Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Treated Wastewater Still Might Contain Dangerous Pathogens, Study Finds
Foodborne and opportunistic pathogens can survive wastewater treatment when they hitch a ride on microplastics in the water and quickly form a supportive and protective microbial biofilm, posing a potential threat to human and environmental health when the treated water is reused for things like drinking and crop irrigation, suggest researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. (Van Beusekom, 11/12)
In other public health news —
Surveillance data released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that rates of meningococcal disease have risen sharply in the United States since 2021 and now exceed pre–COVID-19 levels. A total of 438 confirmed and probable cases of meningococcal disease were reported in 2023, the most US cases reported since 2013. (Dall, 11/13)
At least 104 people have been sickened, with 34 hospitalized, in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers, federal health officials said Wednesday. Cases have been detected in 14 states, according to an update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person died in Colorado and four people have developed a potentially life-threatening kidney disease complication. (Aleccia, 11/13)
A Canadian teenager who is in critical condition after contracting H5N1 bird flu was infected with a version of the virus that is different from the one circulating in dairy cattle in the United States, Canadian authorities announced Wednesday. (Branswell, 11/13)
In 2017, Maryland’s Department of Health found funding for a program to send caseworkers to the homes of asthmatic children to help get their disease under control, but they had a problem: finding the kids. Targeting infectious diseases like influenza or lead exposure would have been easier: State laws required reporting those illnesses to public health officials. But asthma is a chronic disease that health care providers weren’t required to report. How could caseworkers find the children they wanted to help? (Feder, 11/13)
