(NEW YORK) — The Arizona State Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments Tuesday over whether a centuries-old near-total abortion ban will be reinstated.
Currently, abortion is banned at 15 weeks or later in Arizona. Patients are required to make two appointments, the first for an in-person counseling session and the second at least 24 hours later for the abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that focuses on sexual and reproductive health.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, ending a federally protected right to have an abortion and giving states the right to make their own laws, Arizona providers weren’t sure which abortion law took precedent.
One option was the 15-week ban, which was signed into law by then Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022 and enforced after Roe fell. The other, from 1864, when Arizona was still a territory, would essentially ban abortion in the state.
Under the law, anyone who performs an abortion, or supplies medication to induce an abortion, faces between two and five years in prison. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, only if the mother’s life is in danger, according to the language of the bill.
The law was blocked in 1972 after Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson, the predecessor of Planned Parenthood Arizona, sued, arguing it was a violation of the state and U.S. Constitution.
When Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, it overrode the 1864 law, but that near-total ban was never taken off the books.
In December 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals “harmonized” the two laws, writing in an opinion that the 1864 law would only apply to non-physicians and that doctors could follow the newer law.
In August of this year, the State Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition regarding the ruling. The court will decide whether the older or newer law, or a combination of the two, will be enforced.
Attorneys representing the so-called “intervenors” — Yavapai County Attorney Dennis McGrane.and Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, medical director of a chain of anti-abortion clinics — argued the two bans work in tandem because the 1864 ban has an exception to save the mother’s life.
Planned Parenthood Arizona argued that the Civil War era law should not dictate the reproductive rights of Arizonans in the present day and to affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision to preserve abortion access.
“A near-total ban on abortion in our state would be catastrophic to the well-being of our communities and deeply out of touch with the will of the majority of Arizonans,” Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Arizonans deserve the freedom to make their own decisions about their reproductive health”
“The Arizona Supreme Court has the opportunity to refuse this bleak future and reject this egregious threat to reproductive health care. Our community deserves better – we deserve a right to make our own decisions about our bodies and our health. And I will not stop fighting for my patients and our communities,” the statement continued.
At the same time, abortion advocates are trying to get a ballot measure approved for the 2024 election that would enshrine abortion right in Arizona’s constitution.
(NEW YORK) — Massachusetts health officials are warning that a hepatitis A outbreak has hit the state, and it resembles a similar outbreak that occurred several years ago.
Six cases have been reported across four counties between Nov. 1 and Nov. 29, with more infections under investigation, according to an alert issued Monday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH).
Some of the cases have been severe, with four requiring hospitalization, the department said. However, no deaths have been reported.
Four of the six individuals are men between the ages of 36 and 60, the MDPH said. No other demographic information was given.
Several of the patients reported being recently homeless or having unstable housing, as well as a history of injection or other drug use, according to the MDPH. The department also said many of these patients had sought services at Boston-area clinics, shelters and substance use treatment facilities.
The patients do not have a history of travel outside of Massachusetts and do not share any common sources of food, drink or drugs.
The MDPH said the cluster of cases is similar to a hepatitis outbreak that began in Massachusetts in April 2018 and ended in May 2020, which resulted in 563 cases and nine deaths. That outbreak mostly affected people experiencing homelessness or unstable housing and/or substance use disorder, the department said.
During that period, there were also large clusters of hepatitis A in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia, according to the department.
The MDPH did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Hepatitis A is a very contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus is found in the stool and blood of infected people and is spread through close, personal contact with an infected patient or by eating contaminated food and drink, even in microscopic amounts, the CDC says.
“This is one that, unlike the other hepatitis viruses that we are familiar with, this is one that is transmitted through the fecal-oral route,” Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, told ABC News. “So, it’s not transmitted through blood and other body fluids like hepatitis C, for example.”
“It’s often a result of situations where they may be poor sanitation, overcrowding, poor bathroom facilities, things like that,” she continued. “It’s not entirely surprising that we’re seeing another outbreak in a similar way to the last time we had this in Massachusetts, and it’s affecting people who are homeless or have unstable housing because they experience risk factors of the virus.”
