Health

(NEW YORK) — Aubrey Vailoces, a mom of three, was breastfeeding her 10-month-old daughter in her Maui home last week when she said alarms started going off and she saw her entire neighborhood was covered in black smoke.

“You couldn’t even see the neighbors’ houses,” Vailoces told ABC News’ Good Morning America, describing the scene in the historic town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. “My partner said, ‘We have to go,’ and I said, ‘I have nothing,’ and he just said, ‘We have to go.'”

Vailoces, 36, and her partner scrambled out of the home and into their car, evacuating with their 10-month-old daughter as well as Vailoces’ 6-year-old twin daughters and her mom.

“We didn’t take anything. I was just in my nursing bra and underwear,” Vailoces said, adding she thought their home would be OK amid the wildfires that have since devastated much of Maui. “I was so comfortable thinking the fire would never get there, that we were too far.”

While Vailoces and her family eventually made it to safety, evacuating to a relative’s home, they later learned their own home was burned to the ground.

Left with no possessions, Vailoces said that in the immediate aftermath, she had to go door-to-door in the neighborhood surrounding her relative’s home searching for supplies for her infant daughter Blue.

“I didn’t have any bottles for the baby, and just happened to have formula with me in the car and her car seat,” Vailoces said. “The next day, I went door-to-door around the neighborhood asking if anyone has a baby and if there’s a bottle or a diaper … and some extra formula.”

Vailoces said she believes the stress of the wildfires and her family’s displacement both contributed to her difficulties producing breastmilk for her daughter, which led her to have to search for formula and bottles to feed Blue.

“One neighbor’s daughter just had a baby so he gave me two bottles … and some [neighbors] gave me two diapers, some gave me three,” she said. “They were holding onto their own diapers too, which I understand.”

The devastation left behind on wildfire-ravaged Maui has turned into a crisis for countless parents like Vailoces, who had to evacuate quickly and now need basic supplies to keep their children alive and safe.

The wildfires that erupted on Aug. 8 have claimed the lives of over 100 people, while many more remain missing, according to authorities. Officials on Maui have repeatedly warned that the death toll is expected to rise as they work to contain the active blazes and assess the damage.

Vailoces said she and her family were able to travel to another island, Oahu, where they are temporarily staying in her brother’s home. There, she said, they’ve had more access to supplies like diapers and formula.

For new moms and pregnant women who remain on Maui, the search for supplies can be more dire.

In many cases, pregnant and postpartum moms are not able to even get to pop-up locations where supplies are being distributed, according to Sonya Niess, board president of the Pacific Birth Collective, a Maui-based nonprofit that advocates for birth education and wellness.

“We’re taking boats and jet skis to deliver crucial items for families to be able to survive,” Niess told GMA. “They didn’t have gas to put in their car to drive out or to get to one of the hubs.”

Kiana Rowley, vice president of the board at the Pacific Birth Collective, said the organization has been working to not only get supplies but also support pregnant women who may be close to giving birth.

“They’re 38 weeks and they’re supposed to give birth any day, and they don’t have a midwife,” Rowley said, noting that a major difficulty has been roads that are closed or destroyed. “So, we’re also working on making sure that people have the support they need, no matter where it is.”

Both Rowley and Niess said that it has largely been left up to grassroots organizations like their own to help pregnant and postpartum women in the midst of the widespread wildfire disaster. The small, community-based organizations, Rowley and Niess said, have proven better equipped to meet the need where it exists and to recognize the need based on their years of work on the ground.

“In one shelter, there was a mom … who went into labor,” Niess said. “We were able to connect with her and find her housing so when she got out of the hospital she was not going back to the shelter with a newborn and three toddlers and a teenage son.”

Another pregnancy-focused and Hawaii-based nonprofit organization, the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, mobilized its 24/7 hotline in the wake of the wildfires to help pregnant and postpartum moms on Maui.

The organization also sent a five-person clinical team to the island to offer free tests and ultrasounds in its mobile van, according to social media posts.

Natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and tornadoes can have harmful effects on maternal health, research shows.

Research published last year that looked at the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico found that natural disasters “increase the risk of miscarriage, premature delivery, and low birth weight,” in addition to increasing the risk of “physical and mental health problems.”

