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Stay Well
breaking health news & updates
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Avian Flu: USDA To Begin Expanded Testing Of Milk Supply In 6 States, Including California | |
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin testing raw milk from dairy silos around the nation in an effort to better track the H5N1 bird flu that has been spreading in dairy cattle since March.
The agency announced the expanded testing of the milk supply in a new federal order issued on Friday.
Infectious disease experts have called for expanded testing since the beginning of the outbreak, arguing that the virus can’t be contained until farms, vets and federal regulators know where it is spreading. Dairy farmers had initially resisted calls for more widespread testing, fearing a loss of income if their herds were quarantined.
“Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release.
The new order requires the sharing of raw milk samples, upon request, from dairy farms, bulk milk shippers, milk transfer stations or dairy processing facilities that send or hold milk for pasteurization.
It also requires that herd owners with cattle that test positive for bird flu provide information that enables contact tracing and disease surveillance.
East Bay Times Read more
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“It’s simply unacceptable to continue to allow cancer-causing chemicals to be used for things like glue, dry cleaning or stain removers when safer alternatives exist.”
Michal Freedhoff, Assistant Administrator for the E.P.A. Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
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E.P.A. Bans Cancer-Causing Chemicals Used In Dry Cleaning
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday banned two solvents found in everyday products that can cause cancer and other serious diseases. It was a move long sought by environmental and health advocates, even as they braced for what could be a wave of deregulation by the incoming Trump administration.
For decades, communities close to factories, airports, dry cleaners and other sites have lived with the consequences of exposure to trichloroethylene, or TCE, a toxic chemical used in cleaners, spot removers, lubricants and glue.
TCE is known to cause liver cancer, kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and to damage the nervous and immune systems. It has been found in drinking water nationwide and was the subject of a 1995 book that became a movie, “A Civil Action,” starring John Travolta. The E.P.A. is banning all uses of the chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was overhauled in 2016 to give the agency greater authority to regulate harmful chemicals.
The E.P.A. also banned all consumer uses of perchloroethylene, used in dry-cleaning and in automotive-care products. Though it is less harmful than TCE, the solvent, also called Perc, can cause liver, kidney, brain and testicular cancer, and can damage kidneys, the liver and the immune system.
The E.P.A.’s ban of Perc still allows for a range of industrial uses, including in aviation and defense, with the provision that strict rules must be in place to protect workers. Both bans were initially proposed in 2023. NY Times Read more
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Eden Health District Awards St. Rose Hospital A $1 Million Grant
Eden Health District last week awarded St. Rose Hospital, now an affiliate of Alameda Health System, a grant for $1 million, designated for for the sub acute unit and/or the cardiac cath lab. St. Rose Hospital is a Designated Cardiac Receiving Center in Alameda County, offering leading-edge cardiology services to provide the highest level of cardiac care. Equipped with advanced monitoring, imaging and testing technologies, St. Rose Hospital’s diagnostic services provide a comprehensive approach to detecting and tracking cardiac and cardiovascular irregularities.“Eden Health District is pleased to make such a significant contribution to help secure the future of St. Rose. Maintaining St. Rose has been the highest priority for our District for the past two years. The hospital provides vital health services to the most vulnerable in our community,” EHD Board chair Pam Russo said.
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Colleen Chawla Departs Alameda County Health to Take On Role As Chief of San Mateo County Health
Colleen Chawla has been appointed as the new chief of San Mateo County Health. Chawla has served as agency director of Alameda County Health since 2017. She is expected to start her new role on Feb. 18, 2025, as the leader of a department with 2,200 employees and a $1.3 billion annual budget. "Colleen will be greatly missed in Alameda County. Her leadership during the pandemic and the effort to save St. Rose Hospital has been remarkable. For the past seven years her creative and collaborative approach to healthcare delivery has greatly benefited our community," Eden CEO Mark Friedman said. Read more
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Marin County Health Officials Investigating Possible Bird-Flu Case In Child
Marin County health officials are investigating a possible case of H5N1 bird flu in a child, health department officials announced Friday. The agency has been investigating the case since last week, alongside officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. The case, if confirmed, would be the 61st case of bird flu in the United States, and the second instance of a child infected with H5N1 in California, and specifically the Bay Area. The first involved a child in Alameda County, who was also the first known case of bird flu in a U.S. minor overall. The youth’s symptoms were mild and nobody else in their family tested positive for the virus. SF Chronicle Read more
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Bay Area Food Banks Sounding The Alarm About Donations
The leaders of five Bay Area food banks gathered in San Jose last week to sound the alarm that the safety net their organizations provide for the community is in serious danger. “We are facing the most challenging time in our history,” Second Harvest of Silicon Valley CEO Leslie Bacho said. The need for food assistance is back to the historic highs we saw at the height of the pandemic, yet financial support is down significantly. It is not keeping pace with the demand.” Bacho was joined at Second Harvest’s North San Jose headquarters by Tanis Crosby, executive director of the SF-Marin Food Bank; Regi Young, executive director of the Alameda County Community Food Bank; Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano CEO Caitlin Sly; and Redwood Empire Food Bank CEO Allison Goodwin. Last year, Bacho said, the Bay Area food banks provided 270 million meals for people in a region where income inequality is making many choose between food and other necessities like rent and clothing. Mercury News Read more
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COVID/Respiratory Virus News
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I Didn't Get The Latest COVID Vaccine. Should I? And If So ... When?
