Tag Archives: Public Health

12 superbugs that pose the greatest danger to human health

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/population-health/who-releases-list-12-priority-pathogens-to-encourage-drug-development?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=959610&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRjeU1tTTFPVEUyTjJaaCIsInQiOiJBNGU4aWlDQkpcL3l6eURqQUMyR2w3aVFtNStxVzBraUpQcTVOamQ4SVNEVUNDeXFQQ1RDWG5qdmptMjI4VWpiVTdHUDltN0ZTMG5ObWlHOWl0cXRmVEpjQ0h2bFU1NXJKM2YzaHBrcnc2VlVJVkoyTHJrQjBndGI5b3BGWmdJV1oifQ%3D%3D

Bacteria

The World Health Organization has released a list of 12 antibiotic-resistant superbugs that pose the greatest danger to human health.

The purpose of the list of “priority pathogens,” according to WHO, is to promote continued research and development of drugs that can be used to treat patients with these resistant infections.

The agency has divided the list according to the urgent need for new antibiotics. The bacteria considered the most critical pose a particular threat to hospitalized patients who may require blood catheters or ventilators. These bacteria, which can cause severe and deadly infections, such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia, are also resistant to drugs designed as a last line of defense for patients.

“This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent public health needs,” Marie-Paule Kieny, Ph.D., assistant director-general for health systems and innovation at the WHO, said in an announcement. “Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.”

Three bacteria resistant to carbapenem, an antibiotic that often treats bacteria that are resistant to other drugs, are listed as critical. Six bacteria are ranked as high-priority and the final three are listed as medium-priority. Bacteria listed as high- or medium-priority are increasingly becoming resistant to different antibiotics and are producing hard-to-treat strains of common conditions, such as gonorrhea and salmonella.

One of the three critical bacteria, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, resulted in the death of a Nevada woman last year, and estimates suggest the infection may be more widespread than previously thought.

Global health experts have increasingly warned that superbugs are poised to be a significant threat to patient health. In the next decades, drug-resistant infections could kill more people than cancer. Providers can do their part by focusing on antibiotic stewardship. National healthcare organizations, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, have offered guidelines.

Here is the complete list compiled by WHO:

Caring for High-Need, High-Cost Patients — An Urgent Priority

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http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1608511?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=NEJM_TrendMD

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Improving the performance of America’s health system will require improving care for the patients who use it most: people with multiple chronic conditions that are often complicated by patients’ limited ability to care for themselves independently and by their complex social needs. Focusing on this population makes sense for humanitarian, demographic, and financial reasons.

From a humanitarian standpoint, high-need, high-cost (HNHC) patients deserve heightened attention both because they have major health care problems and because they are more likely than other patients to be affected by preventable health care quality and safety problems, given their frequent contact with the system. Demographically, the aging of our population ensures that HNHC patients, many of whom are older adults, will account for an increasing proportion of users of our health care system. And financially, the care of HNHC patients is costly. One frequently cited statistic is that they compose the 5% of our population that accounts for 50% of the country’s annual health care spending.

At least three steps are essential to meeting the needs of these patients: developing a deep understanding of this diverse population; identifying evidence-based programs that offer them higher-quality, integrated care at lower cost; and accelerating the adoption of these programs on a national level. Although we are making progress in each of these areas, much work remains.

 

The top 5 conditions affecting communities, according to new BCBSA tool

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http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/blue-cross-blue-shield-health-index/431194/

Mapping technologies and population health make a beautiful pairing. Using geographical data can assist care delivery strategies as tech tools such as GIS can track and trend health data for a community overtime.

“As the move to accountable care and value-based payments takes hold, providers and health plans are increasingly interested in applying GIS to assess risk based on geography and the populations that live there, reveal where the greatest need is, and prioritize areas for interventions,” Danny Patel, account executive for health and human services at GIS software maker Esri, told Healthcare Dive in May.