Officials on Maui are also already warning about pollutants in the air due to the fires, with some areas remaining too dangerous for anyone, pregnant or not, to return.

Another part of the problem, according to Pacific Birth Collective board members, is that Maui was already a difficult place to give birth prior to the wildfires, due in part to a lack of maternal health care and disparities in care.

The island has one main hospital, Maui Memorial Medical Center. Earlier this year, the island’s main private obstetrics practice announced it would be no longer providing obstetric care, stating on its website, “We have found that continuing OB care is unsustainable moving forward due to staffing issues, physician recruitment, and low reimbursements in exchange for time worked.”

“We all already have such a lack of access to care, so this level of catastrophic disaster is definitely increasing the disparities,” Ki’i Kaho’ohanohano, a Pacific Birth Collective board member, told GMA. “We now have more native Hawaiians displaced than we ever have, which has been a problem for generations, and we have a totally overwhelmed hospital. We have one labor and delivery unit and no [neo-natal intensive care unit].”

Both Kaho’ohanohano and Niess said they hope people across the country do not forget the moms and babies on Maui in the weeks, months and years ahead that it will take to rebuild.

“The donations are coming in hot now. We’re overwhelmed with them, but we know that that’s going to dry up in just a few months, most likely, but these families are still going to be in great need,” said Niess. “We know it’s easy to move on in life and to just go on to the next thing, but we’re in it for the long haul and we need people to remember. We need them to keep checking in to see what it is they can do, to keep donating.”

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(NEW YORK) — Doctors at NYU Langone in New York City announced Wednesday that they have successfully transplanted a genetically engineered pig kidney into a human who was declared brain dead, in what they called “a landmark step forward.”

A surgical team removed the kidneys of the human recipient in July 2023 and transplanted the pig kidney, as well as the thymus. Before the transplant, the pig kidney was modified to remove alpha-gal, a sugar molecule on the surface of pig cells that triggers a rare allergy to red meat, as well as organ rejection.

Dr. Robert Montgomery, a professor and chair of the department of surgery at NYU Langone Health and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, said the recipient’s kidney has functioned properly for a month and that its function will be monitored for a total of two months.

“The one-month kidney biopsies and kidney tests show no evidence of rejection, and normal renal function,” Dr. Montgomery said during Wednesday’s press conference. “The pig kidney appears to replace all of the important tasks that the human kidney manages.”

Dr. Adam Griesemer, a transplant surgeon at NYU Langone Health, explained during the press conference that the thymus was also transplanted, embedded beneath the kidney’s outer layer, because it has been shown to help protect the transplanted kidney from being attacked by the human immune system.

“The thymus gland is the tissue in our neck and chest where our immune system matures and where it learns to recognize the proteins in our body and learns to reject proteins that are not part of our own body,” Dr. Griesemer explained. “So, transplanting the thymus from the pig allows new developing cells in the recipient’s body to learn to recognize the pig antigens as their own, and it can potentially lead to a decreased immune response and decreased risk of rejection.”

The transplant recipient was 57-year-old Maurice Miller. His sister, Mary Miller-Duff, expressed pride in her brother being involved in the historic transplant.

“Mo, as I like to call him, was a kind, giving brother who loved life, and always lent a helping hand,” Miller-Duff said at the press conference. “It is only fitting that in his final act, he will be helping so many in the need through this innovative medical advancement.”

Miller-Duff said her brother came home from work one day with a headache and feeling as if he had vertigo. His partner later found him passed out in the bathroom.

Scans revealed Miller had an eight-centimeter-wide tumor on the right side of his brain. Doctors performed a biopsy, but Miller didn’t wake up after the procedure.

“So, the doctors did a head scan and they found that there was bleeding on the brain and that’s why he wasn’t waking up,” Miller-Duff said. “They went in to try to relieve that, but he just didn’t wake up.”

Tests revealed that the tumor was a glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

The pig-to-human transplant is a hopeful sign that xenotransplantation – the process of transplanting non-human cells and organs into humans – may be viable after years of failures.

Last year, the University of Maryland School of Medicine transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man who was experiencing end-stage heart failure and did not qualify for a traditional transplant. Two months later, the organ failed suddenly, and the recipient passed away.

