Vaccine Mayhem:

• 5 new members were added to the CDC’s vaccine panel (ACIP) ahead of this week’s meeting. (NPR)
  ‍

• After three decades of giving Hepatitis B shots to newborns—a strategy that virtually eliminated the disease in people under 19—the ACIP is expected to delay the first dose until age 4 this week. (KFF Health News)
  ‍
  
• As of Friday, 16 states have taken action to preserve vaccine access, most recently AZ, IL, ME, and NC. (AP)
  ‍
  
• Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) called on RFK Jr. to endorse the pertussis vaccine as whooping cough cases are on track to hit a record. (Bloomberg)
  
  
  

Health News:

• Case counts and test positivity rates indicate that we’re (finally) past the summer peak for COVID, though there are still some hotspots at the state and local levels. (Outbreak Outlook)
  ‍
  
• 54 cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been reported in Marshall County, Iowa, likely linked to a cooling tower. (KCCR)
  
  
• 2 measles cases in Manhattan were confirmed in residents of SoHo and the Lower East Side. (NBC)
  
  
• Australia approved a vaccine for koalas to prevent the spread of chlamydia. (BBC)
  
  
• Colorado is a hotspot for West Nile cases this year. (NBC 9)
  
  
• Chetak brand has expanded a recall of frozen veggies due to potential Salmonella contamination. (FDA)
  
  
• Obesity now affects 1 in 10 children worldwide. (Unicef)
  
  
• In 2022, the WHO renamed mpox, but HHS says the U.S. will bring back the original name “monkeypox,” despite concerns about stigma. (NPR)
  
  
• Tyson Foods says they’ll remove corn syrup from all their products by the end of the year. (Reuters)
  ‍
• ‍H5N1 was detected in a Nebraska dairy herd for the first time. (USA Today)

‍

Best Questions:

‍

I heard a child died in L.A. from measles years after they were sick. What happened?

‍

A school-aged child in the Los Angeles area died from a rare complication of measles that showed up years after they got sick as an infant. 

‍

This child contracted measles before they were old enough to get vaccinated (at 12-15 months). But they fully recovered from that infection at the time. Later, the child developed something called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive brain disorder that usually shows up seven to ten years after a person recovers from measles. Sadly, SSPE is always fatal. While the risk is rare for adults, (1 in 10,000), it's much higher for kids who had measles as a baby, just 1 in 600. 

‍

Most doctors haven’t seen SSPE in their career, because so few American children have gotten measles over the past few decades, and among those, even fewer get this rare complication. 

‍

An L.A. county public health official called it a “painful reminder” that vaccinations aren’t just about our own individual health, but also about protecting our most vulnerable community members who can’t get vaccinated themselves - especially babies. 

‍

If you have a newborn and you’re concerned about the rise in measles cases, you can speak with your child’s pediatrician to consider early vaccination if you have international travel plans or if you live in an area with measles outbreaks right now. For adults and those who are vaccinated, the risk of this rare complication is very low. 

‍

Sources: LA Times, LA County, CIDRAP

‍

Should patients really get their test results before doctors review them? 

‍

Since Congress passed a law requiring immediate release of electronic health records, patients are getting test results in real time. That sounds great, but it also means a lot of confusion. We’re seeing lots of employees with basic UTIs convinced they have shiga-toxin producing E. coli, or patients panicking over “positive” Hep A results that actually just mean their vaccine worked.

Do patients even want this much access? Turns out, yes. In a survey of more than 8,000 people, 96% said they prefer to see their results right away, even if their doctor hasn’t weighed in yet. The catch is that abnormal results made some of them more anxious while they waited for answers from their provider.

So where do they turn in the meantime? Increasingly, it’s to AI. Large language models are now being used to “translate” lab results, which can be helpful but comes with risks. AI is generally better than a random Google search or WebMD, but it can also “hallucinate,” producing answers that sound authoritative but are wrong. Privacy is another concern, since sensitive health data is being fed into public tools.

For now, AI can be a useful tool for patients who want context, but the advice remains the same: don’t act on results until a doctor has had a chance to interpret them.

Sources: NPR, CBS, FDA, JAMA

‍

Best Read:

‍

One out of every six families are skipping or delaying some vaccines (other than COVID and flu), a new study from KFF and the Washington Post found. We appreciated the way this article digs into who is skipping or delaying childhood vaccines, and why. It’s a good reminder that many parents fall into the “mushy middle” on vaccines, meaning they choose some vaccinations for their kids while remaining skeptical as a whole. 

‍

Why 1 in 6 U.S. parents are rejecting vaccine recommendations - Washington Post

‍