While providers can look to reduce unnecessary readmissions using such efforts, plans like Blue Cross Blue Shield Association – which recently released its new BCBS Health Index – can use local health data to understand the health of a county/population. The tool, using blinded claims data from more than 40 million commercially-insured BCBS members, identifies the health conditions with the greatest impact on the commercially insured. The tool includes information on over 200 conditions.

“What the health index gives us is the ability to work with local stakeholders…to talk about where we need to focus broader health resources,” Maureen Sullivan, chief strategy and innovation officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, told Healthcare Dive. She said the tool isn’t a “healthiest place to live” navigator but rather a starting point to understand conditions affecting communities and develop peer networks.

California Braces For Medi-Cal’s Future Under Trump And The GOP

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California Braces For Medi-Cal’s Future Under Trump And The GOP

Dollar CutDollar Cut

California grabbed the first opportunity to expand Medicaid and ran with it, helping cut the number of uninsured people in half in a few short years.

Thanks in part to billions of dollars in federal funding, a third of California’s residents — including half its children — are insured by Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid.

Now, with the election of Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, the state that bet so heavily on the Medicaid expansion is bracing to see how much of its work will be undone. While no one knows yet exactly what will happen, many policymakers and advocates fear the federal government will end or severely limit funding for the expansion.

“There are no easy cuts in Medi-Cal,” said Stan Rosenstein, a former Medi-Cal administrator. Reduced federal funding “could have a major impact on the uninsurance rate, on the viability of our hospitals, and it could have a very negative impact on the economy.”

Medi-Cal cuts could restrict who is eligible for coverage, slash health care benefits, limit access to doctors and reduce payment rates to medical providers — already among the lowest in the nation, health policy experts and advocates said. Medi-Cal covers a host of services for low-income residents, including maternity care, prescription drugs, long-term care services, mental health treatment and hospital stays.

Laurel Lucia, a health care program manager at the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, said a well-funded Medicaid program benefits everyone, not just those currently on the program.

“A lot of people are just a layoff away from needing Medicaid,” she said. “The Republican plans for Medicaid threaten to undermine that safety net.”

Hillary Clinton’s healthcare proposals a mixed bag for nonprofits, Trump plan lacks detail, Fitch says

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http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/hillary-clintons-healthcare-proposals-mixed-bag-nonprofits-trump-plan-lacks-detail-fitch-says

Clinton’s plan to expand Medicaid in the 19 states that declined to do so would benefit nonprofit hospitals in those states, Fitch says.

Gun violence survivors and witnesses could face lifetime of trauma and bad health

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20161105/MAGAZINE/311059989

Gun violence survivors

Chicago has been pummeled with near constant gun violence this year. An estimated 3,600 shootings have taken place, on average—that’s about 10 shootings a day.

During the recent Halloween weekend alone, 17 people died and 41 were wounded.

And while politicians and policy makers struggle to find ways to create policies to address America’s violence, another related crisis is slowing growing.

Most of the shootings are concentrated in impoverished communities. The virtual war zones are home to people who suffer from poor health and lower rates of insurance coverage, leaving them at a disadvantage when they are injured, either physically or tangentially, by gun violence. And oftentimes, the most vulnerable victims are young people who have a lifetime ahead.

f you grow up in a world where you’re not feeling safe, then you feel as though you’re under attack whether or not you actually are,” said Dr. David Soglin, chief medical officer at La Rabida Children’s Hospital, an acute-care pediatric center on Chicago’s South Side that specializes in treating children who have been victims of abuse and trauma. “For some kids in our communities, they really are under attack.”

The trauma surrounding exposure to gun violence is not disputed, especially among children. In 1995, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported that children who had four or more adverse childhood experiences, such as experiencing or witnessing a shooting, were more likely to smoke, drink, abuse drugs and engage in unsafe sex. Those behaviors often lead to chronic conditions such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases.

The growing number of people who survive living in the country’s most violent neighborhoods is causing public health officials to respond by creating comprehensive violence prevention efforts.

