors don’t shrink back from it, but that we give everybody more background and more context for who they are,” Crockin added.

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(NEW  YORK) — Another day, another TikTok trend, and the most recent beauty craze comes in the form of calamine lotion.

Content creators have been sharing videos of themselves using the over-the-counter medication, which is typically used to treat itchy skin, as a makeup primer.

Videos tagged with the #calamineprimer hashtag have racked up millions of views so far on the social platform, with users curious to know whether the method actually works.

Beauty influencers and content creators like @tiasamudaa have been using calamine lotion under their makeup for some time now, but the trend has picked up steam in recent months.

One digital creator, who goes by @brittanybowmann1 on TikTok, posted a now viral video of herself applying the lotion to treat “acne scars + dark marks” back in May (a process she later said dried out her existing blemishes but didn’t lighten any of the discoloration). The video currently has more than 7.3 million plays.

A few days later she posted another video in which she’s seen applying the calamine lotion with a makeup brush before adding on a layer of foundation on top. Toward the end of the video, which Bowman says was filmed following an “8-hour shift,” her makeup appears to still be perfectly in place.

“10/10 would recommend,” Bowman captioned the clip.

Other TikTokers have been swapping calamine lotion into their routines as well, with similar results. In a video on April 28, TikTok user Whitcharae tested out the trend on half of her face while using her regular primer on the other half, beneath a full face of makeup. She reported that, by the end of the day, the side of her face with the calamine lotion seemed to be “way more matte” than the side with regular primer.

While the TikTok trend continues to grow in popularity, skin care experts and dermatologists aren’t too keen on the idea.

“Calamine lotion acts like an astringent, meaning that it dries out the skin,” board-certified dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bowe told “Good Morning America.” “That could be good in the short-term if you’re treating something like a bug bite, but if you consistently use it over time, it can damage something called the skin barrier. Think of it as a smart protective shield. It traps moisture in the skin, but it blocks out things like allergens, irritants and pollutants — and you don’t want those in the skin because they can drive inflammation.”

Bowe explained that a damaged skin barrier “can show up as blotchy skin, breakouts, it can even accelerate the aging process and you just lose the elasticity in the skin.”

To keep your skin looking healthy, Bowe instead recommends an alternative called “skin cycling.”

Here’s how to incorporate skin cycling into your routine:

Night 1: Exfoliation

On the first night of the “skin cycle,” you should cleanse and follow with an exfoliating product — “one that contains ingredients like glycolic acid, salicylic acid,” Bowe said.

“It’s going to just slough away that dead layer of skin,” she added.

This process helps to brighten the skin overnight and prep it for night two.

Night 2: Use a retinoid

To build collagen and smooth fine lines, take a tiny pea-sized amount of retinoid, dab it all over your face and rub it in. “This is going to help with texture, fine lines, wrinkles,” she said.

Night 3 & 4: Recovery

On the third and fourth nights, Bowe advised cleansing and dabbing on a product with ingredients such as hyaluronic serum to help nourish and repair the skin barrier.

During this time, Bowe said the most important step is moisturizer. She recommended her own recently launched Bowe Glow Microbiome Nourishing Cream, which includes ingredients like squalane, ceramides and sunflower seed oil, which help nourish and repair the skin barrier, she said.

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(NEW YORK) — Smokers and vapers are more likely to have a severe case of COVID-19 or die of the disease, a new study finds.

People who reported use of tobacco products prior to their hospitalization were 39% more likely to be put on mechanical ventilation than non-smokers.

What’s more, they were 45% more likely to die.

Although it’s well-known that smoking and vaping damages the lungs and suppresses the immune system, making people more susceptible to COVID-19 and less likely to fight off the illness, there is limited information on the link between smoking and COVID-19 severity.

For the study, published in scientific journal PLOS One, the team looked at data from the American Heart Association COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease registry including more than 4,000 people over age 18 who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between January 2020 and March 2021.

People were classified as smokers if they reported current use of traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes. However, the study did not evaluate if there was a difference in risk level between those who vape versus those who smoke.

Researchers — from the AHA Tobacco Regulation Center and the University of Louisville, in Kentucky — found smoking or vaping were linked to more COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations regardless of the patients’ age, sex, race/ethnicity or medical history.

