(NEW YORK) — With Halloween one week away, some parents are wondering whether they need to be extra cautious when it comes to their kids’ trick-or-treat hauls this year, given recent warnings about illicit drugs being found with candy packaging.
The good news: Experts say there’s no need to be overly worried.
Although many law enforcement officials have warned fentanyl may be inside Halloween candy, sociologists, toxicologists and emergency room doctors interviewed by ABC News pushed back strongly against that narrative, arguing they’ve seen no evidence drug dealers are intentionally giving fentanyl to young children.
The Drug Enforcement Administration warned in an August press release of “brightly-colored” or “rainbow” fentanyl that appeared “to be a new method used by drug cartels to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly fentanyl made to look like candy to children and young people.”
Fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid, is about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, another type of opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is used by doctors in medical settings to treat pain and may be used for sedative purposes as well, but has also become one of the most prevalent illicit drugs alongside heroin and cocaine.
Last week, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department added to growing concerns when it announced it had seized “approximately 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills” enclosed in what looked to be popular candy boxes and packages, including those branded with Hershey’s Whoppers, Ferrara Candy Company’s SweeTarts, and Mars’ Skittles logos.
“With Halloween approaching, parents need to make sure they are checking their kids candy and not allowing them to eat anything until it has been inspected by them,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in its release. “If you find anything in candy boxes that you believe might be narcotics, do not touch it and immediately notify your local law enforcement agency.”
But experts tell ABC News’ Good Morning America parents do not need to be excessively concerned or overly frightened as Halloween draws near.
“People see that and they’re like, ‘How could you say that children are not being targeted?’ But the fact of the matter is, in situations like that, mules or dealers or whomever, they’re using these candy boxes as a means to smuggle,” Dr. Stephanie Widmer, a medical toxicologist and emergency medicine physician in New York said. “That’s not how they’re distributing them to kids on Halloween. It’s two different scenarios. I understand it looks bad and I understand it looks scary to see drugs in candy boxes, but people are not handing out candy boxes full of drugs. That’s just not the reality of what’s going on.”
Dr. Ryan Marino, also a medical toxicologist and an addiction and emergency physician in Cleveland, Ohio, agreed.
“Fentanyl is something that we should be talking about and that I think parents should talk about with their kids. But it’s not something that we need to worry about in Halloween candy, and there’s not any evidence that this has been put into Halloween candy [or] that anyone is planning to do that,” Marino told GMA.
“The fearmongering about things like Halloween candy just really distracts from those evidence-based public health investments that we can make to protect kids,” he added.
Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, has studied Halloween candy cases for years and also says he has not found any research to suggest that drugs like fentanyl in Halloween candy are a valid concern.
“I’ve followed the data from 1958 to 2001 and I can’t find any evidence of any child that’s ever been killed and seriously hurt from contaminated treats picked up in the course of trick or treating,” Best told ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast.
Both Best and Marino pointed out that the fentanyl in Halloween candy concern reminded them of the concerns people had when marijuana started to become legalized in different states and worried that children would have easy access to edibles and other cannabis products.
“This year, we have fentanyl, and the street price of fentanyl is vastly higher. And exactly why would you give a lethal opioid to an elementary school child?” Best continued. “You know, there’s an excellent chance that you’d kill him. And if the child lived and let’s say after one experience was an addict, what are you going to do, take his lunch money? I mean, you know, this just doesn’t make any sense.”
For parents who are concerned about their children — especially those who are older and in their teen years — experimenting with drugs, Marino recommended parents initiate conversations about the dangers of drug use.
“Your pediatrician, your child’s doctor should be able to help you out with this kind of conversation. This is definitely something that has been affecting kids of every age around the country,” Marino said.
“Local public health and harm reduction groups are also good, but honestly just kind of creating space for your kids to talk to you. They probably have questions about this or know things,” Marino added. “And if they can come to you if they feel comfortable with that, that’s always the best place to start.”
(NEW YORK) — After the pandemic hit the U.S. in early 2020, Chris Pernell, MD was on TV screens across the country, emerging as a leading voice on COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color.
Earlier this year, backed by more than 100 New Jersey state leaders, Pernell — University Hospital’s inaugural chief strategic integration and health equity officer — was ready to throw her hat in the ring for the Newark hospital’s CEO search.
Instead, last month, she left her job at the hospital entirely.
Tasked with advancing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the hospital, Pernell said the conditions she fought to change — discrimination and racial bias in medicine — were ultimately why she chose to resign.
In interviews with ABC News, three Black physicians, ranging from a former resident to a hospital executive, shared allegations of being systematically pushed out of their workplaces. One claimed they were terminated without justification. Others said they resigned of their own volition due to an untenable work climate.
All of them cited racial discrimination as one reason for their departure, which they said was enabled and exacerbated by the medical field’s competitive culture, hierarchical structure and often exploitative nature.
They also pointed to the existing underrepresentation of Black doctors, who constitute only 5% of all practicing physicians nationwide, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Recent census data, meanwhile, shows that Black people make up around 12% of the U.S. population.
This shortage of Black doctors has been linked to reduced access to medical care, less effective medical care, and worse outcomes, especially among Black patients, according to the American Medical Association.
