Health

(NEW YORK) — Evelin Miranda first noticed something was off with her husband, Eddie, about 10 years ago, when he started picking her up from work late. Then, her son Miguel told her Eddie hadn’t been paying bills on time.

“Things just weren’t getting better,” she told ABC News. “I was saying to myself, well, there’s something wrong.”

Eddie was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2018. He lives at home, and Evelin is his full-time caretaker. She has a nursing background, and was familiar with Alzheimer’s disease. But this was different.

“You never expect it in your own home, with your own loved one, your partner, that you share your whole self to,” she said.

The Mirandas’ story is featured on “Our America: Unforgettable,” an hour-long special produced by ABC Owned Television Stations in partnership with ABC News that takes a look at the alarming data of Alzheimer’s disease through a Hispanic and Latino lens.

Families like the Miranda’s are more likely than most to be struggling with the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease. Older Hispanic people have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias than older white people — a 1.5 times higher risk, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. They’re also expected to have the steepest increases in rates of disease over the next few decades.

But they’re also less likely to benefit from research around the disease. Hispanic and Latino people tend to be diagnosed later in the course of the illness and are also less likely to participate in clinical trials investigating the disease.

Those are two key challenges in the efforts to reduce the burdens of Alzheimer’s disease, experts say — and make it less likely the group will be able to benefit from treatment innovations.

“We need action now,” Christian Salazar, a research scientist at the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, told ABC News. “We need to address these disparities now.”

More disease, less diagnosis
There’s no clear answer as to why Hispanics are more at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Zaldy Tan from Cedars Sinai told ABC News. It’s likely a combination of factors, including socioeconomic factors like income level, and rates of underlying illnesses like high blood pressure.

“I tell my patients that controlling diabetes and high blood pressure is important,” Tan said.

Even though older Hispanics are 1.5 times more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias than older white people, the disease is underdiagnosed in the community — they’re only 18% more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. And when they are diagnosed, they’re often diagnosed later in the course of the disease, according to Maria Aranda, executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging.

“They do so when it’s later in the trajectory of the disorder,” Aranda told ABC News. “And as a result, they could be exhibiting higher levels of behavioral and psychological symptoms.”

The disease can be hard to detect, Tan said.

“It can take the form of forgetting to pick up something from the grocery, it could take the form of forgetting to pick up your kids after school,” he said. “It’s very subtle in the beginning.”

But Latinos also tend to see some memory loss as a normal sign of aging, which it is not, Tan said. So they put off going to see a doctor.

“There is that reluctance to come earlier for an evaluation,” he said.

Diagnosis can also be difficult for people who speak limited English or speak English as a second language, because it’s harder to communicate with healthcare providers, said Carmen Carrión, a neuropsychologist at the Yale School of Medicine.

“There’s also these cultural differences,” she told ABC News. “That creates a disconnect and can sometimes make it very difficult to communicate the difficulties that you’re having.”

Carrión is bilingual and conducts patient evaluations in Spanish, but few physicians in the United States speak Spanish.

“It’s important to have physicians that speak Spanish that can explain to the Latino families, because a lot of them, they don’t understand where Alzheimer’s is coming from,” Evelin Miranda said.

Getting diagnosed — and getting diagnosed early — is important to help people and their families prepare for the progression of disease, maximize quality of life, and make plans for caregiving, experts say. It also makes it more likely someone would be able to get access to new drugs that may be able to slow the progression of disease. The two drugs, Aducanumab and Lecanemab, are only approved for the early stages of the disease.

The importance of research
There’s a complicated tangle of issues around Alzheimer’s disease in the Hispanic and Latino communities. Researchers and doctors are making strides in understanding how to address them — but in order to push forward, they need to engage with people in that community.

“The only way that we’re really going to understand how or why it manifests differently among diverse communities is by having these diverse communities, Latinos, Hispanics, participating in research and clinical trials,” Carrión said.

But Hispanics are less likely to participate in clinical trials, research shows.

“Clinical trials come in two different types. You have pharmacological trials — those that are geared towards drugs — and those that are not geared towards drugs, the lifestyle interventions,” Salazar said. “We need Hispanic participation in both of these types of clinical trials, because without them, we won’t know how to intervene.”