However, some subgroups were more likely to be at risk of death from COVID-19 than others.

Smokers between ages 18 and 59 were more likely to die from the diseases than those who are age 60 and older, despite COVID’s propensity to affect the elderly.

Additionally, white smokers had a higher risk of COVID death than Black and Hispanic patients, groups that have been disproportionately affected by the virus and its complications. However, Hispanic patients were more likely to be put on a ventilator.

Smoking was also linked to a higher risk of death among smokers with underlying conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease as well as those receiving anticoagulants before their hospitalization.

“In general, people who smoke or vape tend to have a higher prevalence of other health conditions and risk factors that could play a role in how they are impacted by COVID-19,” first author Dr. Aruni Bhatangar, a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Louisville, said in a statement. “These findings provide the clearest evidence to date that people who smoke or vape have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 and dying as a result of [COVID] infection.”

The team says its study has some limitations including lack of complete smoking history for participants and no information on how many cigarettes or other tobacco products the patients used per day or for how many years.

The study’s authors did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — Country music superstar Shania Twain is sharing new details about the health battle she says she faced due to Lyme disease.

Twain, 56, said she thought she had lost the ability to sing after a tick bite she got while horseback riding in 2003 led to Lyme disease, a tick-borne infectious disease that, if left untreated, can affect the joints, heart and nervous system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“My voice was never the same again,” Twain said in a new documentary about her life, Not Just a Girl. “I thought I’d lost my voice forever. I thought that was it, [and] I would never, ever sing again.”

Twain was in the height of her career when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She says in the documentary the condition affected her ability to perform.

“My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy. I was losing my balance. I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage,” she said. “I was having these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds.”

In a 2020 appearance on ABC’s The View, Twain said it took “several years” for doctors to connect the problems with her voice to her Lyme disease diagnosis.

She said the disease caused damage to her vocal cords in the three weeks between when she was bitten by a tick and when she started treatment for the infection.

“There were seven years where I could not, for example, yell out for my dog. My voice would just cut out in certain places,” said Twain. “And it took another several years to determine what it was. It wasn’t anything obvious. Nobody connected the Lyme disease to it. In the end, a neurologist finally connected that it was the nerve to each vocal cord.”

Twain said that although her voice was permanently impacted, she feels grateful the disease didn’t attack another part of her body, like her heart.

“It was just a very unfortunate, ironic problem since I’m a singer, but I feel so grateful and so lucky that it didn’t attack somewhere else because it’s so debilitating,” she said, adding that she now has a “grip” on the disease. “I have a different voice now but I own it. I love my voice now.”

What to know about Lyme disease

Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., according to the CDC, has impacted other celebrities including Amy Schumer and Justin Bieber.

The illness, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted to humans via tick bites and is more likely to be contracted in the late spring, summer and fall. In most cases, the tick must be attached to the skin for at least 36 hours before the bacterium can be transmitted.

Symptoms generally appear after one week, with approximately 70% to 80% of people experiencing a classic “bull’s eye” rash which expands in size at the site of the bite.

Symptoms in the acute phase include fever, headache and fatigue. If left untreated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system. People also may experience lingering symptoms that last months or even years, such as muscle and joint pain, cognitive defects and sleep disturbances, according to the CDC.

Once confirmed with laboratory testing, most cases can be treated for a few weeks with antibiotics. According to the Mayo Clinic, Lyme disease should be treated immediately and may require intravenous antibiotics if the case is severe.

Lyme disease is most commonly found in the Northeast and upper Midwest, with 96% of all cases in 14 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to the CDC.

The CDC recommends preventive measures to avoid ticks including avoiding “wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter,” and walking in the center of trails.

When hiking or in wooded areas, you can also treat your clothes and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin, according to the CDC. They also recommend always doing a “tick check” after being outside and wearing insect repellent with Deet.

Ticks can also come into the home through clothing and pets, so the CDC recommends checking pets for ticks and tumble drying clothes on high heat for 10 minutes after coming indoors to kill ticks.

If you are ever in a situation where you are bitten by a tick, the Cleveland Clinic recommends tugging gently but firmly near the head of the tick until it releases its hold on the skin.

