Tuesday Tidbits

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, Federal employment benefits, Medical / Rx research, OPM, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • KFF Health News reports,
    • “U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence a public health crisis, as gun deaths and injuries punctuate daily life in America.
    • “On nearly every day of 2024 so far, a burst of gunfire has hit at least four people somewhere in the country. Some days, communities have endured four or five such shootings.
    • “The nation’s top doctor called on policymakers to consider gun safety measures such as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks for all firearm purchases. His advisory also urges a “significant increase” in funding for research on gun injuries and deaths, as well as greater access to mental health care and trauma-informed resources for people who have experienced firearm violence.”
  • NPR discusses what the declaration will do.
  • The U.S. Public Health Service Task Force issued a draft recommendation today which “concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for food insecurity on health outcomes in the primary care setting.” The public comment period ends on July 22, 2024.
  • Reg Jones, writing in FedWeek, explains “Earning, Accumulating and Using Sick Leave in the Federal Government.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned clinicians, health authorities and the public Tuesday about an increased risk for dengue virus infections in the United States because of the record-breaking global incidence of the mosquito-borne viral disease.
    • “In the first six months of 2024, countries in the Americas have reported more than 9.7 million dengue cases, twice as many as in all of 2023, exceeding the highest number ever recorded in a single year, the CDC said in a health advisory. Puerto Rico declared a public health emergency because of the unusually high number of cases reported in the winter and spring, the dry season, when dengue cases are typically low.
    • “Since January, 745 dengue cases have been identified among U.S. travelers who became infected abroad, the agency said. Dengue cases typically increase during the warmest months that are yet to come. Last year, there were 1,829 travel-associated cases in the U.S. * * *
    • “With increased global and domestic incidence of dengue, the CDC is urging health-care providers to be on the lookout for dengue among people with fever who have been in areas with dengue transmission within 14 days of the start of illness. Infants, pregnant people, adults over 65 years old and people with certain medical conditions are at increased risk for severe dengue.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review lets us know,
    • “Teva Pharmaceuticals is launching the first authorized generic of Victoza, the first generic GLP-1 product available in the United States.
    • “By launching an authorized generic for Victoza (liraglutide injection 1.8mg), we are providing patients with type 2 diabetes another option for this important treatment,” Ernie Richardsen, SVP, Head of U.S. Commercial Generics at Teva, said in a June 24 news release.”
  • Highlighting the importance of a generic GLP-1 product is this Wall Street Journal article reporting that
    • “Blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy has been approved in China, opening the door for maker Novo Nordisk to begin selling it in the world’s second-largest economy, where the appetite for similar treatments is surging. * * *
    • “Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic drug—which contains the same semaglutide active ingredient as Wegovy—was approved to treat diabetes in China in 2021. Sales of the drug in the country more than doubled on year in 2023, reaching 4.82 billion Danish kroner ($693.6 million).
    • “Demand for weight-loss drugs is surging in China, where the proportion of overweight and obese adults reached almost 51% in 2022, creating a frenzy among local manufacturers to develop their own versions of the popular treatments, especially as Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide patent expires there in 2026, which will pave the way for generic versions.”
  • MedPage Today notes,
    • “Disrupted circadian rhythms in cognitively normal adults were tied to higher subsequent amyloid-beta levels, prospective data showed.
    • “Higher daily variability at baseline — an indicator of fragmented 24-hour activity rhythms — was associated with higher PET amyloid burden 8 years later (β=0.15, P=0.02) after adjusting for age, sex, APOE4 status, and other factors, according to Julia Neitzel, PhD, of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and co-authors. * * *
    • “Considerable interest surrounds the role of sleep dysfunction in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” observed Matthew Pase, PhD, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, who wasn’t involved with the study.
    • “If poor sleep contributes to dementia, improving sleep symptomatology could be one strategy to lower dementia risk,” he told MedPage Today.
  • NPR discusses why “Your gut microbes may influence how you handle stress.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Hospital Review reports,
    • “The University of Alabama System’s board of trustees unanimously approved an agreement to acquire Ascension St. Vincent’s Health System.
    • “Birmingham-based UAB will assume ownership of all Ascension St. Vincent’s care sites under the agreement, announced June 25. The transaction still needs approval from federal regulators and the Catholic Church. UAB and Ascension expect the $450 million deal to close in the fall of 2024, according to the Shelby County Reporter.
  • and
    • identifies the twenty most socially responsible hospitals in the U.S., per Lown Institute. Duke Regional Hospital, in Durham, NC, leads the pack.
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “Physicians don’t mind patients choosing at-home testing options over coming in for an in-person clinic visit—in fact, they overwhelmingly support it, according to the results of a new survey.
    • “Ixlayer’s report this week is based on a poll of more than 140 U.S. physicians representing a variety of specialties. All together, nearly 90% agreed that at-home tests are more convenient to many patients and can improve access to diagnostic care, and almost as many said they believe offering at-home testing options can help speed up diagnoses and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
    • “There is a large subset of my patients where making routine office visits is difficult, either complicated by age, travel time, costs, or time constraints. So I see having a convenient, at-home solution as a plus for improving medical care,” one of the survey’s respondents said.
    • “The overwhelming majority of the doctors surveyed, 91% of the group, said they were open to providing at-home testing kits to their patients, and 80% agreed that the remote tests could support or even enhance the healthcare system’s existing workflows.