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The number of people infected with bird flu in the U.S. has risen to at least 31, federal health officials said Thursday, but there is no evidence of human-to-human spread after blood tests confirmed health workers in Missouri caring for a hospitalized patient were not infected. Speaking to reporters during a briefing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials said multiple tests confirmed five symptomatic health workers did not have any evidence of infection. (Weixel, 10/24)

A Missouri resident who shared a home with a patient hospitalized with bird flu in August was also infected with the virus, federal officials reported on Thursday. But symptomatic health care workers who cared for the hospitalized patient were not infected, testing showed. The news eased worries among researchers that the virus, H5N1, had gained the ability to spread more efficiently among people. (Mandavilli and Anthes, 10/24)

Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today said serologic testing has ruled out H5 avian flu infection among five healthcare workers who had symptoms around the time they were exposed to a patient in Missouri, though results suggest a household contact was likely infected at the same time. At a Department of Health and Human Services briefing today, CDC officials also said tests have confirmed H5 infection in two Washington poultry cullers, though the virus is the D.1.1 genotype, which is different that the B3.13 genotype circulating in US dairy cattle. (Schnirring, 10/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases Of Bird Flu

Bird flu cases have more than doubled in the country within a few weeks, but researchers can’t determine why the spike is happening because surveillance for human infections has been patchy for seven months. Just this week, California reported its 15th infection in dairy workers and Washington state reported seven probable cases in poultry workers. Hundreds of emails from state and local health departments, obtained in records requests from �鶹Ů�� Health News, help reveal why. (Maxmen, 10/25)

A Colorado man has filed what appears to be the first lawsuit against McDonald’s over an E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounder burgers that has killed one person and sickened nearly 50 others. The lawsuit, filed in Circuit Court in Cook County, Illinois, on Wednesday, alleges that Eric Stelly ate food from a Greeley, Colorado, McDonald’s on Oct. 4 and tested positive for E. coli a few days later. ... The lawsuit, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages, claims McDonald's was negligent in its handling and care of the food. (Novak Jones, 10/24)

A California-based produce company was the source of fresh onions linked to a deadly E. coli food poisoning outbreak at McDonald’s, officials with the restaurant chain said Thursday. Meanwhile, other fast-food restaurants — including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King — pulled onions from some menus. McDonald’s officials said that Taylor Farms, of Salinas, California, sent onions to one distribution facility, which led the fast-food chain to remove Quarter Pounder hamburgers from restaurants in several states. McDonald’s didn’t say which facility it was. (Aleccia and Durbin, 10/24)

Yum! Brands Inc. and Burger King removed onions from some of their locations as the restaurant industry investigates an E. Coli outbreak first traced to McDonald’s Corp. Yum withdrew fresh onions from some Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC locations “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said Thursday in a statement to Bloomberg News, without disclosing which stores and regions were affected or naming suppliers. (Sirtori, 10/24)

An Ohio judge permanently struck down the state's ban on abortion after about six weeks on Thursday and criticized its Republican attorney general for attempting to circumvent the will of Ohioans who voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. Judge Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas in Cincinnati said the Republican-backed 2019 state law would interfere with women's ability to receive abortions and discourage doctors from performing them, in violation of a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year. (Wiessner, 10/25)

States around the country have seen an onrush of abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections in June 2022. But in Oregon, the laws have only gotten stronger. Oregon’s broad abortion protections can feel so entrenched that even the state’s most staunch anti-abortion groups concede outlawing the practice is impossible. (Dake, 10/24)

Hailey Jones will never forget the first baby she delivered: Her neighbor and best friend’s baby girl entered the world at a home on the banks of the Swannanoa River in Buncombe County on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 9:16 a.m. While a home birth was always planned, Mother Nature inflicted more challenging circumstances than they’d envisioned. (Crumpler, 10/25)

Vice President Kamala Harris will give a speech on reproductive freedom in Texas on Friday, according to a senior Harris campaign official. In the closing days of the election, Harris is leaning into the issue of abortion rights as part of her broader argument against her Republican rival, placing the blame on former President Donald Trump for abortion bans in several states and amplifying stories of the people impacted by those restrictions. And Texas was chosen as the location for the rally, campaign officials said, because it’s the epicenter of abortion bans. (Alvarez and Iyer, 10/25)

�鶹Ů�� Health News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: Less Than Two Weeks To Go

