Health

(NEW YORK) — The Food and Drug Administration failed to heed warning signs that there were mounting concerns with one of the nation’s largest infant formula makers, as a series of babies’ severe illnesses and whistleblower complaints began to accumulate ahead of a critical shortage in 2022, the agency’s watchdog has found.

Eventually Abbott, that formula maker, would institute a massive recall and shutdown of their plant — but by that time, the FDA’s lack of communication or sufficient oversight systems had hampered their response, according to the findings of an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The IG’s findings, scheduled to be released Thursday, were revealed in an exclusive interview with ABC News. The audit, announced in June 2022, assessed how the agency responsible for the safety of the nation’s food and medication supply responded to complaints of infants’ illnesses after eating formula from industry titan Abbott’s plant in Michigan — and strains of the same rare but deadly bacteria had been detected inside that facility.

“If FDA had adequate policies and procedures, it could have identified underlying problems at the Abbott facility and required Abbott to correct them,” the audit concluded. While the agency “took some action” on facility inspections and follow-up, “more could have been done leading up to” Abbott’s formula recall two years ago.

Carla Lewis, the assistant inspector general who led the investigation, told ABC News that time was critical.

“What happens when you don’t immediately address risks is that you can’t mitigate and address them timely. And that’s what we were seeing,” Lewis, Assistant Inspector General for Audit Services, said. “We know that millions of babies each year may rely on infant formula as their sole source of nutrition. So being proactive and ensuring that infant formula is safe, and working with manufacturers to produce safe infant formula, is very critical in the role that FDA plays.”

The IG probe took 17 months of fieldwork and included a review of over 1,600 files consisting of approximately 10,000 pages, Lewis said. The audit team held 19 meetings with FDA officials and made over 60 requests for documentation and information.

There were “gaps and deficiencies” in the FDA’s oversight of infant formula, Lewis said.

“Improvements in [FDA’s] inspection and recall processes are needed to better ensure the safety of the infant formula supply,” the report said, finding the agency “had inadequate policies and procedures,” or had lacked them altogether, “to identify risks to infant formula and respond effectively through its complaint, inspection, and recall processes.”

In response to the findings, the FDA said it “strongly agrees that adequate policies, procedures, and authorities are needed, and delays due to poor procedures are unacceptable and must be corrected.”

“FDA takes seriously its duty to ensure the safety of the infant formula supply, with effective policies and procedures for preventing and timely responding to foodborne illnesses and food contamination events,” noting the IG’s audit “represents a snapshot in time, and the FDA continues to make progress.”

“We are committed to implementing the OIG’s recommendations for strengthening our program,” the FDA said, adding they have already “begun several steps to improve policies and procedures for complaints, recalls, and infant formula inspections.”

Abbott agreed to temporarily shutter their Sturgis, Michigan, facility in mid-February 2022, prompted by contamination concerns and the hospitalization of four infants diagnosed with a rare bacterial infection, Cronobacter sakazakii. Two of the babies ultimately died.

The FDA said it could not conclusively confirm that Abbott products caused the infants’ illnesses or deaths — something the company has also maintained. But the impact of that recall ricocheted from coast to coast, leaving a serious void in the market and forcing families to face empty shelves and scramble for alternatives. The report found that more could have been done ahead of time to potentially soften that impact.

Coming as it did amid other supply chain problems connected with the COVID-19 pandemic, the formula recall plunged many American families into crisis mode and prompted serious questions from policymakers and the public about whether a communication breakdown at the agency had abetted a sluggish response to the growing problem.

The FDA “did not have adequate policies and procedures” for crucial oversight systems, the IG’s report found — mechanisms meant to identify risks to infant formula, such as whistleblower and consumer complaints red-flagging issues.

A whistleblower complaint was sent by email to the FDA in mid-February 2021, alleging Abbott’s facility had violated laws, regulations and other guidance that FDA administered and enforced. But it took “more than 15 months” for the agency to identify that whistleblower’s warning — or forward it to an office that could investigate it, HHS-OIG’s audit found.

At that time, the IG was told by agency officials that there was no one permanently in the role responsible for “identifying and accounting for whistleblower complaints” that came in over email, the report said. Those duties were “covered” by other people who also had “other responsibilities,” and one of them “inadvertently archived the February 2021 whistleblower complaint” without forwarding it for investigation. FDA officials only identified that complaint more than a year later.