In August, the advocacy organization Black Doc Village launched a national campaign dubbed #BlackDocsBelong to bring awareness to the shortage of Black physicians and high rate of dismissals among Black medical residents.
While Black residents constitute around 5% of all residents, they accounted for nearly 20% of those dismissed in 2015, according to a report by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
In prestigious specialty fields, like surgery, the disparities can be even more pronounced, per ACGME’s analysis.
Vanessa Grubbs, MD, the Black Doc Village president, said the organization specifically strives to advocate and support Black physicians by “interrupting the system” that continually pushes them out.
“This is about increasing the number of Black physicians so that we can improve the health of the Black community,” she told ABC News.
Pernell, meanwhile, said she knows she’s not alone.
“My story is not unique across the larger field of healthcare and life in general,” she said.
The personal cost of calling out alleged racism in health care
Rosandra Daywalker, MD graduated from medical school at the top of her class in 2015, matching with the University of Texas Medical Branch’s otolaryngology program for her residency.
At the time, Daywalker said she was the only Black trainee there. Nevertheless, she said she excelled in the program, boasting a spotless record and receiving stellar evaluations.
But after Daywalker voiced concerns about how a Black patient was treated by a white faculty member during a morbidity and mortality conference — and that same faculty member later became her direct supervisor — she said things began to change.
“Overnight, I become someone who doesn’t like feedback,” she said. “You start to see him inject these words like I’m ‘unprofessional’ or that I’m ‘incompetent.'”
From there, Daywalker claimed she endured differential treatment from the supervisor, including him unnecessarily delaying her clinical rotations.
She said the faculty member also frequently manufactured lies about her, casting her into an “angry Black woman” stereotype by “falsely accusing her of being angry and looking like she wanted to assault him,” according to a lawsuit she filed against UTMB.
His hostility towards her came to a head when she was unexpectedly placed on a performance improvement plan, Daywalker said.
“This is what they do. If they don’t have a real reason to get rid of you to fire you, they will make things so bad that you have no choice but to leave,” Daywalker claimed.
Daywalker said the hostile work environment, which she said posed concerns for her own safety, and the toll it took on her health made leaving UTMB her only option.
While Daywalker was not fired because she said UTMB had no basis to do so, after more than three years of training, the Texas Workforce Commission determined she resigned “for good cause,” meaning for a work-related reason that would make an individual who wants to remain employed leave employment, such as unsafe working conditions.
Daywalker left her residency in 2018. She has since filed a lawsuit against UTMB alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act and the Family Leave Act.
UTMB declined to comment on Daywalker’s allegations due to ongoing litigation. In court papers, it has denied her claims and contends it “had legitimate, non-discriminatory, and non-retaliatory reasons for all employment actions affecting Daywalker that she contends were unlawful.”
Daywalker is not the only physician who said they were retaliated against for speaking out about racism in healthcare.
Pernell, the only Black woman on University Hospital’s senior executive leadership group, said her efforts to implement DEI-related reforms at the hospital were often demeaned and unfairly scrutinized.
When she began publicly criticizing the Trump administration’s pandemic response and sharing her personal story of losing her father to COVID-19, Pernell said she was told other hospital executives didn’t approve of her “mouthing off” on TV.
She said University Hospital subsequently launched an investigation into her conduct, accusing her of misusing hospital resources for her media appearances.
“[It was] as if I, a Black woman who had experienced loss and hurt and grief in this pandemic, should not speak about it — and speak about it from the auspices of also being a Black physician, leader and executive,” Pernell said.
“Organizations look for people who look differently from them, but they don’t want people to think differently from them,” she added.
Pernell said the investigation lasted through January 2021. Not long after, University Hospital commenced its search for a new CEO. At the time, more than 100 leaders from across the state signed an open letter endorsing her for the position.
But Pernell said she was never able to apply because she was under yet another investigation, this time accusing her of pressuring other staff members to support her CEO candidacy, which she denies.
Pernell said the investigations were “baseless” attempts to “inflict reputational harm” as her profile rose, making her less competitive as a CEO candidate.
In her final conversation with the hospital’s interim CEO and chief legal officer, she recalled telling them, “I want you to be able to hold space for what a Black woman experiences and the level of scrutiny around just a desire to apply.”
University Hospital did not directly address Pernell’s account. But its board of directors wrote in a statement to ABC News that the hospital is “committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment,” has identified “specific, measurable steps in furtherance of that goal,” is “very proud” of its progress and continues “to pursue this goal in earnest.”
Some Black physicians say racial bias can intensify workplace competition
Other physicians told ABC News that they were similarly antagonized once perceived as professional threats, which they say racial bias heightened — on top of the medical field’s already cutthroat culture.
In March 2018, Dare Adewumi, MD began working at Wellstar Cobb Hospital in Austell, Georgia, where he said he was recruited to singlehandedly “restart” the neurosurgery program. Previously, the hospital had no neurosurgeons and referred patients elsewhere, including Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where Adewumi’s supervisor worked.
However, as his practice flourished, Adewumi said he began receiving an influx of “letters of inquiry,” all but one filed by colleagues, questioning his surgical approaches and technique. He said his white colleagues did not receive similar criticism, even when they had worse patient outcomes.
He also said the complaints sent out for external review found that he did not deviate from the appropriate standard of care.