With Election Day rapidly approaching, abortion is gaining traction as a voting issue, according to public opinion polls. Meanwhile, states with abortion bans are reviving the lawsuit — dismissed by the Supreme Court on a technicality this year — that could roll back the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone. Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, and Victoria Knight of Axios join �鶹Ů�� Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Tricia Neuman, senior vice president of �鶹Ů�� and executive director of its Program on Medicare Policy, about Medicare open enrollment and the changes to the federal program for 2025. (10/24)

A federal watchdog found that Medicare Advantage insurers led by UnitedHealth Group collected billions of dollars in dubious payments from Medicare by using home visits and medical chart reviews to diagnose patients with conditions for which they received no follow-up care. (Ross, Bannow, Lawrence and Herman, 10/24) 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services declined to crack down on certain Medicare Advantage payments a federal watchdog said are based on improper diagnoses. Insurers have been embroiled in controversy around using health risk assessments to drive up diagnoses among Medicare Advantage enrollees for years. The Health and Human Services Department Office of Inspector General has said the practice led to billions in payments for which patients receive no corresponding follow-up visits, procedures, tests or supplies. Those payments hit $7.5 billion in 2023, the OIG says in a new report issued Thursday. (Early, 10/24)

U.S. government officials, together with counterparts in Canada and Mexico, have unveiled their latest plans to strengthen regional health security and pandemic preparedness. ... The collaboration, called the North American Preparedness for Animal and Human Pandemics Initiative, or NAPAHPI, has been described as a "flexible, scalable, cross-sectoral" platform which aims to strengthen regional capacities for disease control, built on lessons learned from COVID-19 and other healthy security events. (Dewan, 10/24)

Consensus is growing around the idea that for some patients higher doses of a gold-standard opioid addiction treatment drug may be better than lower doses at keeping patients healthy and in treatment, especially for those who use fentanyl. But whether someone can access higher doses of buprenorphine — which works by curbing cravings and withdrawal from opioids — depends on where they live. (Hellmann, 10/24)

A turbulent series of events surrounding the supply of Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight loss treatment has raised concerns around how the Food and Drug Administration maintains its list of drug shortages and which sources it relies on, an issue that affects a growing number of Americans. (Lawrence, Chen and Silverman, 10/25)

When Chelsea Smith met Jason Martin she knew right away that he was the one — so she refused to get his phone number. That’s because getting married would make Smith ineligible for Social Security benefits and Medicaid — financial support that she and many others with disabilities need to survive. Smith didn’t want to risk falling in love knowing she couldn’t get married. (Zamora and Srikanth, 10/25)

Nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults said the government is not doing enough to ensure access to affordable mental health care, a new West Health-Gallup Healthcare survey found. The survey revealed that 73 percent of Americans said that the government was not doing enough to ensure affordable access to mental health care, compared to 12 percent who said that it was doing about the right amount. Seven percent said the government was doing too much, while another 7 percent said they didn’t know. (Ventura, 10/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Presidential Election Puts Affordable Care Act Back In The Bull’s-Eye

Health care is suddenly front and center in the final sprint to the presidential election, and the outcome will shape the Affordable Care Act and the coverage it gives to more than 40 million people. Besides reproductive rights, health care for most of the campaign has been an in-the-shadows issue. However, recent comments from former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, about possible changes to the ACA have opened Republicans up to heavier scrutiny. (Armour, 10/25)

Harmful diagnostic errors may occur for as many as one in every 14 hospital patients receiving medical care, a new study based on a single medical center in the U.S. has found. As many as 85 percent of these errors may be preventable, highlighting the need for improved surveillance in hospital settings. ... In their study, published in the journal BMJ Quality and Safety, [Anuj Dalal, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author on the study] and colleagues concluded that, based on this sample from a single medical center, harmful diagnostic errors occurred in 7 percent of patients, or one in 14, receiving general medical care. They added that the majority of these errors were preventable. (Dewan, 10/24)

The digital revolution in healthcare was supposed to transform the patient experience. It would make it easy for patients to access their electronic medical records, manage their care via patient portals and mobile apps, and protect their privacy. It has a long way to go. (Landro, 10/24)

The American Hospital Association and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit have collaborated to create resources to mitigate targeted violence in healthcare settings, including threat assessment and prevention strategies. Healthcare industry workers experience the highest rate of injury from workplace violence and are five times as likely to suffer a workplace violence injury compared to workers overall, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Gregerson, 10/24)

Two weeks after setting a nationwide deadline for removal of lead pipes, the Biden administration is imposing strict new limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child-care facilities. A final rule announced Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on lead dust on floors and window sills in pre-1978 residences and child-care facilities to levels so low they cannot be detected. (Daly, 10/24)