People who are outdoors in areas that may have ticks should also conduct a full body check when they return, including checking under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, in and around the hair, between the legs and around the waist, the CDC recommends.

John Smith, M.D., a psychiatrist and contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The future of COVID-19 vaccines might not be shots in the arm or leg. Instead, picture a nasal spray or a patch stuck onto the skin for a few minutes.

A group of scientists, doctors and administration health officials gathered at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the next generation of inoculation against COVID and its viral cousins; they were in agreement that there is room for improvement.

The future could include vaccines that protect equally against all variants — or even vaccines that stop infections from happening in the first place.

“Innovative approaches are clearly needed to induce broad and durable protection against coronaviruses known and unknown,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, told the audience.

There’s broad consensus that despite the benefit of the currently available vaccines, the “job is not done,” Fauci said.

“We’ve already averted well over 2 million deaths, approximately $1 trillion in health care costs and tens and tens of millions of infections, as well as close to 20 million hospitalizations. That’s the good news,” Fauci said. “What’s the sobering news? Sobering news is why we’re here today — because our job is not done.”

There are a few options on the table.

One is a pan-coronavirus vaccine, which could cover a broad array of future COVID variants and perhaps other coronaviruses, giving people protection for longer periods of time.

Another is a vaccine that people would spray into their noses, called a mucosal vaccine, or even a small patch that would be applied to the skin and carry the vaccine in microneedles.

All are promising innovations, with the potential to be combined with one another — but all are in very early stages of development.

The “holy grail,” Fauci said, is “not only to protect against disease, but to protect against acquisition, and by acquisition, transmission.”

Sprays and patches

Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an expert on nasal vaccines from Yale University who spoke at the summit, said the only way to fully achieve that goal — Fauci’s “holy grail” — would be nasal vaccines.

She compared them to “stopping the virus from spreading right at the border,” because the virus enters through the nose.

“This is akin to putting a guard outside of the house in order to patrol for invaders, compared to putting the guards in the hallway of a building in the hope they would capture the invader,” Iwasaki said, contrasting the nasal vaccines to the current shots, which are injected and produce an antibody response throughout the body.

Mark Prausnitz, the chief scientific officer of Micron Biomedical, which is developing a vaccine administered through a skin patch, also pitched it as a better option to the current generation of vaccines.

“Leave it in place for a few minutes, peel it off and discard it. We think this can not only make vaccines more readily accessible, but improve immunogenicity,” Prausnitz said.

He said the microneedles in the patch are as long as a piece of paper is thick, and people barely feel them. The patches could be administered by people at home, he said, and wouldn’t require inaccessible cold storage.

A summit for ideas, but also a pitch to Congress

For both the new types of vaccines on the horizon, there are still huge scientific hurdles to developing such new innovations. And without significant resources, that could take upwards of three to five years, experts estimate.

So while Tuesday’s summit was a display of potential new advancements and an acknowledgement of where the current vaccines are falling behind, it was also in a pitch to lawmakers for substantial focus and investment.

“It’s very important to note that we need to move quickly to start testing these nasal vaccines in humans, and that requires a significant U.S. government input, both resources and help with manufacturing and delivery as well as acceptance across society,” Iwasaki told the audience.

Marty Moore, founder and chief scientific officer of another nasal vaccine company, Meissa Vaccines, said the benefits would significantly outweigh the risks.

“I think developing transmission-blocking vaccines, of course, will come with great challenges and some cost,” he said. “But I think the probability of success warrants this investment based on what we know about vaccines. And the potential benefits are just enormous, direct and indirect.”

White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha has said he’s hopeful the timeline for these new vaccines could be drastically reduced — if investments are made.

But the Biden administration has faced reluctance from congressional Republicans to approve even more funding, with conservatives citing questions and objections over how past monies were spent.

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(NEW YORK) — A tampon shortage in the U.S. this summer has put a spotlight on menstrual product alternatives.

Over the past several weeks, major retail chains across the country have reported a shortage of tampon products. Across social media, users have posted about their struggles finding products on store shelves.

The shortage reportedly stems from a combination of factors, including staffing problems at factories, transportation delays and the rising cost of materials like plastics that are used to make the products.