Not all hepatitis A patients experience symptoms, but when they do, it usually occurs between two and seven weeks after infection, according to the CDC. Symptoms can include loss of appetite, fever, diarrhea, fatigue, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, the CDC says.
“You can have a change in the color of your stool where it becomes grey or loses color. That’s a pretty distinct sign that should send you right to the doctor,” Doron said.
The CDC says a person can transmit hepatitis A without showing symptoms and can do so up to two weeks before symptoms appear.
There are no specific treatments for hepatitis A, with doctors typically recommending rest, adequate nutrition and fluids, according to the CDC.
In rare cases, hepatitis A can lead to liver failure and death, but this is more common in those with underlying conditions such as chronic liver disease, the federal health agency said.
If someone has been exposed, there’s a hepatitis A vaccine that can help prevent the virus from taking hold with a single shot given within two weeks of exposure.
There are also two types of hepatitis A vaccines that can be given as a preventative measure: One given as two shots six months apart, and the other being a combination vaccine that protects against hepatitis A and B and is given as three shots over six months.
Doron said vaccination is key to helping prevent the spread of hepatitis A. Currently, the CDC recommends children receive the vaccine at 1 year old and through age 18 if not previously vaccinated.
Additionally, the CDC recommends that high-risk adult groups — including international travelers, men who have sexual contact with other men, people who use injection or non-injection drugs, people experiencing homelessness, people with chronic liver disease, people with HIV, people with occupational risk and people with close contact with an international adoptee — get vaccinated.
Adults without a risk factor who want to avoid hepatitis A infection can also be vaccinated.
“This is important because we don’t want this outbreak to grow to the size of the last one,” Doron said, referring to the current outbreak in Massachusetts. “Anyone in these categories should be getting vaccinated now and we should be doing all we can to identify people anywhere we see them.”
Doron and the CDC say another important prevention measure is making sure hygiene and sanitation standards are up to par, including encouraging hand hygiene at facilities that serve high-risk populations and regular disinfection of high-touch surfaces and bathrooms facilities.
Experts also recommend educating high-risk populations and the agencies that serve them on the signs and symptoms of hepatitis A, the need for vaccination and hygiene measures to limit spread.
(NEW YORK) — A mom who thought she was experiencing flu symptoms but was really having a heart attack is opening up about her experience and sharing a warning for other women.
Jenna Tanner, who first shared her story with “Business Insider,” sat down with “Good Morning America” to recount her close call.
“I thought I was coming down with the flu or the upper respiratory infection or something,” Tanner told “GMA.”
Last year, a bout of both COVID-19 and the flu spread through Tanner’s Oklahoma household and soon enough, the 48-year-old came down with something, too.
“I was having fleeting pains in my chest that I really thought was my … lungs,” Tanner recounted.
At first, Tanner dismissed seeking medical care. “I didn’t want to tell my husband because I knew he would say we have to go straight to the hospital. And I didn’t want to go spend any more time in waiting rooms at the doctor’s office, so I ignored it,” she said.
But ignoring her pain almost cost Tanner her life. After two days, she said, she passed out and when she regained consciousness, she knew instantly she was having a massive heart attack.
“It felt like an elephant sitting on me. I couldn’t move,” Tanner recalled. “I couldn’t move at all. It was very scary.”
Why women tend to dismiss heart attack symptoms
Heart attack is the number-one killer of women in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association. However, experts say women are more likely to ignore or downplay heart attack symptoms.
“Women can typically present with symptoms unrelated to chest pain and I think that’s one of the reasons why they get downplayed, mainly because it doesn’t feel typically like what you think a heart attack would feel like,” ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton explained.
According to the American Heart Association, the most common symptom of a heart attack for both men and women is chest pain, but women may also experience other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea, or back, shoulder or jaw pain.
“All of these symptoms, when they happen suddenly, you have to pay attention because they might be a sign of something more sinister,” Sutton said.