One of the largest property developers on New Hampshire’s Seacoast has been fined by the Environmental Protection Agency for violating lead paint rules. Chinburg Management LLC and Washington Street Mill LLC are being fined $42,000 after a family with a young child living in their property was alerted by state health officials that the child’s blood had elevated levels of lead. Inspectors found lead-based paint and hazards in the family’s home. (Hoplamazian, 10/24)

Meta Platforms Inc., Google, TikTok and Snap will have to face lawsuits brought by school districts in federal court blaming their “addictive” apps for contributing to a mental health crisis among students. The ruling Thursday by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, follows a contrasting June 7 decision by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in favor of the companies. The split leaves the platforms potentially on the hook for damages in more than 150 cases before Rogers even as they’re poised to dodge liability for claims in more than 600 other cases filed in Los Angeles. (Poritz, 10/25)

A new report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes that, by the end of the 2021-22 school year, US school districts had spent about $60 billion in federal COVID-19 emergency aid through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. Eighty percent of this money was used to address students' social-emotional needs and to keep schools running, while 20% went to addressing health concerns, including improving ventilation, enhanced cleaning and disinfection, and hiring school psychologists. (Soucheray, 10/24)

Almost every day at the public elementary school she attended in Montgomery County, Maryland, Stephanie heard comments about her weight. Kids in her fifth grade class called her “fatty” instead of her name, she recalled; others whispered, “Do you want a cupcake?” as she walked by. One classmate spread a rumor that she had diabetes. Stephanie was so incensed by his teasing that she hit him and got suspended, she said. But nothing the kids did upset her as much as the conduct of her teachers. For years teachers ignored her in class, even when she was the only one raising her hand, said Stephanie, whose surname is being withheld to protect her privacy. “I was like, ‘Do you not like me or something?” she recalled. (Cardoza, 10/23)

Dr. Amy Xu got hooked on cheerleading in the fifth grade. As she pursued the sport in high school and college, she witnessed how the routines started demanding increasingly complex acrobatic feats — tall human towers and tumbling passes with many twists and flips.It wasn’t unusual for her and her teammates to get concussions and other injuries. (Huang, 10/24)

Medical device maker Baxter (BAX.N) said on Thursday it expects to restart the highest-throughput intravenous solutions manufacturing line at a hurricane-hit plant in North Carolina within the next week. The temporary closure last month of the Marion site, which makes 60% of the nation's supply of IV fluids and peritoneal dialysis solutions as per the American Hospital Association, had triggered a shortage of intravenous products. (10/24)

From November 2022 to June 2024, 12 cases of Legionnaires' disease were reported to the CDC among travelers on two cruise ships, with eight on ship A and four on ship B. The ship A outbreak was the largest cruise Legionnaires' disease outbreak that the CDC had investigated since 2008. Legionnaires' is a serious type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria. (Van Beusekom, 10/24)

With just an image of your face and the help of artificial intelligence, a new iPhone app can tell you your heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and even whether you are getting enough sleep. The app from FaceHeart Vitals was one in a slew of digital health devices on display at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas this week that offered a glimpse of how digital health companies are thinking about health care's biggest problems. (Reed, 10/25)

French drug maker Sanofi on Friday posted stronger earnings growth than analysts had expected in the third quarter, boosted by an earlier-than-anticipated start of the vaccination season. Quarterly business operating income, excluding one-off items, rose by 14.4% to 4.6 billion euros ($5.0 billion), surpassing the average analyst estimate of 4 billion euros in a poll posted on the company's website. (Burger, 10/25)

Biotech firm Septerna on Thursday said it raised $288 million in its initial public offering that has been upsized twice, a sign of upbeat investor sentiment for the capital-intensive sector. Septerna sold 16 million shares in the offering at $18 a piece. Earlier in the day, the drug developer had already upsized the offering to nearly 15.3 million shares, from 10.9 million shares and said it aimed to sell at $18 a piece versus an earlier target range of $15 and $17 a share. (Kannagi Basil, 10/24)

Medicare Advantage payer denials and Hurricane Helene put a damper on Community Health Systems' third-quarter earnings results. CHS continues to weather increasing payer denials and coding downgrades, CEO Tim Hingtgen told analysts on Thursday's earnings call. He said the for-profit health system stood up an enhanced utilization review program and centralized its physician adviser services in the last couple of years to make sure CHS receives appropriate payment for the care it provides. (Hudson, 10/24)

