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Infant death rates were higher than expected for several months after the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion, with most of the increase coming from infants with birth defects, researchers reported on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. (Bettelheim, 10/22)

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a growing number of people in the United States are buying abortion pills and keeping them on hand just in case they need them in the future. This process, referred to as advance provision of medication abortion, is part of an assortment of strategies providers are using to expand access to medication abortion pills. It’s also part of a legal gray area that abortion rights supporters are considering as an opportunity to expand abortion access. (Johnson, 10/21)

For all the upheaval that followed the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it did not dramatically change the most basic fact about abortions in America: the number. Since 2022, abortions in the United States have held steady—even increased slightly, based on the best of limited data. One major reason? The rise of abortion pills, which are now used in the majority of abortions in America. Every month, thousands of women in states where abortion is banned have been able to discreetly order the pills by mail and take them at home. Even with abortion bans in place, the availability of these pills makes these rules less absolute than the anti-abortion movement would like. (Zhang, 10/18)

After a month of updating Floridians on hurricanes, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is now focusing his official office on fighting an abortion rights amendment, holding a campaign-like rally at state expense two weeks before the election. DeSantis’ event Monday, which was capped with a prayer from the archbishop of Miami and the lieutenant governor asking people to not vote like atheists, came after the Department of Health’s top lawyer resigned over a letter he said the governor’s office forced him to send to television stations in an effort to stop a pro-Amendment 4 ad. (Farrington, 10/21)

An Iowa Supreme Court justice is up for reelection less than six months after voting to uphold the state's controversial six-week abortion ban. First appointed to the court in 2022, David May is now standing for his first retention election. May is the fifth justice appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds since 2018, a period of turnover that has transformed the makeup and perspective of the seven-member court. Before joining the court, May served on the Iowa Court of Appeals. (Morris, 10/21)

The patient, 36 weeks pregnant, was having mild but frequent contractions. She had come to the emergency room in this small lakeside town because she was new to the area and had no doctor. In most cases, physician Caitlin Gustafson would have begun a pelvic exam to determine whether labor had started. This time, she called the hospital’s lawyers. Mom-to-be Aleah was only 13 years old. And under a new Idaho law requiring parental consent for nearly all minors’ health care, Gustafson could be sued for treating her because the girl had been brought in by her great-aunt. (Brulliard, 10/21)

Birth control remains legal everywhere, but in some states its become harder to access due to abortion misconceptions. (Weise, 10/22)

Francisca Shaw said she knew something was deeply wrong as she was rushed into an emergency cesarean for the delivery of her third child, a daughter, at Seattle's University of Washington Medical Center in 2015. "I remember I told my doctor when I was getting cut: 'I can't breathe," Shaw recalled saying. "She said: 'Oh yeah, you can.'" Shaw's uterus ruptured during the c-section, causing heavy bleeding. She required a hysterectomy and went into cardiac arrest, according to medical records reviewed by Reuters. She was hospitalized for three weeks after the birth, the records show. (Flowers and Raychaudhuri, 10/19)

There’s no question that getting regular mammograms once you reach 45 — or 40, based on your personal risk — is essential. Mammograms often detect breast cancer early, when it’s easier to treat. In fact, mammograms can often find changes within the breast long before symptoms arise. (Pejavar, 10/20)

The Washington State Department of Health (WSDH) yesterday reported its first suspected avian flu infections in people, which involve four agricultural workers who tested positive after working with infected poultry at an egg-laying farm in Franklin County. Elsewhere, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on October18 reported 2 more confirmed H5 infections in people who were exposed to sick dairy cattle, raising the state's total to 13. (Schnirring, 10/21)

Wastewater surveillance with an H5N1 avian flu probe retrospectively deployed to investigate unseasonably high influenza A in Texas in early 2024 was able to detect the virus 2 weeks before cases were reported and a month before the virus was confirmed, which may have been able to speed the public health response, according to study results presented at IDWeek. Researchers on the WastewaterSCAN team at Stanford University retrospectively developed and deployed a probe for a biomarker of avian influenza to plants across the United States. WastewaterSCAN monitors the levels of 11 viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in 190 municipal wastewater systems three times a week to inform local, regional, and national public health responses. (Van Beusekom, 10/21)