Amid the ongoing shortage, the average price for tampons and other menstrual products has also risen.

The price of tampons rose by nearly 10% and the price of menstrual pads by more than 8% through May, according to a June Bloomberg report, which cited data from measurement and analytics company NielsenIQ.

The good news for people who menstruate and prefer to use tampons is that there are still alternatives to be found.

Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified OB-GYN, spoke with ABC News’ Good Morning America about the pros and cons of those common tampon alternatives.

Alternative #1: Menstrual pads

Pads are the most well-known alternative to tampons and the most easily accessible, according to Shepherd.

“Pads really are the forefront of menstrual hygiene products,” she said. “They were the first that were developed.”

Menstrual pads include both one-time-use disposable pads as well as cloth pads, which Shepherd described as a more eco-friendly alternative.

“As far as waste is concerned, reusable cloth pads are a great alternative,” she said. “You’re going to able to wash them and they give you about four to eight hours of protection.”

Shepherd noted that reusable cloth pads can range in price from $10 to $40, but because they are washable and reusable, they can last longer than other options.

Both reusable and disposable pads, while uncomfortable to wear for some people, are also available for the different levels of bleeding a person may experience throughout their menstrual cycle.

“Pads really kind of create an atmosphere and an environment for people to have easy access to something that really has [been] designed to cater to the duration and flow of every individual,” said Shepherd.

Alternative #2: Menstrual cups and discs

Menstrual cups and menstrual discs are both objects that are inserted into the vagina to absorb period blood, according to Shepherd.

Menstrual cups, which are cup-shaped and reusable, are folded and inserted into the vagina, where they sit below the cervix. The cups have a suction seal to prevent leakage, according to Shepherd.

Menstrual discs are disc-shaped and are also folded and inserted in the vagina, sitting below the cervix. They do not suction though, according to Shepherd.

“It just sits in the vaginal canal rather than having a suction portion, allowing it to be to the actual cervix,” she said.

Both options are inserted at home, not at a doctor’s office, and offer up to 12 hours of protection, according to Shepherd.

While menstrual cups and discs are more expensive than disposable tampons, for example, they are longer lasting, Shepherd noted.

“There is cost involved but you have to remember that cost, when you look over the long range of time, usually ends up being a little bit cheaper or less expensive than using things that are disposable such as your tampons and your pads,” she said.

Alternative #3: Period panties

The most recent addition to the menstrual hygiene product options is period panties, which are underwear that have built-in absorption to prevent leakage.

Shepherd said she recommends period panties for people who have lighter periods, or for someone who is at the beginning of their menstrual cycle, when bleeding is lighter.

She said she also recommends them for adolescents who typically have lighter periods in general, for athletes who need the ability to move and for people who do not like the feel of other options like pads or tampons.

“Those are great for your light days or if you want to kind of double up,” she said, adding, “For someone who does have a heavier cycle, wearing a period panty or period underwear usually needs to be done in conjunction with something else, which is a pad or menstrual disc.”

Period panties can be worn for up to 12 hours and are reusable, according to Shepherd.

While period panties can be more expensive, costing as much as $50 for some brands, Shepherd noted the price may be worth it in order to have something accessible.

“They may be pricey, you may have to buy more than one, however, the great feature of period panties is that you always have it available,” she said. “So even if you have a product that you run out of or is not the correct product that you need, you always have something that’s able to be absorbent to some capacity.”

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(NEW YORK) — The United States now leads the globe in confirmed monkeypox cases, new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed.

The U.S. has reported a total of 3,846 known monkeypox cases as of Monday, July 25, federal and global data shows, surpassing Spain, which has reported 3,100 cases, and Germany, which has 2,352 cases.

“The international community must work together to protect individuals that have been impacted by monkeypox, and those most at risk of contracting the virus,” White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

“We want to make sure that we all Americans understand that we have taken we are continue to take this virus seriously,” he added.

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Across the globe, nearly 18,100 cases have been confirmed in 75 countries, including more than 17,800 cases confirmed in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox.

Health experts have said that the number of monkeypox cases is likely much higher than the total that is officially reported, and U.S. health officials have been warning for weeks that the number of monkeypox cases would likely increase across the country, as the government increases testing capacity and surveillance.