It’s particularly important with new drugs on the horizon. Aducanumab and Lecanemab are the first drugs that may slow the disease down, not just treat symptoms, and there are other investigational drugs in the development pipeline.

“We are at the cusp of a revolution in understanding better treatments for Alzheimer’s disease,” Salazar said.

But in order for all groups to get the benefits of those drugs, researchers have to pursue strategies to encourage all groups to sign up.

“We have to do a better job getting the message out there,” Carrion said.

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(NEW YORK) — More than 4 million Americans have been vaccinated with the newest COVID shot as of Thursday, according to the latest government data, putting the uptake about equal to that of the COVID vaccine rolled out in October of last year.

While vaccination rates remaining on par with last year’s rollout is positive news for public health experts, the shot has reached fewer than 2% of Americans.

There are about 8 million more shots on hand for distribution, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, and in total 12 million shots have been shipped to pharmacies, doctors offices and clinics over the last few weeks.

Public health officials rubber stamped the latest COVID shot in September, matching the shot to the currently-circulating strain of the virus and recommending it for everyone 6 months and older.

It’s the first time that the COVID vaccine distribution has shifted over to the commercial market as opposed to the government, which purchased and distributed COVID vaccines while the country was in an emergency phase of the pandemic.

“COVID-19 vaccine distribution, which has shifted to the private market, is a lot different than it was last year when the government was distributing them,” a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson said.

The transition from government-run logistics to a medley of private insurance companies working with pharmacy chains, doctors offices and public health centers has resulted in a bumpy rollout, at times riddled with confusion about the cost of the vaccines, which are intended to be free, and challenges in getting appointments, particularly for children.

Insurance companies are supposed to cover the cost of COVID vaccines, per a law enacted by Congress, and anyone without insurance should have access to free vaccines through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-run program.

Pediatric vaccines have also been slower to become available than adult vaccines. According to CDC Director Mandy Cohen, manufacturers distributed adult doses of the shot first, but pediatric doses are following suit.

“Manufacturers and distributors were getting out the adult vaccines first. So that was what was shipping in the first number of days,” Cohen said last week. “The supply is filling out, and make sure that you’re calling ahead to your pediatrician or your pharmacy to see if the vaccine is available, and if not, check back again.”

Insurance companies, pharmacies and the government have said they’ve addressed any initial issues with the rollout and continue to monitor for ways to improve access.

“Certainly we’re aware of what consumers have experienced, these unexpected issues of point of service,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “And so, this is certainly a top priority for this administration.”

But public health officials warn that access issues during the initial rollout could deter people from getting their shots. According to Walgreens, the busiest weeks for COVID-19 immunizations historically have been the first four weeks after a vaccine becomes available.

And there has historically been a waning interest in COVID shots — just 17% of Americans, or 56.5 million people, received the booster shot that was rolled out last fall, according to data released by the CDC in May. That’s compared to nearly 70% of Americans, or 231.6 million people, who got vaccinated with the first COVID series.

There is also less data surrounding vaccinations — as well as COVID cases — because states are no longer required to report data with the same timeliness or consistency as they were during the public health emergency, which ended in May.

The data that is available, however, shows that hospitalizations rose over the summer and hit a peak in mid-September. Hospital admissions have decreased by about 3% since last week.

The government also relaunched its free COVID test resource, COVIDTests.Gov, about two weeks ago, predicting a fall and winter rise in cases once again.

So far, 45 million tests have been ordered and over 10 million tests delivered, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Officials expect they’ll continue to have ample inventory to meet demand, a spokesperson for the department said.

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(NEW YORK) — Firearm deaths and drug poisoning deaths in children have spiked in the last decade, according to a new study in the United States. The study found an increase in firearm deaths by 87% and drug poisoning deaths by 133%.

Researchers looked at data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s injury reporting system. They analyzed injuries leading to death from 2011-2021 and nonfatal injuries from 2011-2020.

Overall, they found that fatal injury rates increased from about 14 deaths per 100,000 children in 2011 to over 17 deaths per 100,000 children in 2021. Firearm injuries made up the biggest portion of those fatal injuries.