There’s a sickness hovering over Tulare County‘s dairy industry. On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled up along the roadside. Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby — eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat. Since the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California in early August, 124 dairy herds and 13 people — all dairy workers — have been infected. (Rust, 10/20)

Norovirus can be accurately tracked in wastewater samples, which can help identify outbreaks and trends, according to a new study based on California wastewater surveillance published in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Norovirus is one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis in the United States, but surveillance is challenging because many cases are unreported, the authors said. As wastewater surveillance has proved useful and accurate for viral detections, including COVID-19, the researchers assessed its usefulness for norovirus. (Soucheray, 10/21)

Coronavirus levels in wastewater remain "high" in certain states, despite low levels of the virus nationwide. Newsweek has revealed this variability in a map based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of October 12, the overall viral activity level in wastewater across the country has been classified as "low" by the CDC, although "high" levels still persist in eight states. "Moderate" levels have been reported in 13 states, and "low" levels are now detected in 18 states, with 10 reporting "minimal" detection levels, the lowest classification in the CDC's system. (10/21)

It’s been clear since the early days of the pandemic: People with mental illness are more likely to have severe outcomes from Covid. Compared to the general population, they’re at higher risk of being hospitalized, developing long Covid or dying from an infection. That fact puts mental illness on the same list as better-known Covid risk factors like cardiovascular issues, chronic kidney disease and asthma. (Blum, 10/21)

Cases of COVID-19 have been dropping and flu cases have yet to appear, making it the ideal time to get vaccines against these and other respiratory viruses before the cases are expected to increase, doctors say. (Munz, 10/18)

Prospects for a potential merger between health insurers Cigna Group and Humana Inc. hinge on the upcoming US presidential election, analysts said. While the Biden administration has moved to block some large health-care deals, talks would be “only tangibly moving forward if Trump wins” in November, Stephens analyst Scott Fidel wrote in a research note. (Tozzi, 10/21)

Vice President Kamala Harris has signaled that, if elected president, she’ll work to increase mental health care access — but she acknowledges that addressing what has become an increasingly complex issue could be a heavy lift. The issue, she said in a podcast last month, “is probably one of the biggest public policy failures in our country.” (Heller, 10/21)

A new proposal for “at home Medicare” by the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, could help ease the burden of the cost of elder care for many families, experts say. However, Republicans have already criticized the proposal as too expensive, a reminder of the political difficulties of enacting healthcare expansions in the US. (Glenza, 10/21)

Some 500 women health care leaders are rallying support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the final weeks before the election. “We have seen what happened in the first administration under Trump, so we have very clear evidence of — the direction away from science, away from access to care — and we’re deeply concerned,” said Missy Krasner, who led health care projects at Google and Amazon and served as a special adviser to the national coordinator for health information technology in the George W. Bush administration. (Ollstein and Messerly, 10/21)

Former president Donald J. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he had nothing to do with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy initiative to reshape the federal government. Mr. Trump has said that he has not read its proposals and does not know who is behind it. But Project 2025 has numerous ties to Mr. Trump and his campaign, a New York Times analysis has found. The people behind Project 2025 are no strangers to the former president. The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin D. Roberts, and a co-founder, Edwin J. Feulner, have each personally met with Mr. Trump. And the analysis of the Project 2025 playbook and its 307 authors and contributors revealed that well over half of them had been in Mr. Trump’s administration or on his campaign or transition teams. (Shao and Wu, 10/22)

Doctors are fed up with the system the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses to promote quality and set reimbursement rates. But they fear the agency's new vision even more. Physician pay is once again front and center for policymakers. CMS is due to issue the final rule for Medicare payments in 2025 this month. When Congress returns after Election Day, lawmakers will strive to mitigate whatever cut the agency implements, as they did for 2024. Under the proposed rule CMS published in July, Medicare physician reimbursements would be 2.9% lower next year. (Early, 10/21)

President Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will travel to New Hampshire on Tuesday to speak on health care savings achieved through the Biden administration’s policies such as the estimated savings that resulted from the Medicare price caps enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act. According to a senior administration official, Biden and Sanders will go to Concord, N.H. to discuss the details of a new HHS report that shows almost 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries saved roughly $1 billion thanks to the price caps on prescription drugs during the first half of 2024. (Choi, 10/22)

Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, said he isn't buying insurers' complaints about higher costs as they have a responsibility to fairly compensate providers. Hospitals are fighting battles on multiple fronts — haggling over payer contracts, negotiating with unions about higher wage expectations and pushing back on what they view as too much regulatory oversight. The presidential election is also mere weeks away, and the results could affect policies governing hospitals' day-to-day operations. (Hudson, 10/21)

To help address the shortage of nurses, Akron Children’s Hospital and the University of Akron are partnering to offer a free Associate of Applied Science in Nursing degree program through Akron Children’s Career Launch Program. Through the program, 30 students will receive 100% prepaid tuition, along with funds to cover uniforms, books and supplies, according to the university. In exchange, accepted students will agree to work at Akron Children’s Hospital for 2-3 years. (Becka, 10/21)

A coalition of 12 Philadelphia-area health systems announced Monday that its members have abandoned the use of race adjustments in four clinical tools commonly used to guide care, a move that health leaders say will improve treatment and prevent delays in diagnosis for Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients. (McFarling and Palmer, 10/21)

Technology giant Amazon is partnering with a high-profile provider to expand its primary care offerings. Amazon One Medical will collaborate with Cleveland Clinic to open a primary care office in 2025, with plans for additional locations over the next few years, the organizations said Monday. (Turner, 10/21)

Hims & Hers Health named Dr. Jessica Shepherd as the first chief medical officer of its Hers brand. Shepherd, an obstetrician and gynecologist, will oversee the telehealth company's clinical efforts in women's sexual health, dermatology, weight loss and mental health. She will focus specifically on Hers, while Hims & Hers Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Carroll continues in his role for the company as a whole, a spokesperson said. (DeSilva, 10/21)

Experts this week identified new risks and issued updated recommendations for preventing strokes, a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S. It's the first time in a decade that health experts at the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have issued significant updates to their guidelines. Among the findings, the report published Monday highlights the impact of Ozempic, other GLP-1 drugs and hormones used in gender-affirming care and lays out sex- and gender-specific risks of stroke. (Rodriguez, 10/21)

Novo Nordisk said on Monday an oral version of its drug semaglutide, helped significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients in a late-stage study. The drug, Rybelsus, helped reduce the risk of these events, including cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack and stroke, by 14% compared to placebo, meeting the main goal of the trial. (10/21)

Eli Lilly said on Monday it sued three medical spas and online vendors for selling products claiming to contain tirzepatide, the main ingredient in its popular weight-loss medicine Zepbound, including in the form of dissolvable tablets. The new lawsuits, which name Pivotal Peptides, MangoRx and Genesis Lifestyle Medicine of Nevada, are the first related to copycat tirzepatide filed since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took the drug off its list of medicines in short supply earlier this month. (Wingrove, 10/21)

Senators led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Monday demanded answers from Pfizer and Eli Lilly about their relationship with the telehealth prescribers they point patients to from their websites, seeking to determine whether the pharma giants are violating the federal anti-kickback statute. (Palmer, 10/22)

Does it make sense for a chain of drug stores to own a major health insurance company? That has been the existential question for CVS Health for six years, since its $70 billion acquisition of the massive insurer Aetna. The biggest pharmacy chain in the U.S. had already been moving beyond retail since its 2007 deal for pharmacy benefit manager Caremark. (Herper, 10/21)

