Since Congress left for recess seven weeks ago without approving funding to address the Zika virus, the Obama administration has declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico and the Florida Health Department has identified two areas in Miami-Dade County with local transmission of Zika.
Two decades ago, President Bill Clinton signed the “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act” (PRWORA) and heralded the end of “welfare as we know it.” The law lived up to that promise, but the outcomes for families who depend on it have been problematic.
Recent pieces address Congress’s failure to address Zika (by a pregnant Miami reporter), political parties’ different approaches to public health, pregnancy-related deaths in Texas, and more.
A new study in MMWR reports that 25.7% of US adults have been diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions. Three of the states with the highest prevalence of multiple chronic conditions haven’t accepted the Medicaid expansion, and one that expanded Medicaid may drop it.
Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
The more researchers look for colistin-resistant bacteria, the more they find
A gene that makes bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic colistin, mcr-1, has been found in 32 countries, and has been in the US since at least May 2015. Researchers in Belgium and Italy have additional alarming discoveries on related genes.
Public Health Practice
Worth reading: Racism, fighting epidemics, and environmental justice in Cleveland
Recent pieces address racism, stress, and mortality; an interview with CDC Director Tom Frieden on Zika; why mocking environmental justice in Cleveland is especially inappropriate; and more.
In a Special Communication published in JAMA, President Obama assesses the Affordable Care Act’s progress and recommends additional steps for elected officials to take to improve US healthcare.
When a group of researchers supported by the HHS Office on Women’s Health set about designing a weight-loss intervention for lesbian and bisexual LB women, they ran into a challenge: Many lesbian and bisexual women are averse to the idea of weight loss.
The 5-3 Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt last week was a welcome step for women’s health, but resulted in the removal of only some of the barriers many US women still face in accessing abortion services.
Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
Study finds success in scaling up hospitals’ infection prevention efforts
Researchers report encouraging initial results from a program designed to reduce cathether-associated urinary tract infections at hospitals nationwide.