Both the increase in firearm and drug overdoses may be because children can get a hold of these dangerous items easily, says Dr. Rebecca Mannix, an author on the study and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“The access issues of firearms and prescription and illicit drugs have also been a huge problem in the pediatric population,” she says. “There’s a reservoir of both prescribed and illicit drugs that kids have access to that can become quite deadly.”

The study found that pediatric injury fatalities sharply increased in the pandemic years of 2020 to 2021.

“The increase in pediatric injury-related deaths preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, though the pandemic exacerbated numerous factors underlying this disturbing trend, including access to lethal means, such as firearms and opioids, the mental health crisis and structural racism,” said Mannix in an email to ABC News. “In this way, the increase in deaths in 2020 to 2021 is an amplified trend that has been creeping up on us for the last decade.”

It remains unclear whether these trends will continue. The study also looked at the trends of injuries that did not lead to death in children.

Nonfatal injuries decreased by more than half between 2011 and 2020. Motor vehicle injuries saw a decrease by 47%.

While it is hard to determine why there was a decrease, Mannix and her team point to public health initiatives, such as booster seats for children, as a possible cause.

“This is largely due to public health interventions I think, in the last few decades, improving motor vehicle safety, improving helmet technology, [and] childproofing,” says Mannix.

Technological advancements and legislative requirements may also have contributed, experts say.

Public safety initiatives are key to keeping children safe, says Dr. Wee Chua, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. That includes “car seats, bike helmets, and the safe storage of firearms,” Chua says.

Despite overall decreases in nonfatal injuries, the rates of self-harm increased by 57%. Self-harm is the act of purposefully hurting oneself, and it’s associated with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.

“I spend my clinical time in the ER,” says Mannix, “and I can tell you, there’s a behavioral health [and] mental health crisis in kids.”

Parents can prevent firearm injuries and drug poisonings by removing guns from homes, locking prescription drugs, monitoring for illicit and prescription drug use and seeing a doctor if your child is exhibiting self-harm behavior.

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(NEW YORK) — After weeks of increasing COVID hospitalizations in the United States, the number of patients seems to be trending downward, and experts say the summer peak might be over.

Weekly hospitalizations decreased 3.1% from 19,691 to 19,079 for the week ending Sept. 23, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The figure is close to levels seen in March of this year and marks the second straight week of declines, data shows.

Previously, hospitalizations had increased from late July to early September, even surpassing 20,000 weekly patients last month, data showed.

Public health experts told ABC News that it looks like the summer peak is over and all COVID metrics should be on the decline ahead of traditional respiratory virus season.

“Signs point to the fact that the increase that we saw late summer is now subsiding,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “That’s not so unexpected given that we’ve seen previous seasons where you get this smaller summer peak, possibly driven by people being indoors, kids coming back to school post-vacation.”

Experts said some of the hospitalizations were due to people who were in the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for COVID-19 incidentally.

“When we look at our numbers at NYU, we do both — look at numbers of patients who are incidentally diagnosed… but we also look at our numbers for people who have been admitted for COVID-related pulmonary issues,” Dr. Dana Mazo, a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told ABC News. “And we did see an increase in both of those groups.”

Deaths are still trending upward, according to CDC data, but experts say they are a lagging indicator and should decline — just as hospitalizations did — before long.

With the end of the public health emergency in May, the CDC stopped sharing data about COVID-19 transmission levels and community levels and used COVID-related hospital admissions as the primary metric to measure virus spread.

Experts say hospitalizations are still one of the best metrics to measure the severity of COVID because they have the greatest public health impact.

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the number of cases doesn’t tell public health officials how severe a person’s infection is or how easily it was treated.

“There are a lot of people who are not testing anymore,” he told ABC News. “Our testing intensity has diminished… But that measure is not reliable because early on, we knew about every test and whether it was positive or negative. Now, we don’t have that kind of a handle on how frequently people are having minor infections.”

Brownstein added, “There once was a point when cases were actually an important indicator. They’re less so now just because people are just not testing, people recognize what they need to do when they’re ill, regardless of what virus is causing that illness. Hospitalizations still represent our best bet right now.”

Experts say not to become complacent because fall and winter have traditionally come with surges and recommend all Americans aged 6 months and older receive the updated COVID vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration and the CDC say the updated vaccine more closely matches currently circulating variants and protects against severe disease and hospitalization.