Dr. Montgomery said concerns about potential infection of the pig heart in the University of Maryland case, which may have contributed to the transplant’s ultimate failure, was mitigated for the current transplant with a new test that he said “is much more sensitive at detecting viruses that aren’t present in the blood that that are more difficult to detect.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not allowed living human xenotransplantation clinical trials due to the risk of transmission of viruses, but Montgomery said he hopes that fact that Miller has not developed any infections helps the agency reconsider their current policy.

In a separate procedure, a team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham published a study Wednesday that found two gene-edited pig kidneys functioned for seven days in a brain-dead recipient, compared to the 60 days in the NYU Langone recipient, while using “current standard-of-care immunosuppression drugs,” according to the university.

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(MIAMI) — Florida health officials are issuing a warning about dengue as the virus continues to increase in South Florida.

Four cases of locally acquired dengue were reported in Miami-Dade County and for the first time in Broward County, during the week ending Aug. 5, according to a report from Florida Health.

In total, 10 cases of the mosquito-borne illness have been reported in the state this year, with cases first occurring in January and March before returning this summer, the report said.

“Dengue is spread by the bite of an Infected mosquito and is not normally present in Florida. However, infected travelers can bring the virus back to Florida mosquitoes,” Florida Health Broward County wrote in a statement.

No information is known about any of the infected patients, including names, ages, sexes or where they live in their respective counties.

It comes after health officials in Florida warned about a growing number of cases of locally-acquired malaria, the first such cases since 2003.

Florida Health did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

Dengue viruses are spread through bites from infected Aedes species mosquitoes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These mosquitoes are also responsible for spreading Zika and chikungunya viruses.

Dengue can be caused by dengue virus 1, 2, 3 or 4, the health agency said. A person can be infected multiple times over the course of their life.

About one in four people develop symptoms lasting two to seven days, but symptoms are usually mild and include fever; rash; nausea; vomiting; muscle, joint and bone pain. Because symptoms are not specific to dengue, they’re often confused with other illnesses, according to the CDC.

There are no treatments to treat dengue aside from managing symptoms, which includes rest, drinking fluids and taking acetaminophen. The CDC warns not to take aspirin or ibuprofen, because it can trigger gastritis or bleeding.

However, about one in 20 will develop severe dengue, which can lead to shock, internal bleeding and even death, although deaths are rare, the CDC said.

Between 2010 and 2022, there have been more than 33,000 locally acquired cases of dengue in the U.S, CDC data shows. Since 2014, there have been fewer than 1,000 cases per year, but 2022 was the first time in nearly a decade that cases reached four digits.

To reduce the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, Florida Health recommends draining, emptying and cleaning places that collect water. Additionally, people are advised to cover up and wear insect repellent.

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(NEW YORK) — The growing use of artificial intelligence has been a hot topic in recent years, with a growing number of industries starting to use the technology that’s predicted to revolutionize certain sectors.

The technology fuels excitement, but there are also concerns about potentially negative impacts on people and society.

In her new book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender and Ability Bias in Tech, AI researcher and data journalism professor Meredith Broussard dives into the impact of some of AI’s deep-rooted problems.

Broussard spoke to ABC News about discovering how AI was used during her own diagnostic testing for breast cancer and some of the potential downsides of the technology being used in this capacity.

LINSEY DAVIS: So in the book you talk about being diagnosed with breast cancer and you learn at some point that AI had actually read your exam. What was your reaction to that?

MEREDITH BROUSSARD: I thought it was so strange, because I was depending on my doctors for care in this crisis moment of my life. And I thought, what did this AI find? How is it being used? And because I’m an AI researcher, I thought, who made this particular AI, because I know that there’s a lot of bias in artificial intelligence systems.

So I didn’t do anything with this knowledge right away, but then after I was recovered, I went back to it, and I actually took an open source AI and ran my films through this open source AI in order to write about the state of the art in AI-based cancer detection.

DAVIS: Do you think that this is something we’re going to increasingly see in the medical world?

BROUSSARD: I think that one of the things that researchers really want to do, that medical researchers really want to do, is they want to heal more people and they want to diagnose more people earlier and more accurately, and the real hope is that AI will help with that. Is it going to happen any time soon? No. Could it happen eventually? Maybe.

DAVIS: What are the potential risks of AI being used in this capacity?

BROUSSARD: One of the things that people often don’t realize is that when you make an AI system, a machine learning system, for something like breast cancer diagnosis, you actually have to tune it to have a higher rate of false positives or false negatives.