As CVS Health's CEO David Joyner steps into the top job after Karen Lynch's quick departure on Friday, Wall Street analysts and some investors are questioning whether he has the right experience to turn around the Aetna health insurance business as it struggles with high medical costs. (Niasse, 10/21)

Kendric Cromer, 12, left Children’s National Hospital in a wheelchair on Wednesday, wearing a T-shirt and cap printed with designs from the anime series “Naruto” and a black face mask. Staff lined the hallway, cheering and waving noisemakers. He had just become the first patient to receive a gene therapy for sickle cell since it was approved — a therapy that is expected to free him from the ravages of the disease. ... About 100,000 people in the United States have sickle cell disease. For the 20,000 or so with the most severe disease, gene therapy may be their only hope of living a normal life. (Kolata, 10/21)

Bruce Nathan Ames, a biochemist who discovered a revolutionary method of detecting potential carcinogens, paving the way for the banning of many commonly used chemicals, died on Oct. 5 in Berkeley, Calif. He was 95. His wife, Giovanna Ferro-Luzzi Ames, said his death, in a hospital, was from complications after a fall. The so-called Ames Test, developed in the 1970s, is still used by drug manufacturers and pesticide companies to check the safety of their products. (Rosenbluth, 10/21)

Andrew V. Schally, an endocrinologist who was awarded a Nobel for discovering the hormones used by the brain to control growth, reproduction and other bodily functions, sharing the prize with his bitter rival, the neuroscientist Roger Guillemin, died on Thursday at his home in Miami Beach. He was 97. His son, Gordon, confirmed the death. (Gellene, 10/21)

Florida has seen a surge of flesh-eating bacteria cases in recent weeks after parts of the state were inundated with heavy rain and flooding due to back-to-back hurricanes, according to state health department data. There have been 76 cases of Vibrio vulnificus in 2024, according to the latest data from the Florida Department of Health, surpassing the 74 cases in 2022 when Hurricane Ian and other devastating storms hit the state. Of this year's cases, the data also shows that there have been 13 deaths statewide linked to Vibrio vulnificus infections. (Freeman, Bridges and Nguyen, 10/22)

Hurricanes Milton and Helene have caused a lot of disruptions in Florida. Thousands of residents continue to struggle with housing, employment and medical needs, which is why a coalition of health and labor advocates want state leaders to make it easier to access Medicaid coverage. (Colombini, 10/21)

Aleta Moody, 71, lives in the small town of Globe in Caldwell County, about 17 miles southeast of Grandfather Mountain. She is blind and lives alone, and she has an aide who helps her with grocery shopping and appointments. After the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, devastating many tiny communities in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Moody was forced to evacuate. (Vitaglione, 10/22)

Baxter International Inc. will begin accepting more new home dialysis patients after hurricane damage to a plant forced it to limit enrollment to children and emergency cases. The company, a major provider of fluids used for home dialysis, is aiming to “restore the number of new patient starts to pre-Hurricane Helene levels by the end of the year,” according to a statement Monday. (Suvarna, 10/21)

Amass food poisoning outbreak at a seafood distributor left 46 sufferers hospitalized after they all ate the same dish, according to reports. The incident is said to have struck down dozens of people at the North Atlantic Fish Company (NAFCO) Wholesale Seafood Distributors in Jessup, Maryland, on Monday. Paramedics from the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services raced to the scene after scores of people fell ill simultaneously at the industrial site at around 3:45 p.m., according to local news channel Fox 5. (10/22)

New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan stepped down Friday after two and a half years leading one of the world’s largest public health agencies. ... Vasan has repeatedly dodged questions about the impact of the multiple investigations swirling around Mayor Eric Adams on his decision to step down. But he told POLITICO in an interview Friday that he is “not blind to the environment” and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been doing “everything we can” to prevent that environment from damaging morale. (Kaufman, 10/21)

Women seeking treatment for pain can wait 30 minutes longer in emergency departments than men, according to a recent study published in PNAS. The study was conducted by researchers in the United States and Israel and assessed emergency department datasets from both countries. According to the study, which analyzed nearly 22,000 emergency department discharge notes of patients with a pain complaint, there are major disparities between the treatment of male and female patients. (Docter-Loeb, 10/21)