In addition to the updated COVID vaccine, officials are also recommending Americans receive the flu vaccine and the new RSV vaccine for those aged 60 and older.

“Flu is still part of the routine annual vaccines that everyone is eligible for and then RSV is, of course, newer and that will be much more guided toward those who are in higher risk groups,” Brownstein said. “Making sure we get as many people protected will help alleviate any pressures, we’re going to feel on our health care systems heading into the winter, which is something we felt across all health care systems, especially in the pediatric population.”

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(NEW YORK) — More than 75,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente launched a strike Wednesday, with a coalition of unions alleging the health care system is engaging in unfair labor practices.

Employees in Virginia and Washington, D.C., walked off the job at 6 a.m. ET while those in California, Colorado, Washington and Oregon began striking at 9 a.m. ET, beginning the largest health care workers strike in U.S. history, the unions say.

Those in mid-Atlantic states will be striking for one day while those in western states will be striking for three days.

The strike includes hundreds of positions, including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists, optometrists, home health aides, medical assistants, dental assistants and more.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents more than 85,000 workers, said Kaiser is experiencing a short-staffing crisis and that unsafe levels of staffing can result in long wait times, patient neglect and missed diagnoses.

Additionally, the Coalition said it’s advocating for better medical plans for retirees as well as protections against work that is outsourced and subcontracted.

The Coalition and the nonprofit organization have been bargaining since April but were unable to reach an agreement before contracts expired on Sept. 30.

In a statement to ABC News on Wednesday, Kaiser said bargaining was ongoing and some agreements had been reached.

“Both Kaiser Permanente management and Coalition union representatives are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” the statement read. “There has been a lot of progress, with agreements reached on several specific proposals late Tuesday.”

The statement continued, “We remain committed to reaching a new agreement that continues to provide our employees with market-leading wages, excellent benefits, generous retirement income plans, and valuable professional development opportunities.”

Kaiser had said throughout the strike, all of its hospitals and emergency departments will remain open and contract workers have been hired to backfill striking employees.

The Kaiser strike comes amid several major labor actions in other sectors of the workforce. The United Auto Workers launched a strike on Sept. 15 against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis after failing to reach a contract agreement with the automakers.

Additionally, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is continuing its strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) which began on July 14.

The Writers Guild of America ended its strike against AMPTP last week after almost 150 days, securing better pay and regulations for the use of artificial intelligence in certain projects.

 

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(NEW YORK) — More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across the country are planning to strike Wednesday morning over what a coalition of unions allege are unfair labor practices.

The strike — which will last for three days in most locations and include employees in California, Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C. — would be the largest among health care workers in U.S. history, according to the unions.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents more than 85,000 workers, and the health care system have been negotiating since April but were unable to come to an agreement before their contract expired on Sept. 30, officials said.

Workers allege in a release that the COVID-19 pandemic led to working conditions deteriorating and exacerbated a staffing crisis plaguing several health care systems.

The employees alleged Kaiser’s bargaining in bad faith led to unsafe levels of staffing that resulted in long wait times, patient neglect and missed diagnoses. Additionally, the Coalition said it’s advocating for better medical plans for retirees as well as protections against work that is outsourced and subcontracted.

Debru Carthan, lead radiologic technologist at Kaiser Permanente Modesto, told ABC News she and her colleagues are often doing the work of two to three individuals and it is affecting the quality of care, such as when she performs mammograms.

“We generally do mammograms every 15 minutes but with the Kaiser short staffing crisis, we are cut down to sometimes seven and a half minutes,” she said. “So our workload is double; where I might have a regular schedule of 20, but now I have anywhere from 40 to 45 patients that were supposed to do an eight-hour period.”

Carthan added, “As a frontline health care worker, we are listening to our patients and Kaiser executives are not listening to us about how mentally and physically and emotionally drained we are. Our patients feel it; they’re not getting the quality care that they should be getting and it’s not safe.”

The Coalition also argues that despite being a nonprofit organization, Kaiser has reported more than $24 billion in profit over the last five years and $3 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year.

The strike will include hundreds of positions, including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists, home health aides, dental assistants and more.