So a false positive would mean that it says, “Oh, you might have cancer,” when you don’t actually have cancer, and it sends you for more testing. And a false negative would mean that it says, “Nope, no cancer here,” but you actually do have cancer. So the cost of a false negative is much higher in medicine. And so these systems are actually tuned to have more false positives than false negatives, which means that it is quite often going to say, “Oh, yeah, I think there might be a problem here,” and then people are going to get referred for more testing, which, as many people know, can mean weeks or even months of waiting for additional tests and just being on the edge of your seat while you’re worrying about this.

DAVIS: Well, people are at home, are going to wonder, did you have a false positive?

BROUSSARD: So, I had really great medical care throughout my cancer experience. And I just, I’m so grateful to everybody who took care of me. One of the interesting things about the AI that diagnosed me is that it’s not actually used for diagnosis. It is used by the doctors at this particular hospital after they have already given their own diagnosis, so it’s like a backup tool. So the doctor, the radiologist, will enter in what they think the diagnosis is, and then they’ll get access to the AI’s results. And they can either ignore the AI’s results or they can use it to say, “OK, well, maybe I’ll go back and look at that area of concern again.”

So it’s still in the hands of doctors. Nobody needs to worry that AIs are out there, you know, diagnosing people with cancer. And we’re definitely not at the situation that a lot of people imagine, where it would be like a box that you kind of walk up to it and it scans you and tells you, “Yes, you have cancer. No, you don’t have cancer.” Like, that’s not a reasonable scenario.

DAVIS: Not today.

BROUSSARD: Not today. I mean, I hope it’s not ever like that, because I do not want bad news medically. I want that from a doctor. I don’t want it from a machine.

DAVIS: Meredith, we thank you so much. Of course, this is a conversation that’s going to be ongoing in the coming months and years ahead. Want to let our viewers know that her book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender and Ability Bias in Tech, is now available wherever books are sold.

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(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 hospitalizations are continuing to increase in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week ending Aug. 5, COVID hospitalizations increased 14.3% from 9,026 to 10,320 weekly hospitalizations, data from the federal health agency updated Monday shows.

While the percentage jump is in the double digits, the absolute numbers are still quite low. Weekly hospitalizations during the omicron wave peaked at 150,674 in January 2022.

“We have to remember that we’re still dealing with numbers that are far less than what we’ve seen for the pandemic,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We have to zoom out to look at our experience for the entire pandemic, to understand that what we’re dealing with now is far from any crisis that we’ve experienced with previous waves.”

“While a percentage [increase] may seem scary, we’re still dealing with absolute small numbers,” Brownstein, an ABC News contributor, added.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have been rising over the last several weeks, increasing 12.5% last week and 12% the week before. Brownstein noted that the rate of increase week-over-week is also not as steep as seen during previous waves.

Data also showed that COVID-19 deaths have slightly increased in July, rising to 473 the week of July 15 — the latest date for which complete data is available. However, experts say this is expected after a rise in hospitalization and reporting delays may result in death numbers shifting in the coming weeks.

“Proportionately, it makes sense that when you have increased transmission, you will see proportionately some increase in hospitalizations, and you will see some increase in deaths,” Brownstein said. “But there’s a decoupling that is happening between cases and hospitalizations, where a jump in cases doesn’t necessarily mean as big a jump in hospitalizations and deaths.”

Brownstein said there could be several factors behind the increase including waning immunity, a reduction in mitigation measures and more people gathering indoors.

“It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be vigilant about COVID,” he said. “It also doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look for opportunities to reduce our personal risk, and to make sure that we’re, up to date on immunizations. But this is more likely going to be you know, what we’ll experience going forward with COVID.”

All currently circulating subvariants are related to XBB, a descendant of omicron. A newer variant known as EG.5 now makes up an estimated 17% of new cases, according to the CDC.

Currently, there is no evidence to suggests that EG.5 causes more severe disease or is significantly more infectious than previous variants.

Brownstein said some of the concern may be due to surges seen with variants in the past such as the delta variant in summer 2021, leading to a sounding of the alarm.

“But each new variant so far that has come through has subsequently had less of a population impact,” he said. “Now, is it possible we may see one in the future that is worthy, a real concern? Absolutely. But overall, we’ve seen a dampening of effect over the last several variants that have come through.”