Before arriving at Wellstar, Adewumi said he had completed two fellowships on spine and brain tumors, where he learned several difficult-to-master techniques. He suspected there were “elements of jealousy” and competition at play among his Wellstar colleagues, he said, “especially [me] being a dark-skinned Nigerian who is now doing these big complex surgeries that would intimidate others.”
Adewumi said his presence at Wellstar Cobb also diverted lucrative surgeries away from his colleagues at Wellstar Kennestone.
After he raised concerns about the letters, Adewumi said a hospital system executive suggested he resign. Adewumi refused.
He said Wellstar then proposed an “action plan,” framed as a way for him to “build camaraderie” with the other hospital system neurosurgeons. Adewumi said he obliged, quickly completing many of the requirements and garnering praise from medical executive committee leaders for his progress and “good attitude.”
Despite this, two months later, in October 2019, he was fired “for no cause” because “certain relationships were not properly fostered,” Adewumi said he was told.
With Adewumi’s action plan incomplete, the hospital refused to give him a “letter of good standing,” which he needs for another hospital to credential him.
In March 2020 when hospitals were slammed at the height of the pandemic, Adewumi said he emailed Wellstar administrators offering to return temporarily as a volunteer, which would allow him to complete his action plan. But Wellstar declined his offer.
To this day, Adewumi is still unable to find full-time employment as a neurosurgeon because of the unfinished action plan. He has filed a lawsuit against Wellstar, alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act.
“Imagine going through 15 years of learning how to do something and dedicating your entire livelihood to this and then having it snatched away from you because you’re the wrong color,” Adewumi said.
In court papers, the hospital has denied the allegations. Wellstar’s attorney William Hill wrote in a statement to ABC News that Adewumi’s case is “not about race” and denied that Wellstar discriminated against him. He added, “The evidence at trial will show that Dr. Adewumi’s allegations have no merit and that Dr. Adewumi continues to ignore the legitimate business and medical professional reasons for not continuing his employment.”
Fixing a flawed system
The physicians interviewed said the trend of Black doctors leaving medicine can’t be blamed on just a handful of “bad actors.”
“There’s a hierarchical structure in medicine,” Adewumi said. “Especially in surgery, there’s militaristic approach to it as well, where you simply do your job, you shut up, you don’t complain.”
“It’s very easy to then be downtrodden and then be trained to tolerate being treated that way,” he added, “You don’t even realize that you’re being stepped on more than other colleagues are being stepped on.”
Daywalker added that employee remediation processes are inconsistent and unevenly enforced across hospitals, with minimal oversight and accountability.
Pernell noted that the loss of already underrepresented Black doctors also has detrimental consequences for access to and quality of patient care overall.
“When you have Black leaders who are being denied the use of their practice, denied the use of their professional power, it only further exacerbates the inequities in the system that lead to disparate outcomes for Black patients,” Pernell said.
In August, a group of physicians, medical students, and patients staged a protest in front of Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine in Pasadena, California, to kick off the #BlackDocsBelong national awareness campaign.
On a policy level, Grubbs said the group is calling for greater accountability and transparency measures, as well as financial incentives for hospitals to graduate Black residents. The campaign also includes a project to collect concrete data on the rate of Black physician dismissals, as well as their stories.
“Everyone tries to dismiss a story here and there,” Grubbs said. “But if we put all our stories together, that’s where the power is to make change.”
After leaving UTMB, Daywalker completed an occupational and environmental medicine residency. She is now a PhD student studying total worker health, writing her dissertation on envisioning an inclusive workplace model that precludes rather than empowers the discriminatory practices she said she faced.
“We normalize — and even glorify — poor working conditions and traumatic experiences in medicine,” Daywalker said. “Why is that? Our resources, access, and knowledge have evolved, so why hasn’t our idea of what it means to become and remain a physician?”
“How do we set up organizational culture, systems level policies, practices, procedures to ensure wellbeing and safety for everybody? That starts with listening to the most marginalized,” she added.
(NEW YORK) — A surge in pediatric patients with respiratory illnesses is overwhelming hospitals across the United States, as experts warn of a potentially severe flu season in the coming months.
Pediatric bed capacity in hospitals is the highest it has been in two years. Around the country, hospitals are being inundated with pediatric patients sick with respiratory illnesses filling up to 71% of the estimated 40,000 available hospital beds, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports.
“[Various respiratory] viruses are all in play on top of SARS-CoV-2, and now the increasing amounts of influenza, which we had feared was coming in like a lion this year, has arrived,” Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, professor of pediatric infectious disease and microbiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), Children’s of Mississippi, told ABC News.
Dr. Michael Koster, the director of pediatric infectious diseases at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, says from mid-September to mid-October the number of young patients admitted into the hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common respiratory virus that usually causes cold-like symptoms, doubled.
“We are seeing patients coming from over 100 miles away, because their local pediatric hospital is full or has closed,” Koster told ABC News, referencing the recent closing of several pediatric hospitals in New England.
Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist in the influenza division at the CDC, says the national public health agency is monitoring the influx of respiratory viruses circulating.
The CDC is reporting early increases in seasonal influenza activity in most of the United States, with the southeast and south-central areas of the country reporting the highest levels of activity.
Experts say that the rise may be fueled, in part, by the softening of COVID restrictions, leaving many vulnerable to sickness as a potentially severe flu season approaches.