“FDA did not have adequate policies and procedures to identify and investigate the February 2021 Abbott facility whistleblower complaint,” the audit determined – even when those complaints came to the “dedicated FDA email inbox” set up to receive them.

And when it came to whistleblower complaints, IG’s report found, FDA “did not develop an organizational structure or assign responsibilities to enable the organization to operate in an efficient and effective manner.”

The FDA “implemented new whistleblower complaint procedures” a few days after the first complaint was finally forwarded in June 2022, the report said, adding, “although we did not audit the effectiveness of the complaint procedures that FDA adopted in June 2022, if effectively implemented they should assist in identifying and accounting for whistleblower complaints.”

A second whistleblower complaint came in October 2021, sent by hardcopy via courier to seven senior FDA employees and additionally emailed to multiple relevant regulatory personnel, including those at the office responsible for investigating complaints, who “acknowledged receipt of the email,” the audit said. But it took nearly four months for that complaint to get to FDA leadership, including the top brass at food policy and response, who were notified in mid-February 2022.

“Without whistleblower complaint escalation policies and procedures, FDA senior leadership was unable to make informed decisions to minimize risks related to the Abbott facility and the infant formula supply chain,” the report said.

Amid scrutiny over their process in May of that year, the FDA released a “timeline of infant formula related activities” which admitted that a second whistleblower complaint wasn’t received by FDA leadership “due to an isolated failure in FDA’s mailroom, likely due to COVID-19 staffing issues.”

“That whistleblower complaint was sent by Fed-Ex, hard copies, to multiple individuals in multiple offices, so that means it would’ve been lost at multiple offices,” FDA’s former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response Frank Yiannas said at a March 2023 congressional hearing.

“Some individuals received copies by emails and in hindsight, those should have been escalated to my office very rapidly,” said Yiannas, who just months before, had resigned from the agency.

In an interview with ABC News in April, Yiannas reflected on the lack of communication he grew frustrated with during his FDA tenure.

“I was just surprised that something like that hadn’t been elevated,” Yiannas said of the monthslong mislaid whistleblower report, noting the issues at Abbott had already been brewing for months by the time he “found out about the series of events” ensuing.

“One of the reasons I decided that it was time for me to leave the agency in the current posture that I was in, it was a very decentralized organization with a culture of very siloed mentalities,” Yiannas said. “A culture of silos is always a dangerous culture. There was this idea of accountability without responsibility. And we need some structural change.”

The IG audit stresses the need for clear communication, noting FDA’s own investigators tasked with inspecting formula facilities weren’t always armed with the most current and relevant information — such as new complaints from consumers coming in.

For example, it detailed that the FDA began an inspection at Abbott’s facility on September 20, 2021, and while that investigator had reviewed the plant’s consumer complaint history beforehand, on that very day, a new consumer complaint was entered into the system: “an infant who was diagnosed with a Cronobacter infection after consuming infant formula manufactured at the Abbott facility.”

But the FDA’s personnel “reviewing the new consumer complaint were not aware of the inspection taking place at the Abbott facility and did not communicate the complaint to the investigator” during the week of Abbott’s inspection, the report continued — so “the investigation team conducting the inspection at the Abbott facility was not informed of the new consumer complaint until after the inspection closed.”

The FDA found sanitation issues at Abbott’s Sturgis plant in September 2021, according to an inspection report previously obtained by ABC News. By January 2022, the FDA had received three of what would ultimately grow to four complaints from consumers of infants getting sick with cronobacter “potentially associated” with Abbott’s formula. By mid-February, the FDA had collected samples at the plant confirming the presence of Cronobacter in the environment, according to their timeline. Though the agency has not been able to definitively link the illnesses or deaths to the facility, Abbott agreed to voluntarily recall their products and cease production.

Lewis said they were “very concerned” when they began to realize what their probe was finding.

“Because we were seeing vulnerabilities in FDA carrying out its policies and procedures to oversee infant formula,” Lewis said, “and just overall, their engagement to ensure that risks were being mitigated and addressed.”

In the wake of the 2022 formula debacle, the FDA has overhauled their foods program, aiming to strengthen their oversight and unify the division.