Kaiser Permanente said the strike is “not inevitable” but also “certainly not justified” and claims that it leads in total compensation in every market it operates in and that it offers “great benefits,” including special benefits during the pandemic including for child care, housing and sick benefits.

“We need to keep working together to get through this. Because the reality is that we are still in a health care crisis in this country,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “Access to care is stretched thin and it will take time to recover as an industry and stabilize the US health care system. We can only do that if we work together, management and labor, side-by-side, for one another, our patients, and our communities.”

Carthan disagreed and said a strike is necessary due to the mental and physical exhaustion she said she and her colleagues are experiencing.

“As a 27-year-employee, I am disheartened by the bad faith bargaining that Kaiser is doing” she said. “It hurts to see that our patients can’t get in for months. It hurts to know that our patients especially my mammogram patients with lumps and things of that nature have to sit at home and worry because of the Kaiser short staffing crisis. This is not okay.”

Kaiser said its current offer is across-the-board wage over four years, including a proposed $21 minimum wage in Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C. and a $23 minimum wage in California.

In an email to ABC News, Kaiser addressed the accusations of understaffing, saying that it’s hired more than 50,000 frontline employees this year and last year and said it would reach its goal of 10,000 new hires represented by the Coalition by the end of October.

The nonprofit said it has plans to take care of patients should a strike occur and that its hospitals and emergency departments remain open. Kaiser employs more than 212,000 people throughout the U.S.

However, Kaiser said it may reschedule non-emergency and elective procedures in some locations and will send some prescriptions to outpatient pharmacies to meet any demand.

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(NEW YORK) — Mathias Uribe was a healthy 14-year-old kid looking forward to his freshman year of high school, during which he planned to join the cross-country team and continue to play piano, according to his parents Edgar and Catalina Uribe.

That all changed in late June, when Mathias developed flu-like symptoms, including a high fever.

“His body was red and he was also showing some rashes, which [doctors] told us was due to the high fever,” Edgar Uribe told ABC News’ Good Morning America, noting they took Mathias to the doctor twice. “And that was for about four to five days.”

At the end of June, Mathias’ condition quickly worsened, which prompted his parents to take him to a local emergency room.

There, they were told that his case of flu had worsened to pneumonia and he became hypoxic, meaning his body was not getting enough oxygen. Shortly after, Mathias, who had no preexisting health conditions, went into cardiac arrest.

“He just all of a sudden went into cardiac arrest, and he went into cardiac arrest for about six minutes,” Edgar Uribe recalled. “We were asked to step out of the room. The doctors all rushed into the room try to get his vital signs.”

Once doctors were able to revive Mathias, he was airlifted from their local hospital in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, to a larger hospital. From there, he had to be transferred again, this time to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where he could receive the most critical care.

For the next two weeks, Mathias was intubated and put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine — known as an ECMO machine — which removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends back blood with oxygen to the body, pumping that blood through the body and allowing the heart and lungs time to rest and heal.

Edgar Uribe recalled being told by doctors that they weren’t sure if Mathias would survive, and if he did, what brain function he would have, if any.

He and his wife, also the parents of a 9-year-old son named Nicholas, described it as a “second by second” waiting game to see what would happen to their eldest son.

“Every single day, you just don’t know what you’re going to wake up to. You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Edgar Uribe said. “It’s been really tough, especially having Nicholas. He’s 9 years old and that’s his best friend.”

Dr. Katie Boyle, a pediatrician and co-leader of Mathias’ medical team at the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said that while Mathias started out with a flu diagnosis, his health deteriorated rapidly when he developed bacterial pneumonia with an invasive streptococcal infection as a complication of the flu.

From there, according to Boyle, Mathias developed streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and septic shock.

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is a disease where a person develops a severe immune response to toxins released from the bacteria and, as a result, their tissues and organs do not get enough oxygenated blood. Sepsis is the body’s response to an infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Boyle, also an assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said both conditions are rare, especially in an otherwise healthy teenager like Mathias.

“Most of [the cases] are in patients who have problems with their immune system or are on medications that cause immune system problems,” Boyle said.

Referring to Mathias, she added, “Having the flu kind of set him up for potentially having a bacterial infection, but even then it’s pretty rare to get something so severe. In his case, it’s like he had an immune response to the bacteria that was overwhelming.”