“We’ve had reasonably quiet years as a result of all the efforts to control COVID. It means that there is a resurgence of some of these viruses that we have annually, but in a more significant way,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an ABC News medical contributor and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The transition to the winter months also typically sees an uptake in illnesses.
“As the weather becomes drier, people return inside, spend more time inside. And you layer that with a lot of population mobility, especially as the holidays come up, that becomes a real, perfect storm for the spread of flu,” Brownstein said.
Just last week, 1,674 patients were admitted to the hospital with flu complications, according to the CDC. This increased from 1,332 the week prior, the agency says.
Brownstein notes that we see a lot of variability year-to-year, but that this current flu season has been a very rapid rise and hasn’t peaked yet.
“Usually, we see increases in flu start maybe in November or December. Normally, the peak happens in February, but we went into October already seeing increases in influenza activity,” Brammer said.
Visits to health care providers are currently concentrated in younger people with the greatest percentage of visits for flu-like illness are for those under 5 years old at more than 10%, CDC data shows. The next highest percentage is 5 to 24-year-olds, at 5% of visits.
“A lot of years you do have influenza activity, start in children and then spread to the other age groups,” Brammer said.
Puerto Rico, Louisiana, and Alabama joined New York, Washington, D.C., Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina in reporting high levels of flu-like illness last week, according to the CDC. At this time last year, Texas, Georgia and D.C were the only states to report similar levels.
“CDC is following our surveillance data so that we can keep people informed about influenza activity, promoting [the] influenza vaccine, and letting people know that this is the time of year to go ahead and get your flu vaccine,” Brammer said.
Brammer notes the importance of antivirals to combat flu. However, “those medications really need to be taken in the first couple of days of illness. So, you need to see your doctor quickly,” she adds.
The CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get a flu vaccine to help prevent infection and severe illness.
“It’s really simple. We have a safe and effective vaccine. If you haven’t gotten that vaccine yet, it’s time to do so. You really want to get it ahead of Halloween,” Brownstein said.
“Of course, it’s never too late to do so. But the sooner the better,” he adds.
(NEW YORK) — Many pediatric hospitals across the country are experiencing a surge in patients, and one of the main reasons, experts say, is an increase in cases of the respiratory virus known as RSV.
RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but it can become serious, especially for infants.
RSV infections are the most common cause of bronchitis and pneumonia in kids under the age of 1 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One parent, Jeff Green, said he noticed his 4-month-old daughter Lindy was sleeping “pretty much nonstop” after contracting RSV.
Lindy is now hospitalized at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
“She’s just really lethargic,” Green told ABC News, adding of her earlier symptoms, “She was sleeping pretty much nonstop and started running a pretty significant fever.”
Adria Mullins, of Oklahoma, told ABC News she thought her 4-month-old daughter Shiloh had what she described as a “normal cold.”
When the infant’s breathing became labored, Mullins brought her to the emergency room, where she was admitted for RSV.
“It was rapid breathing,” Mullins said of Shiloh’s condition. “And it was her chest sinking in as she took a breath in and her stomach going out.”
In California, Amanda Bentley said her 18-month-old son Joshua has been hospitalized for more than a week with RSV.
“When I took him to the doctor, she said, ‘I think I’m going to send you to the ER,’ and I’m like, ‘What?'” Bentley recalled. “It was just a shock.”
Hospitals from California to Rhode Island — more than two dozen states in total across the country — have told ABC News they are grappling with a higher-than-expected number of pediatric patients amid the surge of RSV, flu and other common respiratory viruses.
Nationally, pediatric bed capacity is at the highest level in two years, with 71% of the estimated 40,000 beds filled, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Experts say the influx of respiratory viruses among children is likely due to a convergence of factors, including the start of flu season and the fact that kids are now less likely to wear face masks and socially isolate as they were doing during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. And RSV, in particular, is a very contagious virus.
“Not only are we seeing more viruses, we are seeing them sooner than we typically see them in cold and flu season,” Dr. Lauren Mientkiewicz, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, told ABC News.
What parents should know about RSV
RSV is a contagious virus that can spread from virus droplets transferred from an infected person’s cough or sneeze, from direct contact with the virus, like kissing the face of a child with RSV, and from touching surfaces, like tables, doorknobs and crib rails, that have the virus on it and then touching eyes, nose, or mouth before hand-washing, according to the CDC.
People infected with RSV are usually contagious for three to eight days, but some infants can continue to spread the virus even after they stop showing symptoms, for as long as four weeks, according to the CDC.
Among children, premature infants and young children with weakened immune systems or congenital heart or chronic lung disease are the most vulnerable to complications from RSV.
“Pretty much all kids have gotten RSV at least once by the time they turn 2, but it’s really younger kids, especially those under 6 months of age, who can really have trouble with RSV and sometimes end up in the hospital,” Dr. William Linam, pediatric infectious disease doctor at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, told ABC News last year. “That’s where we want to get the word out, for families with young children or children with medical conditions, making sure they’re aware this is going on.”
In the first two to four days of contracting RSV, a child may show symptoms like fever, runny nose and congestion.
Later on, the symptoms may escalate to coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Parents should also be alerted to symptoms including dehydration and not eating, according to Linam.