Some of the actions they’ve taken include conducting their own review of their infant formula response; establishing an Office of Critical Foods, like formula; beginning steps to improve their policies for complaints, recalls and infant formula inspections; and developing policies for how and when to conduct timely mission-critical inspections — even during public health emergencies.

Outlining his agency’s overhaul in January 2023, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told ABC News that “we really believe that with the reorganization, the system of safety and inspections will be much more preemptive.” 

“We hope that with the information that we’ve shared with FDA, and the actions that they’re going to take – that the public, the American people, can build trust in terms of the infant formula that they’re buying for their babies,” Lewis said.

“There will always be risks,” Lewis added. “The key is to mitigate those risks.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Eight-time Grammy award winner Usher Raymond made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday, urging lawmakers to make Medicare’s Diabetes Prevention Program more accessible to Americans.

“Today, just talking about type 1 diabetes and early screening for type 1 diabetes,” Usher, the Super Bowl LVIII performer, told ABC News after his meetings.

Usher’s son, Cinco, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 2014. Before leaving, Usher acknowledged the issue was personal to him.

“Yeah, I’ve been able to share my story today. Hopefully, you’ll get a chance to hear more about it,” he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Type 1 diabetes was once called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes, and it often develops in children, teens, and young adults, but it can happen at any age.

The CDC said the disease is thought to be caused by an autoimmune reaction. 

“This reaction destroys the cells in the pancreas that make insulin, called beta cells,” the agency wrote on its website. “This process can go on for months or years before any symptoms appear.”

Usher was first spotted riding the Senate Subway with Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock — then the Capitol press corps went on the hunt for the pop icon.

He made his way over to the House side, meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other lawmakers as a mix of reporters and staffers congregated outside of the meeting. They patiently waited for a selfie as minutes turned to hours.

At one point, emerging from the meeting in his tan suit, undershirt, and signature shades, Usher said, “I had a great time here in D.C.,” when asked about his conversations with lawmakers.

Throughout the day, the music superstar met with lawmakers in both chambers about the SCREEN for Type 1 Diabetes Act — introduced on Tuesday and led by Reps. Kim Schrier, Diana DeGette, John Joyce, and Gus Bilirakis in the House and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Susan Collins in the Senate. The act aims to increase public awareness of the disease, including early detection of type 1 Diabetes.

“He has a family relationship with the issue and he’s decided to speak out to raise awareness and I’m very, very grateful to him for doing that,” Rep. DeGette said after the meeting broke.

Her legislation is supported by the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and the American Medical Association, according to a release from DeGette.

Prior to leaving the Capitol, Usher shared his plan to continue fighting for the cause in the future.

“It was my first time [up here] but it won’t be my last,” he said.

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(BETHANY, Okla.) — An Oklahoma girl has become the first pediatric patient in the world to have robotic deep brain stimulation performed on her, two hospitals have announced.

The patient, 8-year-old Karliegh Fry, suffers from rapid-onset primary dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions.

Karleigh’s condition initially left her paralyzed, unable to walk, eat or sit up on her own. She was put on several medications, which improved her condition slightly, but she was also left at times with involuntary movements that caused her to injure herself.

A joint team at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health and Bethany Children’s Health Center began exploring options and decided she might be a good candidate for deep brain stimulation (DBS).

“This marked the global debut of using a robot from our operating rooms to perform DBS in a child, setting a precedent not only in Oklahoma but also across the United States and worldwide,” Dr. Andrew Jea, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, said in a press release.

Deep brain stimulation is a procedure in which a surgeon implants one or more small wires knows as electrodes, or leads, in the brain. The electrodes are connected to a small device called a neurostimulator implanted in the upper chest.

It is used in the treatment of neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and Tourette’s syndrome. These conditions are caused by disorganized electrical signals in the parts of the brain that control movement, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

DBS works by interrupting the irregular signals that causes tremors or other involuntary movements. It does not cure these conditions but can improve a patient’s quality of life.

Using a robot to perform the procedure enhances “surgical precision and safety,” according to OU Health.

“So it was like trying to decide if we thought that the surgery would be worth the risk … but I think anything to give her her best shot,” Karleigh’s mother, Trisha Fry, said in an interview with OU Health.

Karleigh’s surgery was split into two separate parts, according to her mother. The surgery was performed at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital and Karleigh was transferred to Bethany Children’s Health Center for post-operative care and pediatric rehabilitation.