Despite the odds, within one week of being in the intensive care unit on life support, Mathias’ parents noticed his first movements.

“I noticed that he started to move his shoulders, and I said that to the doctors,” said Catalina Uribe, noting that doctors began doing tests on him to see if he would respond. “They tried to say to him, ‘Mathias, do you hear us?,’ and I started to scream to him and to say to him, ‘Mathias, show that you are here. Show them that you are here, Mathias.'”

She continued, “And he started to move all his body. That was a beautiful moment for us.”

Mathias’ parents and his doctors would go on to find that he had not lost any brain function, despite being in cardiac arrest for six minutes, a discovery that they all described as a miracle.

Finding a new normal in life as an amputee

More obstacles were to come, however, when it became clear that the disruption of blood flow to Mathias’ hands and legs had resulted in irreversible damage.

“When he woke up and they removed the ventilator and they removed the ECMO machine after 14 days, they [told] us about the first amputation, and that maybe he was going to lose a leg,” said Catalina Uribe. “After that procedure [to amputate his left leg] they said to us in a big meeting with a lot of doctors, they say the other leg doesn’t look good too, and also the hands.”

The Uribes said they struggled greatly thinking about what their son’s future might look like without his own legs and hands.

“He runs cross country. He runs track and field in school. He plays the piano. He’s a very, very, very smart kid,” said Edgar Uribe. “He was going to be a freshman in high school. His dream was to go to [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and be an engineer.”

Catalina Uribe recalled crying alongside Mathias as he was told by doctors that he would need further amputations.

The teenager has undergone 14 surgeries so far in order to preserve as much function as possible while still amputating his forearms below the elbow on both arms, as well as one leg below the knee and one leg above the knee, according to Boyle.

The Uribes said they have been amazed by Mathias’ strength, both physically in what his body has overcome and emotionally.

“He’s really resilient. He’s like, ‘OK, this is what I need to get better, OK,'” said Catalina Uribe. “We don’t have words to describe how strong he is. I mean, he’s amazing.”

Edgar Uribe said he and his wife have told Mathias how critically ill he was in order to give him perspective on how far he has come. He said they as a family are moving forward with what they call their “new life.”

“We’ve said [to Mathias], ‘You have to be grateful you are alive. Mathias Uribe, you are all here. Your heart. Your mind. You are here,'” Edgar Uribe said, continuing. “‘We’re going to figure this out. At the beginning, we’re going to be your arms and legs. We’re going to help you out … Then you’re going to have prosthetics … You’ll be able to be an engineer and fulfill all your goals.'”

The Uribes said that as Mathias continues to recover, they are hopeful he can be home in time for Christmas.

He is still in the intensive care unit while he continues to recover from surgery, but he should soon be discharged to a rehabilitation center, according to Boyle. He’ll then be fitted for prosthetics to help him regain his independence.

“He’s really reliant on nurses and his family for everything right now, whereas [before], he was a teenage boy who could just do everything and be more independent,” Boyle said, adding, “I think for everyone caring for him, it’s really hard emotionally to imagine what he’s going through and to think of a young person dealing with this, and then it’s also inspiring because you realize not only is he dealing with this, but he’s just very determined and very strong.”

The Uribes said they have been supported through Mathias’ health care by not only Boyle and the team of doctors and nurses at the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt but also by Mathias’ friends and classmates, his school, their friends and family and their local community. Family friends started a GoFundMe that has raised over $300,000 to help cover the costs of upcoming and likely lifelong expenses like Mathias’ prosthetics, his rehab care and renovations to make their home wheelchair-accessible.

They said they’ve found hope in their faith and in the belief that while the past three months have been “exhausting,” that there is a purpose to what happened and that Mathias will go on to live a “beautiful life.”

“We focus on what we gained in the situation,” said Catalina Uribe. “Yes, we lost a lot, but Mathias is here.”

“The simple fact that we could sit next to him and laugh together and tell him, ‘I love you,’ and just hear, ‘I love you, dad. You’re the best dad,’ or, ‘You’re the best mom in the world,’ that means everything to us,” said Edgar Uribe.