“Not making a wet diaper in over eight hours is often a good marker that a child is dehydrated and a good reason to seek medical care,” he said. “Sometimes kids under 6 months of age can have pauses when they’re breathing, and that’s something to get medical attention for right away.”
Infants and toddlers can be treated at home for RSV unless they start to have difficulty breathing, in which case parents should contact their pediatrician and/or take their child to the emergency room.
At-home care for kids with RSV can include Tylenol and Motrin for fevers, as well as making sure the child is hydrated and eating.
Parents can help protect their kids from RSV by continuing to follow as much as possible the three Ws of the pandemic: wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance, according to Linam.
Infants who are either born prematurely (less than 35 weeks) or born with chronic lung disease may benefit from a medication to prevent RSV since they are at risk of developing more complications from it. Parents should discuss this with their pediatrician.
(NEW YORK) — As the surge in children’s respiratory illnesses, including rhinovirus and enterovirus, continues across the country, one children’s hospital is considering installing a field tent to deal with the influx of patients.
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford confirmed to ABC News it is considering working with the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Association as it explores the possibility of setting up a tent on the hospital’s lawn.
The hospital currently has more than one dozen pediatric patients who are waiting for beds.
“We’re thinking of other alternatives as well as adding space, such as a mobile hospital out here on the front lawn,” Dr. John Brancanto, division head of emergency medicine at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, told ABC News’ Erielle Reshef. “We are seeing a very high number of patients and very high acuity.”
Another hospital in the state, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, said overall RSV cases seen in the emergency department jumped from 57 last week to 106 currently.
While the hospital currently has one to three children admitted with COVID-19, there are 30 admitted with RSV, according to Dr. Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
“I think the biggest concern from my perspective is the uncertainty of when the RSV surge will peak and what will happen with influenza as it has started to circulate in the area,” Murray told ABC News. “Increasing numbers of influenza along with high RSV numbers will require us to further expand our strategies to care for the children that need it.”
RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus — can cause mild, cold-like symptoms, and in severe cases, can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults,” the CDC says.
Enteroviruses can also cause respiratory illness ranging from mild — like a common cold — to severe, according to the CDC. In rare instances, severe cases can cause illnesses like viral meningitis (infection of the covering of spinal cord and brain) or acute flaccid myelitis, a neurologic condition that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.
Hospitals in more than two dozen states — including Rhode Island, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey and Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia have told ABC News they are feeling the crush of a higher-than-expected rate of certain pediatric infections other than COVID-19.
Nationally, pediatric bed capacity is the highest it has been in two years, with 71% of the estimated 40,000 beds filled, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Michael Koster, director of pediatric infectious diseases at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, said that “from mid-September to mid-October,” the number of patients with RSV infections coming into the hospital had “doubled.”
“These patients aren’t just from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts — we are seeing patients are coming from over 100 miles away, because their local pediatric hospital is full or has closed,” Koster added.
In an advisory last month to pediatricians and hospitals, shared with ABC News, the New Jersey Department of Health warned of increasing levels of enterovirus and rhinovirus activity, and noted the state was seeing a similar “surge” like other parts of the country.
A spokesperson for the department told ABC News at the time they were “monitoring and watching hospitalizations and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit census daily throughout the state,” adding that officials had planned a call with hospitals “to assess pediatric capacity” amid the surge.
Health experts say they expect things to worsen as the school year proceeds and winter approaches.
“When I talk to children’s hospitals in Illinois and across the country, very much universally, they’re telling me they’re seeing an uptick in pediatric admissions through the emergency department as well as children sick enough to require the pediatric intensive care unit,” Dana Evans, respiratory therapist and board member of the American Association for Respiratory Care, told ABC News. “Most of them are telling me that what they’re seeing is rhinovirus and enterovirus. Some of them are seeing enterovirus D68.”
Evans said it’s typical for these viruses to make their way back in the fall, while noting there have been changes in the typical patterns since the coronavirus pandemic.
“Last year, RSV hit unseasonably early in August, and this year it’s September,” said Evans. “We didn’t see it in 2020 — likely due to all of the COVID mitigation strategies and the masking and everything we were doing to prevent the spread of COVID which also prevents the spread of other respiratory viruses — but here we are in 2022, and we’re back at it.”
According to Evans, the cause of the surge is likely a combination of factors, including the fact that some children may not have been previously exposed due to COVID-related hygiene practices and that this could be a “particularly virulent” strain of the virus.
Children with chronic lung disease, premature babies and kids with asthma are considered especially high risk.
Evans said children and families should continue to practice good hygiene like hand washing and staying home when sick to help prevent viral spread.
“Anyone that’s exhibiting respiratory viral symptoms really should stay home, be it staying home from school or staying home from work, so they don’t spread the virus to their friends or to your colleagues,” said Evans. “That slowing the spread is important, so it reduces the prevalence of it in our communities, but also protects others from becoming sick as well.”
Parents and guardians should seek medical help if a child is having trouble breathing, wheezing or becoming blue or discolored in their face, according to Evans.
“Either coming to the emergency department or reaching out to your physician for recommendations of next steps at that point would be really important,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — The pandemic has taken a toll on all Americans’ mental health, but now, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 1 in 3 high school teens dealt with poor mental health during the pandemic, and 1 in 5 reported considering suicide.