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(SALT LAKE CITY) — After a three-year manhunt, a Utah man has been arrested on charges of allegedly selling a fake COVID-19 cure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah announced Monday.

Gordon Hunter Pedersen, 63, of Cedar Hills — 30 miles south of Salt Lake City — allegedly appeared in multiple YouTube videos before COVID-19 vaccines were approved, selling “structural alkaline silver.”

He allegedly claimed the product was a cure for the virus because it “resonates, or vibrates, at a frequency that destroys the membrane of the virus, making the virus incapable of attaching to any healthy cell, or to infect you in any way,” the release states.

Court documents said Pedersen sold the products on MyDoctorSuggests.com as well as Amazon and Shopify. Prices ranged up to $299.95 for a gallon of the silver products.

Prosecutors allege he also claimed to have a Ph.D. in immunology and in naturopathic medicine and he was a board-certified “anti-aging medical doctor.”

Between January 2020 and the end of April 2020, Pedersen’s company saw a 400% jump in revenue, equating to about $2 million, according to court documents.

Search warrants were executed at Pedersen’s home in late April 2020 and he was interviewed by federal agents, the documents show.

A federal grand jury indicted Pedersen on July 23, 2020, on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and felony introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud and mislead.

After he failed to appear in federal court in relation to the indictment, a warrant was issued for his arrest on Aug. 25, 2020, officials say.

Pedersen evaded authorities for three years, but it came to an end after prosecutors said he was spotted on July 5 at his known address by a special agent. He was then spotted on surveillance video at a gas station paying for both fuel and a beverage in cash.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah declined to comment to ABC News, saying it does not comment on open cases.

Pedersen will appear at a detention hearing Tuesday afternoon at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

Throughout the pandemic, a variety of cases have been prosecuted of people selling fake COVID-19 cures.

Last month, four members of a Florida family were convicted of selling bleach as a cure for several ailments, including COVID-19, through their online church.

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(NEW YORK) — Children and teenagers who previously had multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, known as MIS-C, may be more likely to have neurological and mental health issues than those who did not, a recent study suggests.

Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital looked at 64 children, teens and young adults between ages 5 and 20 who were hospitalized at the hospital between November 2020 and November 2021.

The children underwent neurological examinations and assessments six months to one year after being discharged. They were also compared with siblings, friends or relatives who never had MIS-C.

Results showed that 25% of children who previously had MIS-C had “abnormal neurological findings” compared to 7% of those in the comparison group.

Patients with previous MIS-C were more likely to have memory problems as well as difficulty with motor skills and coordination. They also had higher rates of diagnosed ADHD, anxiety, depression and were more likely to report worse quality of life.

Those in the MIS-C group were also more likely to experience symptoms including chest pain, back pain, headaches, fatigue and nausea.

Dr. Caitlin Rollins, a leader in the study and director of the cardiac neurodevelopmental program at Boston Children’s, said while some of the symptoms could be due to stress — including due to the COVID pandemic, she believes they’re linked to MIS-C due to the higher rates among the group that previously had the condition.

“When families learn the child’s symptoms could be related to MIS-C, they are reassured that others are experiencing it,” she said in a press release. While additional larger studies are required to further evaluate this possible association, “We hope this study will increase awareness.”

MIS-C is a rare, but serious inflammatory condition that is caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that leads to COVID-19.

It typically occurs between two to six weeks after infection and presents a combination of symptoms, including inflammation of various parts of the body along with gastrointestinal symptoms, rash, fever, dizziness or lightheadedness and bloodshot eyes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors are unclear about what causes some children to develop MIS-C but believe it may involve a genetic predisposition for inflammation in response to respiratory diseases.

As of Monday, there have been 9,518 reported cases of MIS-C and 79 deaths over the course of the pandemic, CDC data shows. Cases were much higher during the early months of the pandemic but have since dropped dramatically.

Rollins said parents with children who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 should keep an eye on their children and seek medical care if needed.

“If parents are noticing changes in their child’s behavior or functioning, it could be related to MIS-C, and they should seek support,” she said.

She also encouraged pediatricians and pediatric cardiologists who treat children with MIS-C to ask questions about their neurologic and mental health and have them evaluated if necessary.