Sutton said if anyone experiences unexplained chest, jaw or shoulder pain that gets progressively worse, they should see a doctor immediately or visit an urgent care clinic to request an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) test.
When she regained consciousness, Tanner said she dragged herself to her cellphone, which was two rooms away, and managed to call for help.
Tanner had to undergo three surgeries and receive two stents during her treatment after the heart attack. But a year later, she said she’s doing better, and urged other women to pay attention to their own bodies and not ignore symptoms, like she had done.
“Heart health for women is important. Don’t ignore heart pain,” Tanner said. “Even if you think it’s your lungs, even if you’ve been to the doctor 20 times in the last two months with your children, just make sure you take it seriously.”
(NEW YORK) — The Arizona State Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments Tuesday over whether a centuries-old near-total abortion ban will be reinstated.
Currently, abortion is banned at 15 weeks or later in Arizona. Patients are required to make two appointments, the first for an in-person counseling session and the second at least 24 hours later for the abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that focuses on sexual and reproductive health.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, ending a federally protected right to have an abortion and giving states the right to make their own laws, Arizona providers weren’t sure which abortion law took precedent.
One option was the 15-week ban, which was signed into law by then Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022 and enforced after Roe fell. The other, from 1864, when Arizona was still a territory, would essentially ban abortion in the state.
Under the law, anyone who performs an abortion, or supplies medication to induce an abortion, faces between two and five years in prison. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, only if the mother’s life is in danger, according to the language of the bill.
The law was blocked in 1972 after Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson, the predecessor of Planned Parenthood Arizona, sued, arguing it was a violation of the state and U.S. Constitution.
When Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, it overrode the 1864 law, but that near-total ban was never taken off the books.
In December 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals “harmonized” the two laws, writing in an opinion that the 1864 law would only apply to non-physicians and that doctors could follow the newer law.
In August of this year, the State Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition regarding the ruling. The court will decide whether the older or newer law, or a combination of the two, will be enforced.
Planned Parenthood Arizona plans to argue that the Civil War era law should not dictate the reproductive rights of Arizonans in the present day and to affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision to preserve abortion access.
“This archaic abortion ban the intervenors are trying to revive is cruel, harmful, and unpopular with the majority of Arizonans,” Kelley Dupps, Planned Parenthood Arizona senior director of public policy & government relations, said in a statement back in August. “It has no place dictating our reproductive freedom and how we live our lives today.”
“We are confident that the Supreme Court will affirm the court of appeals’ well-reasoned decision that preserved access to abortion care. We will not stop fighting for our patients at the courthouse and beyond,” the statement continued.
At the same time, abortion advocates are trying to get a ballot measure approved for the 2024 election that would enshrine abortion right in Arizona’s constitution.
(NEW YORK) — A new vaccine being studied in early clinical trials may hold the potential to help some women with breast cancer, a disease that affects one in every eight women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccine, which has not yet been named, targets triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and deadliest form of breast cancer.
The vaccine’s first clinical trial, the results of which were published last week, found that the vaccine caused no significant side effects and achieved a good immune response in 75% of patients in the trial.
The Phase 1 trial was composed of 16 women who received three vaccinations administered once every two weeks, according to Anixa Biosciences, Inc., the California-based company that is developing the vaccine.
The trial was conducted at the Cleveland Clinic and was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, according to Anixa.
“This vaccine is designed to direct the immune system to destroy TNBC cancer cells through a mechanism that has never previously been utilized for cancer vaccine development,” Dr. Amit Kumar, chairman and CEO of Anixa Biosciences, said in a statement announcing the trial’s results. “We look forward to reviewing additional data as the trial continues to completion, and we are in the planning stages of the Phase 2/3 studies of this vaccine.”
The vaccine is currently being designed to stop the recurrence of cancer in patients who have already been treated for triple-negative breast cancer, according to Kumar. He said the next phase of research will focus on utilizing the vaccine to prevent the onset of triple-negative breast cancer.
ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, who was not involved in the research, said that while the vaccine is a promising development in the field of breast cancer research, it will be years before it is available to the general public.