“I would like you all to understand that we anticipate an increase in cases in the coming weeks,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing earlier this month.

With increased testing, an improved reporting system for states, and the continued spread of disease, more cases will be identified, she said.

“We know monkeypox symptoms usually start within three weeks of exposure to the virus, so we anticipate we may see an increase in cases throughout the month of July and into August,” Walensky added.

Monkeypox transmission typically occurs through close contact for an extended period of time, or contact with articles of clothing, bedding, or towels that have been in contact with an infectious patient, Dr. Amy Arrington, Medical Director, Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital, told ABC News.

“You cannot get this virus from touching an elevator button, from walking past someone in the mall casually. It is spread by close contact – contact with lesions so touching infectious lesions or infectious scabs,” Arrington said.

Although the vast majority — 99% — of the cases reported domestically have been related to male-to-male sexual contact, according to the WHO, last week, federal officials confirmed that two children in the U.S. had tested positive for monkeypox.

One case has occurred in a toddler, who is a resident of California, and the other has been reported in an infant, who is a non-U.S. resident.

The two cases are unrelated, located in different jurisdictions, and were likely the result of household transmission, officials said.

Officials have repeatedly stressed that although monkeypox is affecting the “gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men,” community most prominently, at this time, the virus can affect anyone who has close contact with people who have monkeypox, including children.

ABC News’ Dr. Rachel Boren contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — There are now at least 3,846 monkeypox cases confirmed in the U.S., according to updated numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is firmly on the radar of American health officials after the World Health Organization declared it a global health emergency over the weekend.

Most positive cases have been among men having sex with men, but there are women among the infected, and a few children, as well.

Andy Slavitt, the former senior adviser of the Biden administration’s coronavirus response team, told ABC News’ “START HERE” that he is concerned the outbreak is being dismissed as a “gay disease.”

Slavitt reiterated that monkeypox is spread by skin-to-skin contact and limiting one’s conception of who can get the disease leads to unfair discrimination.

“It would be wrong to assume that we’re going to contain this by telling people to have less sex. I don’t think that’s going to work,” he told “START HERE.”

Jonathan Araujo, of Miami, contracted the virus this month and spoke with “START HERE” Tuesday. Araujo spoke about his symptoms and the stigma he faced when he told his friends and family about his diagnosis.

START HERE: Jonathan, first of all, how are you feeling?

JONATHAN ARAUJO: Right now, I’m way better. I did like a full 360. I was really having a really tough time battling monkeypox in the beginning. It was really like mentally taxing just as much as physically.

There were kind of all just like open wounds at one point. And I had so many of them, you know, I had at least I want to say, at least 30 of them on me at one time. So, it was painful.

START HERE: Can you walk me through what it was like? Like do you know when you got it?

ARAUJO: On July 4, I was working normal. Everything was fine. And I was going out clubbing with my friends, you know, celebrating July Fourth weekend. And I went out to this club, which is where I believe I got it. [There were] the little hairs in the back of my neck just telling me that night something was not right.

The very next day, I got a fever, and then I had the fever for two days. Then I got chills, and then the chills and the third day went away. By the fourth day, I was breaking out on my forehead and on my back really bad. I had all these little pimples. That’s what they looked like to me. They were like very small little pimples at first. The fifth day, which was now July 7 or July 8, I had one on my lip.

START HERE: Like it’s spreading.

ARAUJO: Yeah. I’m not just breaking out. I’m not just sick with a random fever for two days, and now I have chills and I have headaches and body pains. It just didn’t make sense, and I knew something was wrong.

So I went to the clinic and I thought, OK, maybe I have an STD or something’s wrong. And so I went to the clinic, and when I went to go get tested and treated, the doctor immediately looked at me and he was like, “I don’t think you have an STD, I’m not saying you don’t have any, but by looking at you, I think you have monkeypox.” And I was just like, “What? I think monkeypox. I was like, ‘Are you sure?'”

START HERE: Had you heard of it before that? Like, do you know what that was at that point?

ARAUJO: I was very ignorant to the situation. I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t think that I would get it, and I didn’t really pay too much [attention] to it .

I knew what it was and [that] it was going around, but I was just like, it will not happen to me. And yeah, boom, it sure did happen to me.