“Our study examined how recent adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are contributing to poor mental health and suicidal behaviors among adolescents,” said Dr. Kayla Anderson, senior study author and expert with National Center for Injury and Prevention Control.
Over 4,000 teens participated in a 100-question online survey. Nearly 3 in 4 teens reported at least one adverse childhood experience — such as bullying, loss of a parent or violence — during the pandemic.
Prior research has established a link between adverse childhood experiences and an increased risk of chronic health conditions, changes in behavior, depression, anxiety and suicidal behaviors.
Researchers asked teens if they had experienced electronic bullying, teen dating violence, caregiver loss, food insecurity, sexual violence or emotional abuse during the pandemic.
Students who said they had experienced one or two of these events were twice as likely to report poor mental health and three to six times as likely to report suicidal behaviors. Meanwhile, students who reported experiencing four or more of these negative experiences were 25 times more likely to report a suicide attempt.
Experts said the changes in teen’s mental health may be related to stressors from the pandemic.
“With COVID-related threats to health, events in the news, and the accessibility of information online, it’s hard to insulate yourself from the stress, and has been even harder to find stability, support and connection — which is what teens need most at this stage of their lives,” said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, chief medical officer at BeMe Health and child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Because suicide has been the second-most common cause of death among those ages 10 to 14, mental health professionals say more research is needed to address the influence the pandemic has had on mental health in this vulnerable population.
Ways to help boost teens’ mental health
Adults can help teens and children by creating safe environments free of bullying, online harassment and violence, according to mental health experts.
“Teen mental health has become a public health emergency, and it’s time we started taking real, actionable steps to do something about it,” said Chaudhary.
According to experts, anyone can be an advocate for adolescent mental health.
“We must connect struggling adolescents to timely, effective care. Young people need all of the support we can give them,” Anderson said.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pushing back on a claim made by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who said on his show this week that a CDC decision was likely coming to force kids to get COVID-19 vaccines in order to attend school.
But that’s not actually within the CDC’s authority, as the CDC pointed out in a rare tweet on Wednesday correcting Carlson, who has a history of criticizing COVID vaccine policy or sharing incorrect information about the shots.
His segment was also fact-checked by Twitter, which threw a disclaimer below the video.
Carlson claimed that at an upcoming meeting of the CDC’s advisory committee, the agency was “expected to” update the list of routine childhood immunizations and include the COVID-19 vaccine, which would soon mean that kids “will not be able to attend school without taking the COVID shot.”
But the CDC clarified that its meeting, scheduled for Thursday, is an annual gathering to adjust and update the slate of vaccines doctors should recommend to their patients, from adults down to children, and that the list of vaccines does not dictate what requirements schools put into place.
“Thursday, CDC’s independent advisory committee (ACIP) will vote on an updated childhood immunization schedule. States establish vaccine requirements for school children, not [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] or CDC,” the agency wrote in response to Carlson’s segment.
Ultimately, the decision of whether schools require the COVID vaccine cannot be decided at the federal level by the CDC. It’s made at the local level.
“State laws establish vaccination requirements for school children. These laws often apply not only to children attending public schools but also to those attending private schools and day care facilities,” the CDC writes on its website.
“All states provide medical exemptions, and some state laws also offer exemptions for religious and/or philosophical reasons,” the agency writes.
However, if the CDC does update its list of suggested vaccinations to include the COVID vaccine, which is available to anyone 6 months or older, that will open the door for states to begin making those calls, too.
And while there could be grace periods for when the vaccine requirements begin or an increase in exemptions, it’s likely that the COVID vaccine will be required in more schools during the upcoming 2023 school year.
A CDC advisory committee meeting on Wednesday separately decided to add the COVID vaccine to the Vaccines for Children program, a government-funded initiative that allows children to get a host of recommended inoculations for free if they aren’t insured or can’t afford to pay.
“Equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all ages and populations remains critically important,” the CDC’s Dr. Sara Oliver said at the meeting. “This includes now, while the vaccines are being supplied by the federal government, and in the future, when we one day move to a commercial program.”
Federal government officials have said that the current vaccine campaign, to get updated booster shots this fall and winter, could be the last vaccine campaign the government funds. The private insurance market is expected to take on more and more of the process beginning in 2023, much in the way patients go through their health care providers for other vaccines and treatments.
Adding the COVID vaccines to the Vaccines for Children program will “allow children that don’t have insurance to gain access to this vaccine” even after the vaccines are absorbed by the commercial market, said Dr. José Romero, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases within the CDC.
(NEW YORK) — As the surge in children’s respiratory illnesses, including rhinovirus and enterovirus, continues across the country, one children’s hospital is considering installing a field tent to deal with the influx of patients.
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford confirmed to ABC News it is in talks with the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Association as it explores the possibility of setting up a tent on the hospital’s lawn.
Another hospital in the state, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, said overall RSV cases seen in the emergency department jumped from 57 last week to 106 currently.
While the hospital currently has one to three children admitted with COVID-19, there are 30 admitted with RSV, according to Dr. Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
“I think the biggest concern from my perspective is the uncertainty of when the RSV surge will peak and what will happen with influenza as it has started to circulate in the area,” Murray told ABC News. “Increasing numbers of influenza along with high RSV numbers will require us to further expand our strategies to care for the children that need it.”
RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus — can cause mild, cold-like symptoms, and in severe cases, can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults,” the CDC says.
Enteroviruses can also cause respiratory illness ranging from mild — like a common cold — to severe, according to the CDC. In rare instances, severe cases can cause illnesses like viral meningitis (infection of the covering of spinal cord and brain) or acute flaccid myelitis, a neurologic condition that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.
Hospitals across at least 23 states — including Rhode Island, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey and Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia have told ABC News they are feeling the crush of a higher-than-expected rate of certain pediatric infections other than COVID-19.
Dr. Michael Koster, director of pediatric infectious diseases at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, said that “from mid-September to mid-October,” the number of patients with RSV infections coming into the hospital had “doubled.”
“These patients aren’t just from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts — we are seeing patients are coming from over 100 miles away, because their local pediatric hospital is full or has closed,” Koster added.
In an advisory last month to pediatricians and hospitals, shared with ABC News, the New Jersey Department of Health warned of increasing levels of enterovirus and rhinovirus activity, and noted the state was seeing a similar “surge” like other parts of the country.
A spokesperson for the department told ABC News at the time they were “monitoring and watching hospitalizations and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit census daily throughout the state,” adding that officials had planned a call with hospitals “to assess pediatric capacity” amid the surge.
Health experts say they expect things to worsen as the school year proceeds and winter approaches.
“When I talk to children’s hospitals in Illinois and across the country, very much universally, they’re telling me they’re seeing an uptick in pediatric admissions through the emergency department as well as children sick enough to require the pediatric intensive care unit,” Dana Evans, respiratory therapist and board member of the American Association for Respiratory Care, told ABC News. “Most of them are telling me that what they’re seeing is rhinovirus and enterovirus. Some of them are seeing enterovirus D68.”
Evans said it’s typical for these viruses to make their way back in the fall, while noting there have been changes in the typical patterns since the coronavirus pandemic.
“Last year, RSV hit unseasonably early in August, and this year it’s September,” said Evans. “We didn’t see it in 2020 — likely due to all of the COVID mitigation strategies and the masking and everything we were doing to prevent the spread of COVID which also prevents the spread of other respiratory viruses — but here we are in 2022, and we’re back at it.”
According to Evans, the cause of the surge is likely a combination of factors, including the fact that some children may not have been previously exposed due to COVID-related hygiene practices and that this could be a “particularly virulent” strain of the virus.
Children with chronic lung disease, premature babies and kids with asthma are considered especially high risk.
Evans said children and families should continue to practice good hygiene like hand washing and staying home when sick to help prevent viral spread.
“Anyone that’s exhibiting respiratory viral symptoms really should stay home, be it staying home from school or staying home from work, so they don’t spread the virus to their friends or to your colleagues,” said Evans. “That slowing the spread is important, so it reduces the prevalence of it in our communities, but also protects others from becoming sick as well.”
Parents and guardians should seek medical help if a child is having trouble breathing, wheezing or becoming blue or discolored in their face, according to Evans.
“Either coming to the emergency department or reaching out to your physician for recommendations of next steps at that point would be really important,” she said.
(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — Florida is seeing an increase in confirmed cases of flesh-eating bacteria this year due to the impact of Hurricane Ian, health officials said.
The Florida Health Department has reported 65 confirmed cases of Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, and 11 deaths so far this year as of Friday.
That compares to 34 cases and 10 deaths reported in 2021, and 36 cases and seven deaths in 2020, according to state data. This year has seen the highest number of reported cases in Florida since 2008, state data shows.
The increase is driven by a surge in cases in coastal Lee County, which was devastated by Hurricane Ian after the Category 4 storm made landfall on Florida’s southwestern coast on Sept. 28.
Lee County has reported 29 confirmed cases and four deaths so far this year — after reporting five cases and one death last year and no cases in 2020 — state data shows.
The “abnormal increase” in cases of the rare infection in the county is “due to the impact of Hurricane Ian,” the state health department noted.
Nearby Collier County has also seen an atypical increase in cases due to Ian, the department said, with three cases reported so far this year compared to zero last year and one in 2021.
Health officials in Lee County warned residents earlier this month about the risk of infection in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
“Flood waters and standing waters following a hurricane pose many risks, including [organisms that cause] infectious diseases such as Vibrio vulnificus,” the Lee County health department said in an Oct. 3 notice. “For that reason, the Florida Department of Health in Lee County is urging the public to take precautions against infection and illness caused by Vibrio vulnificus.”
Lee County Public Safety said last week that the state health department is seeing an uptick in Vibrio cases “as people clear homes and yards.”
“Stay out of flood and standing water,” the agency said in a Facebook post on Oct. 10. “Cover wounds with a waterproof bandage. Always wash wounds and cuts thoroughly if they touch the water.”
Vibrio bacteria live in warm, brackish seawater — such as where rivers meet the sea — and typically grow faster during warmer months. People can become infected if they have cuts or scrapes and then walk on the beach or enter the water. The skin infection — known as necrotizing fasciitis — can be especially dangerous for people who are immune compromised.