He added, “We are certain that Mathias is going to get up from here. He’s going to go to rehab. He’s going to get his prosthetics, and he’s going to do something really beautiful with his life.”

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(NEW YORK) — A Pennsylvania woman in her 80s has died after contracting West Nile virus, health officials said this week.

The woman lived in Pittsburgh and is the first human case reported in Allegheny County this year, according to the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD).

Officials said the woman experienced fever and weakness and was eventually hospitalized before she passed away in late September. No other information about the patient will be released, the department said.

Earlier this summer, the ACHD said it had detected West Nile virus in Pittsburgh-area mosquitoes.

ACHD officials said in this week’s announcement that they are setting up additional traps, including in the neighborhood where the patient lived, and are targeting other areas with a mosquito pesticide.

West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was first introduced in the Western Hemisphere during the summer of 1999, after people were diagnosed in New York City.

Mosquitoes typically become infected with the virus after feeding on infected birds, and then spread it to humans and other animals when biting them, the federal health agency said. West Nile virus is not spread through coughing, sneezing, interpersonal contact, or eating infected animals, such as birds.

Most people with West Nile virus do not experience symptoms, but about one in five will experience fever along with headaches, body aches, joint pain, diarrhea, vomiting or a rash. Most symptoms soon disappear, though weakness and fatigue may last for weeks or months.

About one in 150 people infected with West Nile virus will develop severe disease leading to encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain, or meningitis, which is inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Both conditions can be fatal.

There are currently no vaccines for West Nile virus, nor disease-specific treatments. The CDC recommends rest, fluids, and over-the-counter medications to treat the infection. Those with severe illness may need to be hospitalized and receive additional support treatments, such as intravenous fluids.

This year, Pennsylvania has reported 10 cases of West Nile virus to the CDC, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. There were two cases of West Nile virus in Allegheny County last year and three cases in 2021.

To best protect yourself from infection, or from mosquito bites in general, the CDC suggests using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, treating clothing and gear with insecticide, and taking broader steps to control mosquitoes. This last step includes putting screens on windows and doors, using air conditioning, and regularly emptying containers filled with still or stagnant water.

The Allegheny County Health Department said residents who see mosquito breeding sites can report them online, or by calling (412) 350-4046.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The best time to take an at-home COVID-19 test is on the fourth day of having symptoms, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Researchers looked at nearly 350 people and found that viral load peaked a few days after symptoms started.

“Viral load just refers to the amount of virus that is replicating in your body, So the more virus that is replicating, the more chance of a test turning positive,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News Contributor.

“Right at the beginning point of an infection, there’s limited viral copies. But as the infection progresses, you’ll have an increasing amount of virus replicating in your body,” he added.

The study found that at-home tests were most accurate on the fourth day of symptoms. They could still pick up some infections in the first three days but were more likely to be negative. The findings show that people should not be able to rule out COVID-19 just based on a negative test early on after symptoms start, the study authors said.

Most of the people in the study had either been vaccinated or had a previous COVID infection.

Current guidelines recommend testing immediately if you have symptoms and if it’s negative, following up at least 48 hours later with another antigen test or opting to take a PCR test as soon as possible, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“New variants may cause differences in [the] timing of viral load. It may affect the timing of when tests may be the most optimal to detect the virus,” Brownstein said.

“This study highlights the challenges of optimizing test performance and timing for the most effective action,” he added.

The federal government recently re-launched a program that allows Americans to order free COVID tests straight to their home. Tests can be ordered at CovidTests.Gov.

Some “expired” COVID tests have also had their expiration dates extended by the Food and Drug Administration. At-home tests typically have a shelf life of around 4-6 months from the day they were manufactured.

Federal health authorities continue to encourage everyone to anonymously report their at-home COVID tests to MakeMyTestCount.org.

COVID hospitalizations have declined for two consecutive weeks, following a steady uptick for about two months.

Updated COVID vaccines were recently greenlit by federal health authorities but had a rocky distribution start following reports of supply issues and insurance snags, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The issues appear to have been resolved.

“At this time, we understand that systemic technical issues have been largely, if not completely, resolved and are not limiting patient access to vaccines. Should further issues arise, we stand ready to swiftly implement system improvements,” the insurance companies said in a letter to the secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, obtained by ABC News.