“This could, and I want to emphasize could, start to be available in about five years or so,” Ashton said of the breast cancer vaccine.
Ashton noted that vaccines already exist for several different types of cancers, including cervical, liver, and metastatic prostate cancer.
Those vaccines, and the new potential new vaccine for breast cancer, all focus on immunotherapy, Ashton explained. When a person develops cancer, the immune system doesn’t attack the tumor on its own because the tumor is formed from the person’s own cells, according to Ashton.
“Using the concept of immunotherapy now, there are clinical trials in progress that take a snippet from a person’s actual tumor and then kind of fold it into, in a lot of cases, MRNA vaccine technology,” Ashton said. “So, it lets that loose so that the person’s immune system can actually fight its own cancer.”
The breast cancer vaccine currently being researched targets a lactation protein, known as α-lactalbumin, that is present in the majority of triple-negative breast cancer patients, according to Anixa.
When breast cancer develops, the vaccine instructs the immune system to fight off the tumor and keep it from growing.
(NEW YORK) — Medications for weight loss like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy have soared in popularity recently. And that’s prompted some major food companies to prepare for a potential shift in what, and how much, consumers who are taking these medication are eating.
Nestle and General Mills are developing companion products, like high-nutritional snacks and supplement shakes, for people taking these drugs.
“There’s probably about 1% of U.S. adults that are on these drugs today. But we can already see how that’s affecting their eating patterns at a very high level,” Alexia Howard, senior food research analyst at Bernstein, told ABC News. “I don’t think we’re going to see a massive collapse in the number of calories that are eaten across America. But things like protein shakes, cottage cheese, supplements to fortify, vitamins and minerals are probably going to do quite well out of this.
Abbott Laboratories, the company behind Ensure Shakes, told ABC News they will have a protein drink on the market by next year that’s designed to help with muscle mass in people who are using the drugs to help shed pounds. Losing muscle mass is a concern with any type of weight loss.
Rachael Knight Gullette said she’s lost 150 pounds since she started taking Mounjaro last year in July and enjoys the convenience that protein shakes provide.
“I have usually a shake every day – it’s the best way to start my day,” she said.
“The smartest thing for food companies to do honestly is to figure out how to help us, and we definitely need help,” Gullette said. “I would love to have a shake that could be a meal replacement that has enough calories in it.”
Experts say that while supplement shakes are a quick way for people trying to lose weight to take in nutrients, they should also consider sourcing protein through eating lean meats and vegetables.
“It’s understandable why a protein shake would be seen as a reasonable option to help fulfill those high-value needs of wanting to increase the amount of protein that you’re eating,” ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton said. “As physicians, we always advise that these protein shakes can be hiding a lot of added sugar. They’re also not tightly controlled and regulated by the FDA.”
Weight-loss medications are not a complete solution on their own. Doctors advise pairing their use with a healthy diet and physical activity for best results, and to develop healthy habits.
Performing medicine can be difficult in any setting but perhaps no more challenging than during a humanitarian crisis.
Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are often performing under extreme duress with a limited number of tools compared to working in a traditional hospital setting.
There have been medical advances over the centuries when it comes to battlefield medicine both in the training and the equipment used, but more recent improvements in care may be helping save more lives in wars, such as the one in Ukraine and ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, than were available a decade or two ago.
Experts told ABC News that some of the innovations are in the technology used — such as portable laboratories — to organizational changes, such as making sure civilians are also receiving basic health care on top of surgical care to prevent a separate public health crisis from emerging.
Social media helping doctors
In past humanitarian conflicts, when telegrams or landline calls were the standard form of communication, it was hard for doctors treating patients in conflict zones to ask for help or advice from their colleagues abroad.
In conflict zones, whether it’s a local doctor or a doctor who has been deployed from another country, medical professionals are often treating patients with conditions they are not familiar with.
Dr. Tom Weiser, clinical professor of surgery in the field of trauma, critical care, and emergency general surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, said the advent of social media and connectivity has been a major asset to doctors working in conflict zones.