Within a few minutes of the neurostimulator being activated, OU Health said Karleigh was able to lower and relax her arms, which she couldn’t do prior to the procedure.

She is able to exhibit more control over her movements and her speech is also improving, the hospital said.

“Her arms used to lock up to the point we would put socks on her hands because she would scratch her neck,” Trisha Fry said. “There’s definitely been some improvements, even from the moment they turned it on. She is even using her voice a little bit more, and we can make out some of her words. I think she’s going to have a great future for sure.”

The team said Karleigh is continuing to show progress and that this could pave the way for more robotic DBS procedures performed on pediatric patients.
 

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(NEW YORK) — Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared a national loneliness and social isolation epidemic throughout the country.

He warned that about half of U.S. adults are experiencing considerable levels of loneliness, which can affect physical, mental and societal health

To mark Loneliness Awareness Week from June 10 to June 16, Murthy spoke to ABC News stations across the U.S. about the causes and solutions for combating feelings of isolation:

How do you define loneliness?

Loneliness is like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling that we experience when something we’re lacking for survival is missing from our life. And if we respond to it, relatively quickly, it may go away. But just like hunger or thirst, it’s when it persists for a long period of time, when we’re not able to figure out how to address it, that is when we start to worry.

Loneliness is a subjective feeling — that the connections that we need in our life are greater than the connections we actually have.

Is it normal to experience loneliness occasionally?

We all may feel temporarily lonely from time to time. If I go on a trip, for example, without my wife and my two kids, I may miss them, and I may feel lonely if I don’t really know anyone in the work trip that I’m going on. But if I come home, then I may feel better because I reconnect with them.

Similarly, if I have a best friend who moves away to a new city and I no longer have that person in my life, I might feel lonely for a period of time. Those kinds of temporary bouts of loneliness are quite normal.

How many Americans are experiencing loneliness?

One in two adults in America are living with measurable levels of loneliness, but the numbers are even higher among young people.

So, this is an incredibly common challenge that we’re facing.

What is contributing to the loneliness epidemic?

I think there are a number of factors that are contributing to our loneliness.

Today, we tend to get together less for dinners with friends or with neighbors. We also have more of our time siphoned off by social media and online interactions, which can be helpful in some ways, but can be taking time away from the in-person interactions we used to have.

Even though there’s a lot of great benefits to technology, what we see is that the ability to get everything delivered to us where we are means that we also just encounter people less often in the grocery store, in the retail store, or in our neighborhoods.

This is an epidemic of loneliness and isolation that has been building for years. But the pandemic did make it worse.

The lingering effects of being separated from one another are still with us. But there are factors bigger than the pandemic. I think it’s really important for us to keep in mind too, that for nearly half a century, we’ve seen declining participation in the organizations that used to bring us together, like recreational leagues and service organizations and faith organizations.

How does loneliness impact health?

We know now that when people struggle with things socially disconnected, over time, that it can have an impact on their mental health, increasing their risk for anxiety and depression, but also in their physical health, increasing their risk for heart disease, as well as dementia and premature death.

It also turns out that if we can invest in social connection, and building our relationships with one another, that can help us be healthy in the long run and can also make us feel good in the short term.

The overall mortality impact of loneliness and isolation are on par with smoking daily, and they’re even greater than the mortality impact we see with obesity.

Have you experienced loneliness yourself?

I’ve struggled with loneliness as a child and many times as an adult.

The simple act of picking up the phone to call a friend to check on them…the act of picking up the phone when somebody else calls, even if you don’t have a lot of time just to say, “Hey, it’s great to hear your voice, is it okay if I call you back later today?” These small acts make a really big difference in how we feel.

Is it better to connect in person or over technology?

The most effective way for us to connect with another human being is still in-person. If we can’t have an in-person connection, even calling someone on the phone or video conferencing with them, so you can hear their voice and even see them — that can also be very powerful.

The more you’re able to get closer to that in-person interaction — the more powerful it is. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time; a couple of minutes spent in person with somebody can be more powerful than a half an hour spent in distracted conversation, texting back and forth.

How can we combat loneliness?

Even just spending a few minutes each day, reaching out to people we care about can make a real big difference in how connected we feel.