The venture capital giant General Catalyst has raised $8 billion in fresh capital, with $750 million set aside for health care investments as its acquisition of an Ohio safety net hospital undergoes regulatory review. Fund XII consists of $4.5 billion for funds dedicated to seed and growth equity, $1.5 billion for creating new companies, and $2 billion of “separately managed accounts,” the firm said. It did not immediately clarify how the $750 million in health care funds would be distributed between investment and creation. (Ravindranath , 10/24)

A study of US adults who had community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) but were otherwise healthy found that broad-spectrum antibiotics were associated with increased risks of adverse drug events (ADEs), researchers reported yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 10/24)

The adjuvanted influenza and adjuvanted shingles vaccines can be safely administered at the same time, a randomized, blinded clinical trial concludes. Duke University investigators compared the safety of and reactions to simultaneous intramuscular vaccination with the quadrivalent (four-strain) inactivated adjuvanted flu vaccine (allV4) and the adjuvanted recombinant herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine (RSV) with that of simultaneous administration of the RZV and quadrivalent high-dose inactivated nonadjuvanted flu vaccine (HD-IIV4) vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 10/24)

New genomic surveillance data published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report show that JN.1 and its descendants have been the most common SARS-CoV-2 variants in 2024, and they're still evolving. The genomic surveillance was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program, which previously detected both the Delta and Omicron variants. (Soucheray, 10/24)

The diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease among people with Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published Thursday. Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, with roughly 120,000 people dying from the disease each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (O’Connell-Domenech, 10/24)

Novo Nordisk’s drug Ozempic was linked to a lower risk of getting diagnosed with Alzheimer’s among people with type 2 diabetes, an analysis of medical records found, supporting the case for further research of the blockbuster GLP-1 drug in neurodegenerative diseases. (Chen, 10/24)

Three new cases of whooping cough in Anne Arundel County that made headlines in Maryland this week are part of an ongoing uptick of the highly contagious disease in the United States. But as seriously as Marylanders should take the illness — particularly those who have contact with children under a year old — the spike is not an unexpected development, said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, a department of the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. (Pitts, 10/24)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 18,506 cases of whooping cough between January 1 and October 12—five times more than the same time frame in 2023, according to preliminary data. Cases are not evenly spread throughout the U.S. The Minnesota Department of Health announced on October 10 that the state had seen 1,019 cases so far in 2024, including 376 cases in Hennepin County and more than 40 cases in each of its surrounding counties. (Willmoth, 10/24)

Three new specialized Colorado schools began working with school districts this fall to serve students with some of the highest needs in the state. A fourth new school works with teenagers and young adults who are in the juvenile justice system. Known as facility schools, the number of these specialized schools had been dwindling for years due to low state funding, staffing shortages, and operating hurdles. But the four new schools are an indication that a state law passed last year is having the intended effect of increasing options for what one state report called some of Colorado’s “most vulnerable” students. Many students who attend facility schools struggle with intense mental or behavioral health needs. Some have diagnoses of autism or emotional or intellectual disabilities. Others have experienced trauma, chronic illness, or substance abuse. (Asmar, 10/24)

Operating rooms at Waterbury Hospital were found to have multiple pieces of equipment with heavy rust, according to an unannounced state inspection of the facility last year. Waterbury Hospital, which is owned by the private-equity group Prospect Medical Holdings, was also cited by inspectors from the state Department of Public Health for failing “to ensure that equipment within the operating rooms were able to be properly sanitized” following an inspection of the surgical units last January. (Srinivasan, 10/24)

Members of the family behind Medline — a massive medical supply and equipment company based in Northfield — have donated $25 million to establish a new center that will focus on Alzheimer’s disease research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. (Schencker, 10/24)

Recreational cannabis will be available to people ages 21 and over to buy legally around the state next year, if regulators stay on schedule. As more and more states have legalized cannabis, a wide variety of products have entered the market — some with high levels of THC. Some public health experts are raising concerns about the potential risks of heavy cannabis use — that includes addiction as well as other mental and physical health issues. (Wurzer and Elder, 10/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California Mental Health Agency Director To Resign Following Conflict Of Interest Allegations

California’s mental health commission on Thursday announced its executive director would resign amid revelations that he traveled to the U.K. courtesy of a state vendor while he sought to prevent a budget cut that would have defunded the company’s contract. Toby Ewing, executive director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, will step down effective Nov. 22. Documents obtained by �鶹Ů�� Health News show that he tried in June to protect state funding for Kooth, a London-based digital mental health company with a contract to develop a virtual tool to help California tackle its youth mental health crisis. (Castle Work, 10/25)