“Being able to reach out to colleagues, and ask advice about, ‘Hey, I have this thing that I’ve never seen before,'” he told ABC News. “I may be a plastic surgeon or a gynecologist and now I’ve been recruited into this conflict, [someone] who has surgical skills but is now suddenly operating or asked to operate beyond his or her normal scope of practice.”
Weiser added, “I would say that probably the biggest change is the ability to receive advice or perspective from those who might have had an experience who is not necessarily sitting next to you or leaning over your shoulder, but can [be] just a phone call or WhatsApp or Telegram or a YouTube video away.”
Portable laboratories
One of the recent innovations of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is the “Mini-Lab,” which is designed to be a transportable clinical laboratory that is easy to set up and is affordable when MSF workers are deployed.
According to MSF, it can be set up in areas where traditional laboratories are lacking, and even non-experts can use it after brief training.
“That’s something that you can kind of deploy to a conflict zone within limits,” Dr. Amber Alayyan, MSF’s deputy program manager for Palestine, told ABC News.
“So, with that, it’s a miniature microbiology lab and that’s been quite revolutionary in the sense that we can deploy that quite quickly,” Alayyan added.
Alayyan said this helped with longer-term surgical missions or “surgical programs that especially in the situation like in Gaza, or in other places that we’ve seen sort of more ‘modern conflicts’ whether it’s we’ve not used it in the Ukraine, but that kind of setup or in Syria, where you have a lot of very severe injuries.”
Alayyan explained that in conflicts with severe injuries and surgeries that don’t have the best hygiene, there is a high potential for wounds to get infected.
“That’s where something like the mini-lab would come into play,” she said.
Staff can use the mini-lab to determine what kind of disease or infection someone has and from there, figure out how to treat it.
Advancements in amputations
Over the years, there have been a number of innovations in the field of amputation from the introduction of tools such as artery forceps in the 16th century to techniques to make the surgery more effective.
Although doctors often try to save a limb, Weiser said that over the past few decades, medical professionals have realized some limbs may be so badly damaged, especially in conflict, that amputation may be more beneficial.
“Fundamentally, a lot of people can spend a lot of time salvaging limbs that then are fairly useless to the person because they’ve just lost so much tissue that you might have a limb, say a foot, that’s still there but the patient kind of drags it along and it’s actually more of a hindrance, especially for somebody who’s otherwise young and healthy than if you had done an amputation,” he said. “I do think that we’ve learned not to try and overtreat limbs that really aren’t going to be functional.”
He added that it’s also important to make this realization quickly to prevent a patient from going through multiple unnecessary surgeries.
“You can put somebody through many, many operations and then, at the end of the day, realize you’ve done all these operations, you got all these anesthetics, you’ve done all this reconstruction or attempted reconstruction, and you still don’t have a functional extremity,” Weiser said.
Access to basic primary care
Alayyan said there has been more of an emphasis in recent conflicts compared to past conflicts to provide basic primary care to those affected.
“I can’t emphasize enough the need for people to look at primary care during a conflict and what I mean by that are vaccinations, making sure that the diseases that would be prone to epidemic levels are under control, that basic hygiene is under control, that basic health is being looked after,” she said.
She said the term “lifesaving care” doesn’t just mean treating the injuries experienced during war but also making sure basic health needs are met.
“In the past, lifesaving meant surgery, surgery, surgery. And I think that what we’ve seen…from day one of a conflict, sure you have many people who are injured, you have many surgical needs,” Alayyan said.
“But the health system will surely collapse in many of these situations and then you run into — the longer conflict goes on — the longer children have gone without vaccines, the longer women have gone without prenatal care,” she added.
Alayyan said when she was working on the Syria conflict in 2013, there was a big focus on surgery and injuries but not on primary care or chronic diseases.
“What you see is that after a few months, kids are born, they don’t have their vaccinations,” she said. “Children who were born in a period of time, like say six months, where they haven’t had any vaccines, and those are the kids who are gonna grow up who are going to be more prone to getting measles, et cetera, versus the kids who already like one or two who have already gotten around to vaccines.”