It doesn’t take massive transformations in your life; it can start with small steps that you take. For example, spending 15 minutes a day just to reach out to someone in your life, just to check on them to see how they’re doing. It could be an old friend, it could be a new friend, it could be a family member, it could be a work colleague.

Murthy has issued a five for five connection challenge to help people start down a path of building connections.

“It involves taking one active connection each day for the next five days,” he said. “That could be expressing gratitude to someone, it could be calling a friend to extend help to them at a time when they’re struggling, or it could be asking for help yourself. But doing this over five days will make you feel different. And my hope is that that will be a jumping off point to help people build these kinds of practices into their life for the long term.”

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(NEW YORK) — Moderna’s combo flu and COVID vaccine provided a strong immune response in older adults, with levels comparable to getting the flu and COVID shots separately, according to the company’s results from a late-stage clinical trial.

There are still multiple steps required before the shot would become available. Moderna would need to apply to the FDA for approval, which may require input from the FDA’s independent panel of experts. If authorized or approved, the shot would also need to be greenlit by the CDC before becoming available.

The clinical trial was done in 8,000 adults. Half of those adults were 65 years and older and the other half were between the ages of 50 and 64. Older adults are especially at risk for severe illness from respiratory illnesses including hospitalization and death. The combo vaccine was compared to already approved and available flu and COVID vaccines.

Everyone over the age of 6 months was recommended to get a flu shot and updated COVID shot last season. The CDC is expected to make new recommendations again this fall for both the flu and COVID vaccine. While both the COVID and flu vaccine can be given separately during the same visit, a combination shot may be preferred for some patients.

The most commonly reported side effects of Moderna’s combo shot were injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain and headache.

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(NEW YORK) — Up to one in five young athletes ages 10 to 31 may have pre-hypertension, a precursor to high blood pressure, according to a new preliminary study.

More than 20% of athletes studied met the criteria for having high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease.

Teenage boys appeared to be more at risk than teenage girls, according to the study, with more than double the rates of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension. Twenty-eight percent of athletes who played multiple sports had high blood pressure, the study found.

Normal blood pressure is considered to be 120/80 or below, according the American Heart Association. Stage 1 hypertension is considered to be a systolic, or upper number, reading of 130-139 and/or a lower, or diastolic, reading of 80-89. Stage 2 hypertension is a systolic reading of 140 or higher, and/or a diastolic reading of 90 or higher.

The doctors who led the research say young people should still be encouraged to play sports, because an active lifestyle reduces the risk of metabolic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. However, they say not enough people may be aware of their underlying condition.

“When we think of hypertension, we often think about older patients,” said lead author Dr. Aneeq Malik, a third-year internal medicine resident at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Malik also co-founded the nonprofit Saving Hearts Foundation, which hosted free heart screening events where the study data was collected.

“Even people who we consider extremely healthy young adults, people who engage in physical activity, are still at increased risk,” Malik said.

Malik also stressed that the study results should not deter young people from being active: “Just because you are engaging in sports doesn’t necessarily mean that is the cause for why these people are at greater risk.”

The study is being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Care of the Athletic Heart Conference. Though it has not gone through the typical scientific vetting process, some doctors say it still helps call attention to an often overlooked issue.

“There is a stark need for an increased focus on prevention as opposed to treatment alone,” said Dr. Anuradha Lala, a cardiologist at the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the study. “A huge part of prevention is adequate and appropriate screening.”

Lala also said it’s important to understand the “influence of racial and ethnic background on the incidence and prevalence of hypertension at earlier ages.” The study found that African American and Hispanic participants, for example, had higher rates of hypertension.

She further noted that multiple factors can lead to high blood pressure, and recommends that parents can help address it by being “conscious about diet, sleep, and the psychological well-being that our children are exposed to and encountering.”

Michelle March, MD, MPH, MEd is a general pediatrics research fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

Arifeen Rahman, MD is a resident in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford Medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — In summer 2022, the global mpox outbreak seemed poised to overwhelm the U.S. with cases rising exponentially every week and no signs of slowing.

A successful public health campaign — promoting behavior changes and vaccination — helped cases drop dramatically.

However, a new small study published Thursday and led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) says that mpox cases are still circulating at low levels in the U.S. and primarily among unvaccinated high-risk groups.