Retailers also confirmed that updated COVID vaccines were now available in greater supply.

“All stores now have the supply needed to meet demand in their communities. Additional appointments have been added to our scheduler and will continue to be made available at our sites based on supply. We are updating Walgreens.com and our app with real-time appointment availability so patients have accurate information,” Walgreens told ABC News in a statement.

“I think we’re through the sort of crunch of the initial rollout where you had that sort of massive demand immediately. That has now stabilized, demand has stabilized, supply has stabilized, meaning that there’s a lot of options for people out there to get access to the booster right now,” Brownstein said.

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Dr. Genevieve Jing contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Kate Korson was living out her dream of caring for rescue horses in Colorado and preparing to celebrate her 34th birthday when she said she received a surprising diagnosis.

Just one week shy of her birthday, Korson said she was diagnosed with stage 3, triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive and invasive form of the disease.

“How am I 34 with stage 3 breast cancer,” Korson told Good Morning America, describing her thoughts at the time of her diagnosis last January. “Why is this happening to me? How is this possible?”

Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the smallest categories of breast cancer groups, only accounting for about 10-15% of all breast cancers, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Triple-negative disease is a unique class of breast cancer because it lacks receptors that drug therapies can target for treatment, making it harder to treat than other types of breast cancers. With a diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer, that meant the disease had spread beyond Korson’s breast to nearby lymph nodes or muscles.

Facing such a serious diagnosis, Korson said she chose to return to her home state of Pennsylvania to undergo treatment at the Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center. It is the same center where Korson said her mother was treated for colon cancer 17 years ago.

And just like her mom did in her own cancer battle, Korson told her doctors she wanted to participate in a clinical trial to give her the best shot of beating the disease and to also help other breast cancer patients.

“I want to help people in the future who are faced with this. I want things to be easier for them,” she said. “The benefits of a clinical trial are that you get the most cutting-edge treatment. You get the treatment that will be available in a few years, and for me, that was overwhelmingly successful.”

At the Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center, Korson enrolled in the I-SPY2 clinical trial, during which she received four infusions of a new type of therapy.

The treatment is faster and less toxic than the current standard of care for her type of cancer, according to Dr. Hayley Knollman, an oncologist who treated Korson.

“The standard of care for treatment of triple negative breast cancer would involve six months of intense chemotherapy, along with immunotherapy,” Knollman told GMA. “And with her participating in this clinical trial, we were able to treat her very effectively for this breast cancer in half of the time and spare her a lot of toxicity.”

In just a few months, Korson’s tumor shrank so substantially that doctors where able to stop the treatment early and send her to surgery to remove the rest of the tumor.

“She had a great response on pathology,” Dr. Lola Faynaju, the breast surgeon who treated Korson, told GMA. “When we finally got the results of her surgery back and looked at under the microscope, we were really excited to see that basically all that tumor was gone.”

After undergoing a successful surgery, Korson began radiation therapy, which she will continue to undergo for several weeks.

Then, she’ll take a chemotherapy pill to help keep the cancer from returning.

Although not every patient who undergoes clinical trials will have the same outcome, Korson said she hopes her story helps to both destigmatize clinical trials and raise awareness of breast cancer treatment opportunities.

Her doctors, Faynaju and Knollman, said they hope that Korson sharing her story will also raise awareness of breast cancer and remind women to prioritize their health.

“You actually can’t be too young to get breast cancer,” Faynaju said. “Listen to your body if you’re a woman, and also know if you’re high or average risk.”

In the United States, mammogram screenings are recommended once every two years for women age 50 to 74 years who have an average risk of breast cancer, according to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines.

Women ages 40 to 49 may choose to begin screening once every two years if they “place a higher value on the potential benefit than the potential harms” of the mammogram, according to the guidelines.

Knollman noted the prevalence of breast cancer, which is diagnosed in around 240,000 women each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s very likely that most people have someone in their life that they know, a friend, a colleague, a family member impacted by breast cancer,” she said. “It’s important for women to get to know their bodies and to raise any concerns with their doctors.”

For more information about breast cancer clinical trials at Penn Medicine, visit Pennmedicine.org/cancer.

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