Public Health

Over 1,000 cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) were reported in Japan in the first six months of 2024, surpassing the total number recorded last year in the country.

Andrew Steer, director of infection, immunity and global health at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia has warned that those suffering from STSS often have no prior warning signs.

“You tend to be well, and then become acutely quite sick,” he said, adding that a sunburn-like rash could also be one of the first indications of infection.

The US reported 145 cases of STSS in 2021.

See also: https://www.diseasedaily.org/2024/07/23/the-rise-of-streptococcal-toxic-shock-syndrome-stss-in-japan/

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14831085

The prevalence of cancer survivors in the United States has risen in recent years and is projected to increase more in years to come, according to research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The researchers estimated that, as of January 1, 2022, the prevalence of cancer survivors in the US was 18.1 million. The team noted that this is a nearly 4-fold increase in cancer survivors since the mid-1970s.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14790845

People living in areas with the highest levels of socioeconomic deprivation have more coronary inflammation identified on coronary CT angiography (CCTA) than those living in the least deprived areas, an analysis of the Oxford Risk Factors and Noninvasive Imaging (ORFAN) study shows.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14790845

People living in areas with the highest levels of socioeconomic deprivation have more coronary inflammation identified on coronary CT angiography (CCTA) than those living in the least deprived areas, an analysis of the Oxford Risk Factors and Noninvasive Imaging (ORFAN) study shows.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/19515293

Authorities in southern India's Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state's health minister said on Sunday.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/nRECh

A mountain lion euthanized in Colorado last year had the first recorded case of “staggering disease” in the species in North America, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Tuesday.

"Of note, a remarkably broad range of other mammalian RusV hosts have been identified in Germany, including equids, mustelids, rodents, and marsupials, raising concerns about a zoonotic potential of RusV," the study concluded. "Given the wide host range of the virus in Europe, RusV should be considered as a possible cause for neurologic diseases in all mammal species in North America."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17652243

Over half of women who have had abortions have had a previous child.

https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2007/05/repeat-abortion-repeat-unintended-pregnancy-repeated-and-misguided-government-policies

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14297944

Millions of Americans likely to develop and die from heart disease live in cardiology deserts — areas of the country without a single heart specialist to care for them.

New research published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that nearly half of all counties in the U.S. lack a practicing cardiologist.

Most of those counties are rural, with residents who tend to be sicker in general with complex medical problems.

“The counties that do not have cardiologists probably need this type of specialty care even more,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Haider Warraich, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14297944

Millions of Americans likely to develop and die from heart disease live in cardiology deserts — areas of the country without a single heart specialist to care for them.

New research published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that nearly half of all counties in the U.S. lack a practicing cardiologist.

Most of those counties are rural, with residents who tend to be sicker in general with complex medical problems.

“The counties that do not have cardiologists probably need this type of specialty care even more,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Haider Warraich, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Pregnant women enrolled in a federal aid program have better outcomes than those who are struggling to put food on the table, new research shows.

The new study, from a team at Ohio State University, found that women enrolled in WIC had a lower risk of poor pregnancy outcomes. Those outcomes included gestational diabetes, blood transfusion, preterm birth and stays in intensive care for mom and baby alike.

The study dovetails with concerns about Congressional proposals to slash WIC funding for the first time.

the top three procedures for children ages 0-11 account for 59% of opioids dispensed after surgery (tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies 50%, upper extremity fractures 5% and removal of deep implants 4%). Among those ages 12-21, the top three procedures account for about a third of post-surgery opioid prescriptions (tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies 13%, knee arthroscopies 13% and cesarean deliveries 8%).

For adults ages 18-44, C-sections account for the highest share of opioids dispensed post-surgery (19%), followed by hysterectomies (7%) and knee arthroscopies (6%). Among those ages 45-64, four of the top five procedures were orthopedic procedures, collectively accounting for 27% of total opioid prescriptions dispensed after surgery.

"Our findings suggest that surgical opioid prescribing is highly concentrated among a small group of procedures. Efforts to ensure safe and appropriate surgical opioid prescribing should focus on these procedures," said Kao-Ping Chua, lead author of the study in Pediatrics, assistant professor at the U-M Medical School and School of Public Health, and co-director of the Research and Data Domain at the U-M Opioid Research Institute.

In addition to determining which procedures accounted for the highest shares of opioids, the researchers also examined the size of opioid prescriptions for each procedure. For many procedures, prescriptions were far larger than the amount patients typically need for a particular procedure.

Highlights

• Aotearoa New Zealand formerly enacted revolutionary tobacco control measures
• Reforms included introducing a generational ban on tobacco products
• To achieve an equitable smokefree future, Māori leadership and partnership were critical in implementing effective tobacco control measures
• The planned smokefree reform was repealed by the sixth National-led coalition government
• Economic concerns, autonomy, and potential illicit tobacco trade were key justifications for the repeal

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14067826

A study found a lack of "housing is a huge stress for anyone." However, "when children experience this, especially in early childhood, it can affect their health years down the line." The Future of Families and Child Well-Being study found children "with any level of housing insecurity -- low or high -- had worse self-reported health at age 15 ... They also reported worse mental health." According to Healthy Steps National Director Rahil Briggs, the lack "of a safe and secure shelter creates 'chronic and unrelenting' stress for the parents or caregivers, which is then picked up by kids, as well."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23881373

A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.

The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.

Hundreds of people with the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have attended hospital in the mining town of Kamituga, South Kivu province, in what is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger outbreak, doctors say.

The new DRC outbreak is a mutated form of clade I mpox. Doctors report a fatality rate of about 5% in adults and 10% in children, as well as high rates of miscarriages among pregnant women.

Link to full text study:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(24)00094-3/fulltext

Background Cooling towers containing Legionella spp are a high-risk source of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks. Manually locating cooling towers from aerial imagery during outbreak investigations requires expertise, is labour intensive, and can be prone to errors. We aimed to train a deep learning computer vision model to automatically detect cooling towers that are aerially visible.

Methods Between Jan 1 and 31, 2021, we extracted satellite view images of Philadelphia (PN, USA) and New York state (NY, USA) from Google Maps and annotated cooling towers to create training datasets. We augmented training data with synthetic data and model-assisted labelling of additional cities. Using 2051 images containing 7292 cooling towers, we trained a two-stage model using YOLOv5, a model that detects objects in images, and EfficientNet-b5, a model that classifies images. We assessed the primary outcomes of sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the model against manual labelling on test datasets of 548 images, including from two cities not seen in training (Boston [MA, USA] and Athens [GA, USA]). We compared the search speed of the model with that of manual searching by four epidemiologists.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23814659