Uninsured In Coal Country: Desperate Americans Still Turn To Volunteer Clinics

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http://khn.org/news/uninsured-in-coal-country-desperate-americans-still-turn-to-volunteer-clinics/

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Six years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and despite 20 million more Americans gaining health insurance, considerable gaps in health care remain.

The decision by states like Virginia not to expand Medicaid and the lack of dental and vision coverage even for those with insurance have meant that the demand for RAM’s free mobile clinics has stayed strong.

Deadly Superbug Linked To Four Deaths In The U.S.

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Deadly Superbug Linked To Four Deaths In The U.S.

Candida auris (C. auris) is a serious and sometimes fatal fungal infection that is emerging globally. (Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

A deadly new drug-resistant fungus has been linked to the deaths of four hospital patients in the U.S., according to a report released Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The fungus, called Candida auris, preys on the sickest patients and can spread in hospitals. Although doctors have been concerned about the spread of antibiotic-resistant bugs for many years, this fungus is relatively new on the world scene. It was first identified in Japan in 2009 and has since spread around the globe, emerging in South America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, according to the CDC.

The CDC first identified the fungus as a potential threat in 2013, based on a possible case in the U.S., and has been on the lookout for the fungus since June. In its new report, the CDC said the fungus has been detected in a total of 13 patients since May 2013; the agency provided details on the first seven cases, which were reported in New York, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey.

All of the patients had serious underlying medical conditions, including cancer, and had been hospitalized an average of 18 days when they tested positive for the fungus. Two patients had been treated in the same health care facility and had nearly identical fungal strains. Doctors can’t say for sure if the patients died from the fungus or their underlying health problems.

But health officials say the nation’s hospitals need to be on alert.

“We need to act now to better understand, contain and stop the spread of this drug-resistant fungus,” said Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. “This is an emerging threat, and we need to protect vulnerable patients and others.”

 

STDs Hit Historic High: CDC

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http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/STDs/60900?isalert=1&uun=g885344d5310R7095614u&xid=NL_breakingnews_2016-10-19

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The number of cases of a sexually transmitted disease reported in the U.S. reached an all-time high last year, the CDC is reporting.

The combined total of reported chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis cases was more than 1.8 million in 2015, the agency said in its annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report.

Those numbers are probably an underestimate, the agency said in a release, since most STD cases are undiagnosed and untreated. But the treated cases have reached an all-time — and expensive — high: the agency said it estimates the annual cost of therapy at nearly $16 billion.

The reported incidence of all three conditions rose from 2014 — by 5.9% for chlamydia, 12.8% for gonorrhea, and a whopping 19% for primary and secondary syphilis.

Big Soda sponsored 96 health groups — a big conflict of interest, study says

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/10/big-soda-sponsored-96-health-groups-a-big-conflict-of-interest-study-says/

Nearly 100 national health and medical groups — including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — enjoy sponsorships by Coca-Cola Co. or PepsiCo, according to a new study by two Boston University researchers.

The report lands as the sugar industry’s supersized role in shaping — and spinning — health policy has come under increasing scrutiny. It also comes as the negative health effects of sugar and sugary drinks, including a link to rising obesity rates, are better understood.

“Now, most organizations refuse tobacco money,” write the study authors, Daniel Aaron and Michael Siegel. “Perhaps soda companies should be treated similarly.”

The authors identified 96 sponsorships, from 2011 to 2015, by Coca-Cola or PepsiCo to 96 “health organizations,” which they defined as any group or program “involved in the public’s health.” During that period, the researchers identified 29 proposed public health bills or regulations that one or both of the two companies lobbied against. All aimed to reduce soda consumption.

The American Beverage Association, which represents both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, responded to the study with a statement saying: “America’s beverage companies are engaged in public health issues because we, too, want a strong, healthy America. We have a long tradition of supporting community organizations across the country. As this report points out, some of these organizations focus on strengthening public health, which we are proud to support.”

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo did not respond to a request for comment about the study.