Women visit community health centers at almost double the rate of men, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compiled from 2022. The report adds to the evidence that women are likelier to be proactive about their health — and their family's health — than men. (Goldman, 10/22)

Transgender and nonbinary youths who received gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers and hormones, were largely satisfied with the treatments they received, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The data analyzed survey responses from more than 200 people who are part of the TransYouth Project, one of the largest and longest community-based studies on the experiences of transgender youths. The majority of respondents expressed satisfaction with the gender-affirming care they received, with only 4 percent — nine respondents — expressing some form of regret. (Ortega, 10/21)

If you were hoping to see where ultra-processed foods might fit in the next Dietary Guidelines for Americans, hold that thought. Scientific experts tasked with advising federal officials drafting the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans said the data were far too limited to draw conclusions. Meeting Monday, the first of two days of presentations, they discussed research findings to inform a report to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. The results will be published in December. (Cooney, 10/21)

Every three weeks, Dr. Moksha Patel settles into a comfortable recliner at a Colorado hospital clinic, sprays a mind-altering medicine up his nose and loses control of his senses for a little while. It is a legal medical treatment. The 34-year-old doctor from Denver is taking Spravato, a medicine derived from club-drug ketamine that is approved for treating his depression. (Loftus, 10/21)

A powder called “pink cocaine,” made up of a revolving group of drugs, has become a dangerous and increasingly popular part of the club scene in U.S. cities, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and epidemiologists who study recreational drug use. Most samples of the concoction contain at least one stimulant drug and one depressant, experts said. (Schmall, 10/21)

Green onions are being recalled after a product sample was found to be contaminated with salmonella, bacteria that can cause serious or fatal infection among some people. Church Brothers are voluntarily recalling 1,271 cases of green onions sold under the brands Church Brothers, Imperial Fresh and Trader Joe's over fears they may be contaminated with salmonella. The bacteria were discovered in a product sample by the Canadia Food Inspection Agency, and then reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who announced the recall on Friday, October 18. (10/21)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Mothering Over Meds: Docs Say Common Treatment For Opioid-Exposed Babies Isn't Necessary

On learning last year she was pregnant with her second child, Cailyn Morreale was overcome with fear and trepidation. ... In that moment, her joy about being pregnant was eclipsed by fear she would have to stop taking buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid withdrawal that had helped counter her addiction. Morreale’s fear was compounded by the rigidity of the most common approach to treating babies born after being exposed in the womb to opioids or some medications used to treat opioid addiction. (Sisk, 10/22)

We trust doctors to be up to date with the latest developments in medical science. So it’s concerning that our future medical professionals aren’t being trained sufficiently or consistently on a very real threat to public health: climate change. (Lara Williams, 10/22)

Six years ago, the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, in Manhattan, announced that it would become tuition-free for all students. The change was made possible in part thanks to a $100 million donation from Kenneth Langone, a Home Depot co-founder, and his wife, Elaine. (Rose Horowitch, 10/21)

Abortion restrictions spreading across the county have upended people’s ability to make decisions about their lives, families, and futures. While the overall number of abortions in the U.S. has gone up since the Dobbs decision, in large part due to the growth of telehealth abortion, those numbers don’t tell the stories of people who have to move heaven and earth to get this basic, essential health care. (Christine Dehlendorf and Jody Steinauer, 10/22)

In Florida one day this spring, Megan Palmese and her husband put their two small children in the car and raced toward New York, hoping to arrive before her uterus ruptured and she bled to death. (Mara Gay, 10/21)

In recent years, smartwatches and smart rings have grown increasingly popular, adorning the wrists and fingers of consumers who use them to monitor their exercise, sleep and heart activity. Now, medical device companies, including north suburban-based Abbott Laboratories, are hoping health enthusiasts will embrace a new type of wellness accessory: wearable sensors to track glucose levels. (Lisa Schencker, 10/22)