PJ DiPentino felt uneasy about his local oncologist’s plan. DiPentino’s bladder cancer had returned in a lymph node, and the doctor was recommending he continue immunotherapy and wait to see if it spread. DiPentino, 61 years old, who was being treated near his home in Livingston, Mont., contacted Dr. Bogdana Schmidt, the urologic oncologist at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City who had treated him in 2023. She and other specialists decided DiPentino should start radiation right away. Schmidt said DiPentino is one of many patients treated at the local level whom she would have treated differently had they come to her cancer center first. (Abbott, 10/22)

The home Jade Shirey bought over a decade ago was a bargain and exactly what she needed for her growing family. But she knew it needed some touch-ups, and after a few years, she turned her attention to the chipping, dark-red-painted wood under the carpet. She started sanding the painted floors, before staining the wood. She had been remodeling the stairs for two months when she took her son, Benny, to his 1-year-old checkup. A finger prick showed he tested positive for lead levels four times higher than the national standard at the time. The lead paint hidden beneath the floorboards had turned into clouds of dust, poisoning him. (Ajasa and Van Houten, 10/19)

On a chilly morning in early December 2017, attorney Anthony Spaniola awakened at his cabin on Van Etten Lake in Oscoda, Michigan, to the sight of billowy white froth bobbing along the shore. He recalled his wife peering out the window and remarking, “Hey, it snowed last night.” “And I said, ‘I don’t think that’s snow,” said Spaniola. “It was contaminated PFAS foam.” Thanks to their stain-, water-, and grease-resistant properties, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been a mainstay of commercial and consumer products for decades. Sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because most don’t break down naturally, PFAS (pronounced PEE-fass) accumulate in the environment and have been linked to harmful health effects, including increased cholesterol, lowered immunity, liver damage, diabetes, kidney and testicular cancer, and lower birth weight. (Carr, 10/21)

The tiny West Virginia town of Green Bank — a cell-phone dead zone by design — has become a refuge for people who feel their lives have been ruined by sensitivity to the electromagnetic waves of the modern world. (Andrews, 10/18)

Alison Stewart’s health crisis began on Feb. 22, a day jump-started by a 6 a.m. workout with her personal trainer. She was pushing herself to get back in shape after having donated a kidney to her sister six months earlier. The workout was routine, though she barely spoke, which was unlike her. As the morning progressed, she began to feel confusion; she couldn’t engage in a lucid conversation or write a coherent text message. She headed into SoHo, to WNYC Studios, where she hosts the daily interview show “All of It,” and settled into her office to practice reading an introduction to a segment, but her phrasing hit roadblocks instead of flowing smoothly. Baffled, she sought out Kate Hinds, the show’s director. (Besonen, 10/24)

A new law in Louisiana, passed under the guise of patient safety, has reclassified abortion pills as “dangerous controlled substances.” The law won’t reduce abortions, but it will make serious pregnancy complications more perilous. It is being heralded by supporters as a model for other states. (Greer Donley and Kimi Chernoby, 10/24)

It’s kinda wild that there’s a critical IV shortage in the US right now and there’s nary a peep about it. On the one hand, if you’re a perfectly healthy person who doesn’t work in the medical field, there’s no reason you’d know that nurses are rationing saline bags and telling their 60/40 blood pressure patients to drink Pedialyte instead. On the other hand, IVs are basic equipment for a hospital! (Jessica Karl, 10/24)

As Steward Health Care Systems LLC’s network of hospitals was struggling, it stopped paying some of its vendors. One of those vendors was a supplier of bereavement boxes, the tiny cases used to transport the remains of newborns who don’t survive. The vendor eventually stopped supplying the cases, which meant that grieving parents had to receive their children’s remains in cardboard shipping boxes. (Sarah Green Carmichael, 10/24)

Drug overdose deaths from synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl — are starting to decline in the United States, offering hope that countermeasures are working. But it is too soon to pinpoint why. The response, then, is to keep doing everything. (10/23)

You don’t have to be a public health professional to know that the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country. It’s chilling, sobering, and unacceptable. The situation is particularly dire for Black women, who are four times more likely to die than white women. Conditions are worse in Southern states. In particular, Louisiana ranks 47 out of 48 states for maternal mortality. (Nupur Jain, Nancy Hinojos and Shawn Izadi, 10/25)