Dr. David Talaen, co-lead author and a professor of emergency medicine and infectious diseases at UCLA, said after the 2022 global outbreak, there were small, localized outbreaks seen in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles, so the team wanted to examine if mpox was remerging.

“The second thing was that mpox is not strictly a sexually transmitted infection,” he told ABC News. “It can be transmitted between people just with any skin-to-skin contact, and the rash can be on any part of the body. So, we were curious if cases might have been overlooked and in groups other than the risk group that was identified in 2022, which was gay and bisexual men who have sex with men.”

For the study, the team looked at data from 13 U.S. emergency departments between June 2023 and December 2023, specifically among patients who visited EDs with a rash that resembled the rash mpox patients have.

Of the 196 patients with a rash, mpox was diagnosed in just 1.5% of them. Each of the patients with mpox identified as gay or bisexual men who have sex with men and had not been vaccinated against mpox.

The mpox patients had also engaged in sex with one or more partners they met through smartphone dating apps, the study found.

No mpox cases were identified in other groups, including women, children or unhoused individuals.

Anyone can get or spread mpox regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, but the U.S. outbreak began spreading primarily among gay or bisexual men and has continued to do so at low levels.

Many public health experts credit this community with rapidly responding to the outbreak through awareness campaigns and high vaccine uptake, which likely helped prevent further spread.

The authors wrote that the findings “underscore the importance of educating persons at risk for mpox regarding behavioral risks and encouraging these persons to be vaccinated.”

Currently, the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and mpox, is the only vaccine being used in the U.S.

Data from Africa has shown two doses of JYNNEOS are at least 85% effective in preventing mpox infection.

To increase the number of JYNNEOS doses available earlier in the outbreak, the FDA authorized a proven strategy in August 2022 to inject the vaccine intradermally, just below the first layer of skin, rather than subcutaneously, or under all the layers of skin.

This allows one vial of vaccine to be given out as five separate doses rather than a single dose.

Talaen said the public health campaign was successful due to the dramatic decline in cases related to the 2022 outbreak, but that it doesn’t mean the disease disappeared.

“There was an idea that after the 2022 outbreak and the decline of cases the disease is gone; it’s not gone,” he said. “Cases still continue. So, it’s important for people to protect themselves, both through their behaviors and if, at-risk, through vaccination.”

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(NEW YORK) — Walking or running with a weighted vest can enhance workouts and offer numerous health benefits.

In addition to walking and running, weighted vests can be utilized in activities like hiking and bodyweight exercises to increase intensity and resistance.

To help explain some of these benefits and inform your shopping decisions, ABC News tapped Casey Gilbert, a Barry’s instructor and the founder of CG Coaching.

“I love weighted vests because they increase the weight that you are carrying while working out without putting that load into your arms,” Gilbert said. “This is for people who might have weakness in their arms, or maybe have an arm injury and can’t carry things with their hands — it adds the weight you might be looking for.”

Why do you want to add weight to your body when walking?

Gilbert called weighted vests the “definition of functional fitness.”

“If you’re asking your body to be able to operate with a higher load — putting more weight on your body — you’re overloading the muscles so that when you are walking without a weighted vest, it feels like less impact and you’re able to move more freely,” Gilbert shared. “This is the definition of functional fitness, I find it really helpful.”

How much should my vest weigh?

Gilbert says comfort is key. Weights in these vests can vary widely, from as little as 5 pounds to over 50 pounds, and it’s important to choose a vest that allows you to start light and progressively add more weight as your strength and endurance improve, according to Gilbert.

“I always tell women who have children to stop lifting 5-pound weights unless their child weighs five pounds,” he added. “I would say 20 to 40 pounds is a great way to simulate things you’re gonna be carrying throughout the day and prepare your body for it so that you can strengthen your core, your joints, your ligaments, and of course, your muscles.”

Who should use a weighted vest?

Weighted vests are truly for anyone. Gilbert said that even for someone who might be older and have some mobility issues, just getting them to wear 5 or 10 pounds in a weighted vest while standing up and sitting down a few times is great exercise.

“This a great way to increase their upper body strengthen without adding a physical dumbbell or barbell,” he said.

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(MEXICO) — The World Health Organization confirmed Wednesday the first-ever fatal case of a subtype of bird flu in Mexico.