With adults in Syria, Alayyan said that due to a lack of focus on chronic diseases, and not getting patients their medications or treatments, many started to experience severe health issues.
“So, there has been more of a focus of bringing chronic diseases to the table in emergency operations and emergency humanitarian support,” she said.
However, Alayyan said Gaza is a distinct situation because there are no safe zones or places to ago amid intense fighting from Israeli forces.
“The Israeli army has sent out flyers or texts saying ‘Leave this area now and go to this [other] area’ but then the population goes to that area, and then it’s still being bombed,” she said. “So there’s not actually a safe place for them to go and it’s very, very difficult for us as healthcare providers to provide any kind of care when there isn’t a safe area where we can actually do that.”
Both Alayyan and Weiser spoke about the importance of medical professionals needing to feel they are safe when they are treating patients in conflict zones.
“We can do a lot more when we know that we have access to our population, that we ourselves are protected, that the hospitals and the clinics where we’re working are not under fire, and the current conflict, obviously in Gaza, is a case in point for that, but it’s not the only one,” Alayyan said.
(NEW YORK) — Respiratory illness activity is elevated or increasing across most areas of the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In total, 15 states plus New York City are experiencing “high” or “very high” levels of respiratory illness activity, defined as people going to the doctor with symptoms from any respiratory disease including flu, COVID, RSV and the common cold.
COVID-19 and flu hospitalizations appear to be trending upward while RSV hospitalizations appear to be to be stable, the data shows.
Weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached levels not seen since the end of February with 22,513 recorded the week ending Dec. 2. However, they remain lower than rates seen at the same time last year.
COVID-19 hospitalization rates are elevated for infants and young children and highest among senior citizens, meaning serious illness is mainly affecting the oldest and youngest Americans.
COVID-19 deaths are currently stable, but experts have previously warned that because deaths are a lagging indicator, the number of fatalities due to the virus could rise over the next few weeks.
The CDC is actively tracking a rising variant known as JN.1, a descendant of the BA.2.86 omicron subvariant, according to an update posted by the federal agency on Friday.
Currently, JN.1 makes up an estimated 21% of cases. While some scientists believe it may be more transmissible due to its continued growth, there is currently no evidence it is more severe than previous variants.
Meanwhile, flu activity continues to increase with the southeast and south-central areas of the U.S. reporting the highest levels of activity, according to the CDC. Modeling from the federal health agency estimates flu infections are growing or likely growing in 34 states, declining or likely decline in one state, and stable or uncertain in four states.
Flu hospitalizations are also increasing, yet the number of new admissions remains low at 5,753 admitted the week ending Dec. 2, an increase from 4,268 the previous week, data shows.
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 2.6 million illnesses, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 1,600 deaths from flu so far this season.
Meanwhile, RSV weekly hospitalization rates have very slightly declined to 2.4 per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2 from 2.5 per 100,000 the previous week. RSV hospitalizations remain elevated among young children under 4 and are increasing in older adults over 65.
It comes as the White House urged the makers of RSV immunizations this week that protect infants and toddlers to speed up production to increase access.
The monoclonal antibody shots, which are a bit different than a vaccine but still provide protection, have been in high demand and short supply.
Meanwhile, hospitals in some areas of the U.S., such as in Washington state, are reinstating masking.
At Northwest Healthcare Response Network in western Washington, officials said RSV cases hit a threshold required updating rules on masking throughout its partner hospitals, according to local ABC News affiliate KOMO News.
Additionally, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma reached the RSV threshold earlier this week and the flu threshold on Thursday, officials told KOMO News.
When it comes to vaccinations, data showed much higher uptake for the flu vaccine than for the COVID-19 or RSV vaccine.
As of Dec. 2, 40.8% of adults and 41.6% of children have received the annual flu shot, CDC data shows. Comparatively, 17.2% of adults and 7.7% of children have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine and just 15.9% of adults aged 60 and older have received the new RSV vaccine.
Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, advised people to follow the same mitigation measures they have for previous seasons.
“Everything that we’re hearing about it is not any new virus or new pathogen, it is the common things that we see every season that perhaps coming together,” he said. “The preventive things are all the same, you know, stay home if you’re sick, wash your hands, cough into your sleeve, don’t rub your eyes, nose and mouth, get up to date on the vaccinations.”
Huang said he might advise wearing a mask if you’re around someone who is at a higher risk of severe illness or if you’re in a crowded area with poor ventilation.
(ATLANTA) — For nearly a month, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been increasing following weeks of decline and relatively low levels throughout the summer, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Nov. 25, there were 19,444 weekly hospitalizations due to the virus compared to 15,006 four weeks earlier, data shows.
While this marks an increase of 29.6%, it is lower than the 150,650 weekly hospitalizations at the peak of the omicron wave during the 2021-22 season.
Rates of COVID hospitalizations remain elevated among senior citizens, middle-aged adults and children under age 4, meaning the virus is affecting both the oldest and youngest Americans.
“COVID has not disappeared, although it may have gone from many people’s minds and the top of their attention,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News. “I’m afraid the COVID virus is still very much with us.”
He added, “These omicron variants and subvariants are highly contagious. They’re causing lots of milder illness that does not require hospitalizations. However, there are substantial hospitalizations across the country.”
Vaccine protection waning among seniors
Americans aged 65 and older have the highest rate of weekly hospitalizations of any age group in the U.S., as they have throughout the pandemic, at 13.5% per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2, CDC data shows.
Experts said there are multiple reasons for this age group to have high rates of hospitalizations, including age being a risk factor for severe disease and senior citizens having more chronic underlying medical conditions that raise the risk of severe disease.
Another reason is vaccine uptake and waning immunity. While 94.4% of adults aged 65 and older completed a primary series of the original vaccine, 33.3% of adults aged 65 and older have received the updated vaccine, according to CDC data.
“Many people, although they have been vaccinated in the past, have not taken advantage of this updated vaccine,” Schaffner said. “And the protection afforded by the previous vaccinations is now slowly declining. And so, we have a highly vulnerable population whose protection is slowly waning.”
Those aged 50 to 64 have the second-highest rate of weekly hospitalizations by age group at 2.7% per 100,000. Experts said, similarly, this is a group that is starting to see the emergence of chronic underlying conditions that raise the risk of severe illness from COVID.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said another reason middle-aged and older Americans have higher rates of hospitalization is that the most vulnerable among this group are not receiving treatments like Paxlovid. Reports have suggested that in some states, it’s prescribed in less that 25% of cases.
“It represents a failure of our system to intervene and provide early therapy,” Chin-Hong. “You can’t really just blame vaccinations because there’s a get out of jail card, which is Paxlovid and even remdesivir.”
While only those at risk of severe illness are recommended to take Paxlovid, Chin-Hong said it’s been a relatively underused treatment because some may feel they don’t need the drug or doctors may feel hesitant to prescribe it due to concerns about how the medication interacts with other prescription drugs.
There’s also some confusion about who pays for Paxlovid, Chin-Hong said. While it has been and will continue to be free through 2024 for people with Medicare or Medicaid, people with private insurance may have co-pays associated with the drug now that it will no longer be purchased and distributed by the government.
Young kids also at risk of severe illness
Infants and young children under age 4 have the third-highest rate of hospitalizations by age group at 1.6% per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2, CDC data shows.
Although children are less likely to fall severely ill and die from COVID compared to adults, they can get sick enough to be hospitalized.
Schaffner said it’s a fallacy for a parent to think their child does not need to get vaccinated because they are relatively healthy because children can fall severely ill. What’s more, studies have shown that COVID vaccines do decrease hospitalizations among kids.
“It has been very difficult for people to keep two apparently conflicting notions in their mind at the same time,” Schaffner said. “First, everyone knows that children are less apt to be seriously affected by COVID infections than older adults. The alternate concept that is hard for parents to grasp is that nonetheless, young children account for the third most common age group with hospitalizations.”