It is also possible to develop vibriosis by eating contaminated raw oysters. When ingested, the bacteria usually causes stomach cramping, diarrhea, or nausea and vomiting
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 80,000 people get sick each year in the U.S. due to the bacteria. Among those, the majority are the result of eating contaminated food.
Experts warn that climate change may contribute to waterborne pathogens such as Vibrio vulnificus to thrive and multiply faster in increasingly warming waters. As climate change brings more strong hurricanes that forces more salt water to mix with fresh, it’s creating large brackish areas and the conditions where the Vibrio can flourish, experts told ABC News last year.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Women who use chemical hair-straightening products may be at a higher risk for uterine cancer, and Black women may be more affected due to their higher rate of use, according to a new study.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, found an association that women who self-reported frequent use of hair straightening products were more than twice as likely to later develop uterine cancer than women who did not use the products, but there was not enough evidence to prove the hair straightener caused the cancer.
Uterine cancer, a type of cancer that starts in the uterus, is a risk factor for all women with a uterus, but the risk increases with age, especially during and after menopause, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is still a relatively rare cancer overall, representing around 3% of all cancer cases, but is the most common gynecologic cancer in the U.S., according to the CDC.
“We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70; but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%,” Dr. Alexandra White, the study’s lead author, said in a summary of the study released Monday by the National Institutes of Health.
Frequent use of the products is defined as more than four times in the previous year, according to the study, which included more than 33,000 women between the ages of 35 to 74.
Black women may be more at risk for uterine cancer due to hair-straightening products not because of their race but because of their higher rate of use of those products, according to the study.
Around 60% of women in the study who reported using chemical straightening products were self-identified Black women.
“Because Black women use hair straightening or relaxer products more frequently and tend to initiate use at earlier ages than other races and ethnicities, these findings may be even more relevant for them,” said Dr. Che-Jung Chang, an author of the study, alongside White.
Dr. Madeliene Gainers, a board-certified dermatologist, called the study’s findings a “huge concern for Black women,” who have long used hair straightening and relaxing products in part because of the hair bias they face in society, including in workplaces and schools.
Several cities and states have taken action to combat the issue through the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair), legislation that bans discrimination against race-based ethnic hairstyles. There are currently no federal laws that address hair discrimination, but the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is advocating for making the CROWN Act law in all 50 states.
Gainers said she advises patients to transition to natural hair and to avoid relaxers as well as perms.
“Hair relaxers are problematic. They’re not strictly regulated and they’re not even required to list all the ingredients,” said Gainers, who was not involved in the NIH-funded study. “With hair relaxers, it’s such a harsh chemical it can cause lesions and burns on the scalp, so it makes penetration of these chemicals that much greater and the scalp absorbs better, so it’s a huge problem.”
Gainers said chemicals from hair products can be absorbed into the body, where they may disrupt the body’s hormonal balance, resulting in cancers and other medical issues.
“It can affect your body in a similar manner as ingesting the chemicals,” she said. “Just because it’s being put on the skin, it doesn’t stop it from being harmful, unfortunately.”
More research needs to be done
The authors of the new study point out that “more research is needed” to determine exactly what type of hair-straightening chemicals could be linked to an increased risk for uterine cancer.
The study did include some significant limitations. More than 80% of the women in the study were Non-Hispanic white women and only 7% were Black, meaning the statistics may be different with an equal distribution of races.
All of the women were first-degree relatives of a woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which puts them at a higher risk of getting cancers themselves.
Uterine cancer rates have also been rising in Black women in general, so there could be an association that is not directly caused by using chemical hair-straightening products.
“More research is needed to confirm these findings in different populations, to determine if hair products contribute to health disparities in uterine cancer and to identify the specific chemicals that may be increasing the risk of cancers in women,” White wrote in the study’s summary.
Researchers in this study also couldn’t identify the specific chemical that could be causing uterine cancer. They only noted that the chemicals were historically found in straighteners, where parabens, bisphenol A, metals and formaldehyde, could be contributing to the increased risk.
The study, which collected data over 11 years, did not include information on brands or ingredients in the hair products that participants used, according to the NIH.
In 2019, researchers used data from the same study to report an association between the use of hair dye and relaxers and breast cancer rates in women who were already at an increased risk level of getting breast cancer.
Other studies have also shown no increased risk of breast cancer due to the use of hair dye.
The Food and Drug Administration, the agency that regulates cosmetics, including hair smoothing products and hair dyes, says on its website it does not “have reliable evidence showing a link between cancer and coal-tar hair dyes on the market today.” Coal-tar hair dyes, according to the agency, includes permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary hair dyes.
The agency issued a warning earlier this year that hair smoothing products often contain formaldehyde, described as a “colorless, strong-smelling gas that presents a health hazard when breathed into the lungs, or when it gets into the eyes or onto the skin.” In hair smoothing products, the formaldehyde is released into the air as a gas when the products are heated.
The FDA warned that the use of hair smoothing products in an area that is not properly ventilated could lead to a risk of a person inhaling formaldehyde.
Gainers said that as research continues, she would like to see the hair products industry more closely regulated, including requiring ingredients to be clearly listed.
“I think we’re still at the beginning stage and I do think more research needs to be done,” she said. “I also think that the cosmetic industry needs to be regulated, and I do think that it should be mandatory for all chemicals that are being used in a product to be on the label.”