It is the first laboratory-confirmed human case of the H5N2 strain of bird flu, or avian influenza, and the first-ever reported case in Mexico.

This strain is different than the bird flu strain that is currently circulating in livestock and has infected three dairy workers in the United States.

The Mexico patient was a 59-year-old resident with no history of exposure to poultry or other animals, according to the WHO.

On April 17, the patient developed fever, nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath and general malaise. He was hospitalized on April 24 at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City and died the same day.

The patient’s relatives said the person had underlying conditions and they had been bedridden for three weeks for other reasons prior to contracting bird flu, the WHO said.

Test results eventually revealed the patient was infected with bird flu subtype H5N2, which has never been documented in humans before.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — A new study analyzing maternal mortality rates found that nearly two-thirds of maternal-related deaths in the U.S. happen up to a year after a woman has given birth.

The finding is part of a wider study by The Commonwealth Fund that analyzed maternal mortality rates among 14 developed nations, concluding that maternal mortality in the U.S. continues to far exceed that of other high-income nations.

Researchers used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They found 22 women die for every 100,000 live births in the United States, compared to 0-14 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in other countries. Sixty-five percent of deaths happened after delivery.

“This is unacceptably high. We know that nearly 80% of the deaths are preventable with the right treatment and right care for women,” Munira Z. Gunja, the lead author in the study and a Senior Researcher in the International Health Policy Program at The Commonwealth Fund, told ABC News.

“In the U.S., we are really leaving women behind and not making sure we’re providing them with the right care to allow them to give birth in a safe way,” she said.

The Commonwealth Fund analyzed data from the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In the United States, 22% of maternal deaths happened during pregnancy, most often the result of heart conditions and stroke. Approximately 13% of all deaths occurred on the day of delivery.

After delivery, 12% of deaths took place in the first week postpartum, the most common contributors being high blood pressure, severe bleeding and infection. Twenty-three percent of deaths occurred up to 42 days after birth. Late deaths, which accounted for 30% of all deaths, happened up to one year after birth and were frequently associated with cardiomyopathy.

Black mothers experience the highest rate of death in the U.S. According to the report, 49.5 Black women die for every 100,000 live births.

The United States was found to be the only country in the study without a universal health system. Roughly eight million women are left uninsured, and Black women are disproportionately affected, Gunta said.

“We know that there are many steps the U.S. could implement to really reduce or eliminate maternal deaths altogether. Other countries have been able to achieve this; the U.S. could do the same,” Gunja said, later adding that understanding the timing of deaths is really important when it comes to maternal care so barriers to care can be identified to make sure women are doing well postpartum.

When looking at maternal care provided in other countries, the U.S. is the only country that does not guarantee at least one home visit by a midwife or nurse within one week of delivery, despite evidence suggesting home visits are associated with better mental health, breastfeeding outcomes and reduced health care costs.

Data found that in most high-income countries, midwives far outnumber obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns). The U.S., Canada and Korea were the only countries where ob-gyns outnumbered midwives, with the lowest total supply of providers, with 16 midwives and 13 ob-gyns for every 1,000 live births.

Gunja said expanding midwifery care and diversifying the workforce is critical in reducing mortality rates in the United States, especially for Black women.

“Having a midwife … come to your home, provide care, really create a relationship with you, be a trusted source and be someone who may look like you racially or ethnically, is really also proven to be a big part in building trust,” Gunja said. “Midwives can really be a trusted source of care for patients that we don’t always get when we go to see our ob-gyn.”

The study found that an increase in the midwife and obstetrician workforce, comprehensive maternal care coverage, guaranteed paid maternity leave and postpartum home visits could help reduce the alarming rates of maternal mortality in the U.S.

The Commonwealth Fund study comes just four weeks after the CDC published its yearly report on maternal mortality in the U.S., finding that there was a decrease in maternal mortality rates in 2022 following three years of continuous increases. While this decrease is a step in the right direction, Gunja said there is still a lot of work to do.

“We know that most of these deaths are preventable, and we know that a lot of other countries have been able to achieve near-zero or zero deaths,” Gunja said.

“Starting to actually implement policies, and not just at a state level but at a federal level, so that way we can ensure that every woman, so not just women who have the right employer or women who live in the right state have the right support to take care of themselves before pregnancy, during and after pregnancy,” she said.

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