Rollins said she plans to follow the children in the study who had MIS-C for a second year and hopes they will also be able to undergo MRIs to see if the condition caused any structural changes to the brain.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use certain pregnancy, ovulation and urinary tract infection tests.

At least 15 tests manufactured by Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI) may be ineffective, including One Step Pregnancy Test, DiagnosUS One Step Ovulation Test, HealthyWiser UriTest UTI Test Strips and PrestiBio Breast Milk Alcohol Test Strips, the federal health agency said Friday.

“UMI has notified the FDA that it has stopped all operations and is no longer providing support for its tests,” the FDA said in a statement. “The FDA is not able to confirm the performance of UMI’s tests, raising concerns that the tests may not be safe and effective.”

The tests may have been sold online by at least four distributors under the names AC&C, HealthyWiser, Home Health US and Prestige Biotech.

While UMI did recall undistributed tests, it did not do so for those already distributed or sold.

“Given FDA’s concerns about these tests, the FDA is issuing this safety communication to consumers and patients as part of its mandate to protect the public health,” the agency said.

It’s not clear why UMI issued the recall, but when UMI notified FDA about the recall of the tests and what about the performance can’t be confirmed by the FDA.

Neither UMI nor the FDA immediately returned ABC News’ request for comment.

In addition to not purchasing tests, the FDA is warning consumers to throw away all recalled tests; to test again for pregnancy, ovulation or UTIs with a different brand; and report any problems to the FDA’s MedWatch program.

This is not the first time the FDA has issued an alert about recalled urine strip tests. Last year, the agency shared that Family Dollar was recalling several products that were stored “outside of labeled temperature requirements” including several pregnancy tests.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Khadija Hines struggled with feelings of depression after the birth of her third child.

“There was no sunshine, a lot of dark moments,” Hines told ABC News. “My family’s from the Caribbean islands and they weren’t really understanding … it felt extremely lonely, like I was in a dark pit and I was just falling, falling deeper and deeper.”

She didn’t know it at the time, but Hines was among an estimated 15% of mothers who experience postpartum depression, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all pediatricians screen birth mothers for postpartum depression.

One OB-GYN interviewed by ABC News said not enough women know about the condition to ask for a diagnosis.

But doctors and patient advocates are hopeful that could change with a new pill approved specifically for postpartum depression. The pill, called Zurzuvae, is taken daily for two weeks, and studies found that some women saw improvements in their mood in as little as three days.

Zurzuvae was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month.

“I think that this is a great change to what we’ve seen in the past as far as medical management and what we’ve been able to offer because of the quick onset,” Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified OB-GYN and chief medical officer at Verywell Health, told ABC News.

Hines told ABC that if Zurzuvae had been available when she was struggling with PPD, she would have tried it.

Fortunately, Hines was connected to the Postpartum Resource Center of New York, where she said received education on postpartum depression, therapy, and support she needed to navigate her diagnosis.

For many new moms, postpartum depression can be a debilitating illness. Symptoms include intense sadness, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and more, which can coalesce into inability to care for oneself and one’s baby.

Postpartum depression can even lead to mothers harming themselves and their babies.

Experts say many mothers experience this alone, without help.

The new pill won’t be available until at least October, according to a spokesperson for the manufacturer, Sage Therapeutics — and it’s not a panacea, with studies showing it helped most, but not all, new mothers.

Meanwhile, experts caution long-term effects and safety while breastfeeding have not yet been studied, meaning parents and doctors will need to balance potential benefits and risks.

Still, the daily pill is considered a much more practical treatment option for new mothers compared to the sole prior medical therapy, Zulresso, an IV infusion that is continuously administered over several days. Doctors are hopeful that the recent FDA approval will raise awareness of postpartum depression, breaking down the stigma of maternal mental health.

A 2018 CDC survey of more than 32,000 mothers across the United States found that 1 in 8 women experience postpartum depressive symptoms, yet they are not all diagnosed. Without diagnosis, many women are likely not offered proven, effective treatments for PPD.

Diagnosis of a medical condition usually happens in one of two ways: either the health care provider screens for the disease or a person asks their provider for help regarding specific symptoms. The same study found that the same number of women, 1 in 8, were not screened for PPD in their postpartum visit.

