Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Black, Hispanic Kids Had Higher Covid Hospitalization Rates, Analysis Finds
Yesterday in JAMA Network Open, researchers published a study highlighting higher COVID-19 hospitalization rates among Black and Hispanic children in the United States during the first 3 years of the pandemic.聽The cross-sectional study, which was based on population-based surveillance, identified 13,555 pediatric COVID-19鈥揳ssociated hospitalizations from March 2020 to September 2023. Hospitalizations occurred in 12 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah, covering approximately 10% of the US population. (Soucheray, 7/16)
An oral capsule can efficiently deliver liquid mRNA therapy directly to the gut, a possible new delivery mechanism for mRNA vaccines, a new study finds. (Russo, 7/16)
Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies 鈥 advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused. The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines. Surgeons at Duke and Vanderbilt universities reported Wednesday that they鈥檝e separately devised simpler approaches to retrieve those hearts. (Neergaard, 7/16)
Ondansetron reduced the risk of recurrent gastroenteritis and vomiting when prescribed to children at discharge from emergency department (ED) visits for acute gastroenteritis-associated vomiting, a randomized trial showed. In children assigned to oral ondansetron or placebo to be given as needed for vomiting after discharge, just 5.1% of the treatment group experienced moderate-to-severe gastroenteritis compared to 12.5% of the placebo group, a research team led by Stephen Freedman, MDCM, of Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Minerd, 7/16)
A Northwestern Medicine research lab has found a usually harmless virus in brain samples from Parkinson鈥檚 patients. The idea that Parkinson鈥檚 could be linked to a virus had been theorized for years, but this is the first study to pinpoint a specific virus as more common in Parkinson鈥檚 patients. (Weaver, 7/16)
A new review published in JAMA Network Open describes how often ethics are incorporated in infectious diseases international clinical practice guidelines (CPGL) and finds planning and actual consideration of ethical issues in infectious disease CPGL are limited. ... 鈥淟ess than a third of CPGL dedicated a section or paragraph to ethical considerations, and only half of guidelines addressed minority populations,鈥 the authors wrote. 鈥淭he most common ethical issues addressed were related to justice (including affordability and access to care).鈥 (Soucheray, 7/16)