The lesions and the sores, they weren’t huge. They got really big and they progressed rapidly. They turned into these big zits, but you couldn’t pop them, they wouldn’t burst, even if I tried to squeeze them.

They would sting randomly, like they would feel like jolts of pain. They would be dull for the most part, but then out of nowhere I would get a strike in one of them or in some of them, and then they would burn or itch. If I mess with them, or if I touch them, or if I laid the wrong way, it really felt like someone took a match and was setting fire to my skin at some point.

I had some on my elbows, so every time I move my arm it would burn or I would itch. The one I have on my hand currently itches a lot.

START HERE: You have one right now that’s still itching?

ARAUJO: Yeah. It’s on the palm of my hand. So it flexes and it’s constantly like being touched by something.

START HERE: Does the pain continue on for like days, for weeks? Do you feel like you’re sort of past the worst of the symptoms?

ARAUJO: Yeah, I’m definitely past the worst of the symptoms. In the beginning, the pain was, on a one to 10 [scale], it was like at to eight or nine half the time.

After I left the clinic, I went to the emergency room because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have a PCP. So I went to emergency room and then I told them, “I think I have monkeypox.” And when they looked at me, they were like in shock that I had monkeypox. Like, they didn’t even know.

START HERE: You’re like the first guy they’ve been dealing with to say this?

ARAUJO: Yeah, they were like, “You think you have monkeypox?” And she pulled out this paper and she was looking at the paper and looking at me. When I looked over like desk to see what she was looking at she was looking at pictures of what monkeypox looked like to see if it matched because she didn’t know. And so they put me into an emergency room I think within maybe 10 minutes. That is the fastest I’ve ever been put into an emergency room ever.

START HERE: And if that’s the reaction from doctors, what’s it like from other people around you?

ARAUJO: A lot of people were very like surprised. They were like, this is real. It was a shock. It was it was like a reality check to a lot of people. Even a lot of people in my family, they were like, “You have what?”

I even had some people would be like, “What is that?” They were like, “I didn’t even know this was a thing.”

I don’t want to segregate groups, but it was predominantly straight people, heterosexuals, that didn’t know what monkeypox was. I hate that it was that way because it was like, you can, anyone can get this.

START HERE: Which is concerning, right, if you’ve got people treating this like an STD passed between people in sexual situations, and it’s not necessarily that.

ARAUJO: No, absolutely not. I didn’t get it from having sex. I got it from going out, and partying and doing normal day-to-day things. I didn’t get it from having sex. I got all my test results back with all my other studies, and I came back negative for everything.

I didn’t have sex for maybe a month or three weeks, almost a month before I got sick. So, I definitely didn’t get it from having sex.

I’m sure it’s possible that you can get it from having sex, but that is not the only way to get it, and that’s where the stigma lies, is that people think it’s just an STD. No, you can get it if you touch one of my sores and then touch your face, it passes just like that because of the infection.

START HERE: Yeah really alarming when you see, not just how quickly it’s spreading, but that it’s spreading kind of faster than people are being educated about it, which is why you’re now shouting from the rooftops. We should note though that [there are] no American deaths from monkeypox yet. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience Jonathan.

ARAUJO: Yeah, of course.

 

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(CHARLESTON, W.Va.) — Lawmakers in West Virginia have advanced a new bill severely restricting abortion after a pre-Roe ban was blocked in court.

The bill, passed Monday by the state’s House Health and Human Resources Committee and Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee, bans abortion at virtually every stage of pregnancy.

There are no exceptions for rape or incest, after an amendment to the bill was voted down by both committees.

However, there are exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger, if the fetus is “non-medically viable” or for an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside of the uterus.

The bill also explicitly states that miscarriages and stillbirths are not considered an abortion.

What’s more, the bill makes performing abortions a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison. Women who have abortions will not be criminalized under the bill.

The bill will now go to the House floor and will have a public hearing held on it Wednesday.

The West Virginia Legislature was initially called into a special session Monday to consider Gov. Jim Justice’s proposal to reduce personal income tax rates.

But that morning, as lawmakers were gaveling in, Justice amended the call and said he would also be asking lawmakers “to clarify and modernize the abortion-related laws currently existing as part of the West Virginia Code.”