Chin-Hong said that parents are less hesitant to get their children vaccinated against influenza than against COVID-19. As of Nov. 18, 38.2% of children aged 6 months to 17 years have gotten a flu shot, CDC data shows. Comparatively, 6.9% of children have gotten an updated COVID vaccine as of Nov. 25.
“More than double are getting flu shots,” he said. “So, it’s not that everybody’s saying, ‘No’ to vaccines. They’re being selective.”
While COVID has not followed a traditional seasonal trend like flu, experts say that for all age groups, increases in hospitalizations have occurred during the colder months when people begin to stay indoors, heat is turned up, windows are closed, and holiday gatherings people bring people together — “ideal conditions for respiratory viruses to spread,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“As people gather for the holidays, it’s crucial to remain vigilant about COVID-19, especially in protecting vulnerable populations like the elderly and infants,” Brownstein continued. “Practicing good hygiene, such as regular hand washing, and staying home if feeling unwell are key. Additionally, ensuring proper ventilation in indoor spaces and considering wearing masks in crowded settings can significantly reduce the risk of transmission.”
The experts also advised the importance of staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations and said it’s not too late to get a shot.
“Seriously, make a plan and do it as quickly as possible,” Schaffner said. “Getting yourself vaccinated and making sure your family members are vaccinated, that’s without a doubt — and I mean, this sincerely — the best present, you can give yourself and give to them this holiday season, and you will help also make your neighborhood and your community safer.”
(NEW YORK ) — Dangerous antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are spreading among patients in Ukraine amid the country’s war with Russia, new federal data shows.
High rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, along with a rise in traumatic wounds and overwhelmed health care systems, has led to increased detection of multi-drug resistant infections in Ukraine and surrounding countries, according to a new report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Antimicrobials are medicines used to prevent and treat infectious diseases and include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites stop responding to the drugs, causing the infections to become difficult, or even impossible, to treat.
AMR is considered one of the top global public health threats, according to the World Health Organization. Bacterial AMR causes more deaths around the world than HIV or malaria, according to several studies.
For the report published Thursday, the Center for Public Health of Ukraine (UPHC) and regional partners looked at infections in three regional hospitals in the Ternopi and Khmelnytskyi regions in western Ukraine and the Vinnytsia region in western-central Ukraine. The data was then reviewed by the CDC.
Between November and December 2022, of 353 patients surveyed, 50, or 14% of, patients on surveyed wards had health care-associated infections and, of that group, there were high rates of antimicrobial resistance, according to the report.
Of the AMR group, 60% had an infection with an organism resistant to carbapenems, a class of antibiotics. Among patients with Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common type of bacteria found in the intestines that can become dangerous if it spreads, all were resistant to carbapenems and third-generation cephalosporins, another class of antibiotics, the data showed.
In comparison with a European Union-wide survey from 2016 to 2017, just 5.5% of patients had health care-associated infections and, of those related to a family of bacteria that include Klebsiella, just 6.2% were resistant to carbapenems, according to the report.
The report also found gaps in infection prevention and control, as well as laboratory capacity, which raises the risk of delaying diagnosing and causing these organisms to spread.
The authors say more capacity is needed to prevent, detect and respond to antimicrobial resistance to “save lives within Ukraine and limit international spread.”
Among the hospitals in the regions surveyed, the UPHC is working to improve this detection by creating routine surveillance, upgrading laboratory equipment, providing technical training for staff and increasing availability and use of hand-hygiene disinfectants, according to the report.
Partners are also working to help provide Ukraine with additional supplies due to increased demand during wartime and to help laboratories be capable of testing for bacterial susceptibility to newer-generation antibiotics.
“Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat,” the CDC said in a release. “During times of war, this threat can be intensified because of challenges conflicts pose for health care system infrastructure. Collaborative efforts are underway to strengthen health care capacity for infection prevention and control, laboratory detection of antimicrobial resistance, and clinical management of infected patients. These efforts need ongoing support to be scaled nationally.”