“In [obstetrics], we don’t really typically see our patients for four to six weeks after delivery. A lot can develop in that time,” Shepherd said. “So, I think that there are other ways we can intervene with catching these signs earlier, from a health care perspective.”

The AAP recognizes that one place for improvement would be to screen for postpartum depression at the pediatrician’s office. According to the AAP, a healthy baby should see the pediatrician seven times in their first year of life, with two of those visits in the first four weeks.

While women usually see their OB-GYNs four to six weeks after delivery, most women will likely have had the opportunity to see their pediatrician twice prior to ever seeing their own health care providers.

While Hines says she was able to overcome her PPD with a vigorous “mind, body, and soul” approach, utilizing intensive therapy and social support, she is hopeful that Zurzuvae will become “another tool that we can use with all the other things to help us take better care of our mental health.”

If you or someone you know 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.

Dr. Neha Gupta, an emergency medicine resident physician, is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — The aftermath of the Maui wildfires may have a significant mental and physical health toll.

Dangerous wildfires — fueled by dry conditions and strong winds — are continuing to sweep across Maui, ravaging the small Hawaiian island.

At least 55 people have been killed and a majority of the historic town of Lahaina, which was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, has been destroyed, according to officials.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Josh Green called the wildfires “likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii’s state history.”

But the impacts go beyond evacuations and damaged buildings. Experts say the fires are also affecting residents’ and tourists’ physical health and could have impacts on their mental health.

Small particles from smoke can travel into lungs

Wildfire smoke is a mixture of gases, pollutants and particles that people can inhale, penetrating the lungs and even entering the bloodstream. Perhaps the biggest concern is fine particulate matter.

Fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, which is 30 times smaller in diameter than a human hair, is of particular concern.

Because these particles are too small to be seen with the naked eye, they can easily enter the nose and throat and can travel to the lungs, with some of the smallest particles even circulating in the bloodstream, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

PM2.5 can cause both short-term health effects, even for healthy people, including irritation of the eyes, nose and throat; coughing; sneezing; and shortness of breath. Conditions such as asthma and heart disease can become worse.

It doesn’t just affect people who are nearby, but also those who are thousands of miles away, said Dr. Kai Chen, an assistant professor of environmental health at Yale’s School of Public Health.

“We saw that evidence actually just two months ago. [Smoke from] the Canadian wildfires in Quebec impacted us here in New Haven, New York City and then further south to D.C.,” he told ABC News. “The reason we’re having so many frequent wildfires is climate change,” Chen said. “Climate change is literally like fuel to the fire.”

Wildfires can increase rates of anxiety, depression

In addition to physical health, there are also mental health impacts. Research has shown wildfires and the subsequent smoke can lead to increased rates of anxiety and depression and become worse among people who already have these conditions.

Dr. Steve Berkowitz, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said wildfires and other natural disasters may also impact the ability of people with mental health conditions to receive care.

“After [Hurricane] Sandy in New York, one the biggest issues was getting people their methadone because all the clinics are closed,” he told ABC News.

Additionally, people can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can include intrusive thoughts and nightmares. Leaving mental health disorders untreated can have devastating consequences.

“People who develop any of these issues are at very high risk for suicide,” Berkowitz said. “People with PTSD or any of these trauma-related disorders will often be more irritable, have angry outbursts and that can lead to physical aggression and issues. Substance dependence is not an uncommon outcome of this.”

Avoidance is another hallmark of PTSD, but Berkowitz said this is not something that necessarily needs to be treated because it can be a coping mechanism.

“If avoidance is working, we don’t want to mess with it,” he said. “If it works, it works.”

Hospitals caring for patients

Hospitals on and around Maui say they have been caring for patients for burns, smoke inhalation and other fire-related injuries.

Maui Memorial Medical Center released a statement on Thursday saying it’s treated all patients who have visited the hospital and admitted six people.

Seven patents were transferred to clinics in Oahu for specialty services.

“We are operating with ample capacity including bed space, staffing and supply resources, which can be expanded further if we were to see a surge in patients,” Wade Ebersole, chief operations officer, said in a statement. “We need the community to know that they should not hesitate to seek care; we are ready and able to provide all the care our community needs.”

Meanwhile, hospitals across Hawaii including Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Straub/Hawaii Pacific Health, and Queen Medical Center said they have accepted patients.

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