“From the moment the Supreme Court announced their decision in Dobbs, I said that I would not hesitate to call a Special Session once I heard from our Legislative leaders that they had done their due diligence and were ready to act,” Justice said in a statement. “As I have said many times, I very proudly stand for life, and I believe that every human life is a miracle worth protecting.”

Justice’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last month, the state’s sole abortion clinic — Women’s Health Center of West Virginia — said in a statement on Facebook it would not be performing the procedure “until further notice” due to fear of prosecution under an 1882 law on the books.

The law made performing abortions, including administering drugs for medication abortions, a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison.

However, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, meaning the state’s only clinic can perform the procedure again.

In her decision, Salango agreed that the law had effectively been superseded by newer laws, such as a 2015 law allowing abortions up until 20 weeks’ gestation.

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(NEW YORK) — It has been over a month since COVID-19 vaccines became available to children as young as six months, but with millions of kids still without a shot, officials continue to face an uphill battle in their push to get the youngest Americans vaccinated.

Since the shots were authorized on June 18, approximately 544,000 children, under the age of 5, have received their first shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, representing 2.8% of the 19.5 million U.S. children in that age group.

Preliminary data reported by states shows that several states in the Northeast have the highest share of children under 5 vaccinated with at least one dose, with Washington, D.C. leading the nation with 14.4% of its jurisdiction’s children under 5 vaccinated with their first shot, followed by Vermont, with 10.3%, and Massachusetts, with 7.2%.

Mississippi has the lowest percentage of children under 5 vaccinated, with less than 0.4% of children with their first shot, followed by Alabama and Arkansas, both with 0.6%.

The sluggish start to the vaccine rollout comes as a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey reveals that many parents remain reluctant to vaccinate their young children. As of July, 43% of parents with children ages 6 months to 4 years old said they will “definitely not” get their child vaccinated against COVID-19. In comparison, when polled in April, 27% of parents had stated they would “definitely not” get their child vaccinated against the virus.

Thirteen percent of parents said they would only inoculate their child, if required, and 27% reported they were waiting to see whether to vaccinate their child.

Only 7% of parents reported they got their child vaccinated right away, while another 10% of parents said that they were still planning to get their child vaccinated “right away.”

When asked about their reluctance to vaccinate their children, parents cited concerns over the “newness” of the vaccine, potential side effects, as well as “not enough testing or research,” and overall worries over safety of the vaccines. A majority of parents also said the information provided by the federal health agencies on vaccines, for children in that age group, was “confusing.”

More than half of parents reported that they feel the vaccine is a bigger risk to their child’s health than contracting COVID-19 itself, while about 1 in 10 parents said they did not think their child needed the vaccine, or stated they were not worried about COVID-19.

Forty-four percent of Black parents of unvaccinated children, ages 6 months through 4 years old, reported that they were concerned they would be required to take time off work to get their child vaccinated, or to care for them should they experience side effects, while 45% Hispanic parents said they were worried about being unable to get their child vaccinated at a trusted location.

However, there are indicators that vaccination rates may pick up, as more parents speak with their child’s pediatrician about the benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Seventy percent of parents with children under 5 who are eligible for the vaccine, and are considering inoculating their child, reported they had not yet spoken to their child’s pediatrician or other health care provider about the vaccine, with 70% also saying they would wait until their child’s regular check-up to discuss getting their child vaccinated.

Among older children, nearly 3 in 10 parents of 12- to 17-year-olds, and about 4 in 10 parents of 5- to 11-year-olds said that they would definitely not get their child vaccinated for COVID-19.

Nationally, about 44 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal data.

The continued call to vaccinate all Americans comes amidst renewed concern over the spread of COVID-19 across the country.

Eighty-seven percent of the U.S. population lives in a county with a high or medium community risk level for COVID-19, as defined by the CDC, indicating that 6 in 10 Americans are currently living in a county where masking is recommended for all people while in indoor public settings.

COVID-19 cases among children remain at a high level, with more than 92,000 additional child COVID-19 cases reported in the last week, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA).

On average, about 300 virus-positive children are admitted to the hospital daily, marking one of the highest daily totals since February.

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