If you're among those who haven't rolled up a sleeve for the latest version of the vaccine — which rolled out in September — you've got plenty of company. A December 2 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that in the U.S., for example, just under 20% of eligible people have gotten the updated vaccine, which was formulated to include a strain of the original virus and one from recently circulating variants. "That uptake is nowhere near where it should be," says Dr. Robert Hopkins,medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. And who's eligible? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, everyone 6 months and older. Data shows that COVID vaccines are protective against severe disease and long COVID, reducing the risk of an emergency room or clinic visit — and the risk of death. Plus, "potentially preventing any COVID infection keeps you from being sick, getting long COVID and making someone sick who could really be at risk," says Jeffrey Townsend, a professor of evolutionary biology and head of a lab at the Yale School of Public Health that has been studying COVID throughout the pandemic. NPR Read more
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Novavax NVAX Starts Late-Stage Study On COVID-19-Flu Combo & Flu Vaccines
Novavax NVAX announced that it has started dosing participants in the phase III study evaluating its experimental COVID-19-influenza combination (CIC) and stand-alone influenza vaccine candidates. The study will compare the immunogenicity and safety of the CIC vaccine with separate administrations of Novavax’s currently authorized COVID-19 vaccine and a licensed seasonal influenza vaccine. Management will also assess the immunogenicity and safety of its standalone influenza vaccine. Both experimental vaccines will utilize the company’s proprietary adjuvant technology, Matrix-M, to enhance the immune response. The study will focus on adults aged 65 and older. Novavax is in active discussions with the FDA for accelerated approval for both vaccines. Though more clarity on these discussions is expected in the second quarter of 2025, management has decided to enroll nearly 2,000 study participants in an initial cohort of the study. yahoo!finance Read more
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Long COVID Is Taking Toll On Americans' Finances
Long COVID is placing a financial strain on many Americans, a new study reports. People with long COVID have a harder time paying their bills, buying groceries and maintaining utility service, researchers reported recently in the journal Health Services Research. Much of this financial hardship is the result of lost jobs and reduced working hours, and it affects people of every socioeconomic status, researchers said. “Long COVID is very much a problem that is affecting people’s lives right now,” said lead researcher Ishtiaque Fazlul, an assistant professor with the University of Georgia. “And it’s affecting people from all walks of life in terms of financial hardship.” However, those in lower-income households have been hit hardest, the researchers noted. U.S. News & World Report Read more
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State/National/International News | | |
U.S. Sets Thanksgiving Record For Whooping Cough Cases
At least 364 pertussis infections were reported to health authorities last week, according to figures published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking the worst Thanksgiving week for whooping cough in recent decades. This tops the previous Thanksgiving record of 228 cases of pertussis which were reported for the week ending Nov. 27, 2010. That year there were 27,550 cases reported by the end of 2010, below the 28,167 already tallied so far this year. Thanksgiving usually sees a slowdown in cases reported across most diseases, because of delays in testing and reporting around the holiday as well as changes in people going to the doctor. But this year's whooping cough wave is continuing to accelerate in several states this week, including in Ohio, which reported 84 cases. That is the most of any state, and more than the 67 pertussis cases that Ohio reported in the week before. CBS News Read more
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Just One Mutation Can Make H5N1 Bird Flu A Threat To Humans, California Researchers Say
California researchers say the world may be just one genetic tweak away from human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus — a worrisome mutation that could open the door to widespread human infections and possibly even a pandemic, according to some experts.
In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Scripps Research Institute biologists determined that a single mutation of the hemagglutinin protein — the “H” in H5N1 — could transform a virus that has so far sickened or killed mostly birds and cows into a pathogen that targets cells in human beings. The finding comes amid a growing number of H5N1 outbreaks among California dairy cows, as well as a state-ordered recall of raw milk products. Since the virus began infecting the nation’s dairy stock in March, infectious-disease experts have warned that unprotected contact between dairy workers and infected cows could enable the virus to evolve in a manner that threatens humans. LA Times Read more
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A Twice-Yearly Shot Could Help End AIDS. But Will It Get To Everyone Who Needs It?
It’s been called the closest the world has ever come to a vaccine against the AIDS virus. The twice-yearly shot was 100% effective in preventing HIV infections in a study of women, and results published Wednesday show it worked nearly as well in men. Drugmaker Gilead said it will allow cheap, generic versions to be sold in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates — mostly in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. But it has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing, sparking concern the world is missing a critical opportunity to stop the disease. “This is so far superior to any other prevention method we have, that it’s unprecedented,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. She credited Gilead for developing the drug, but said the world’s ability to stop AIDS hinges on its use in at-risk countries. Mercury News Read more
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Many People Can’t Afford Long-Term Care Insurance. One Proposal Calls For Creating A Federal Program To Help
As a historic wave of baby boomers reaches retirement age, finding affordable long-term care is a challenge. “We’re going to have a major storm coming in our country with all these folks that can’t take care of themselves,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-New York, said Thursday at the Employee Benefit Research Institute policy forum in Washington, D.C. When Suozzi was growing up, all four of his grandparents lived with his family, who took care of them. That experience inspired Suozzi’s parents to buy long-term care insurance. Both of his parents lived into their 90s and were able to stay at home, thanks to those policies, he said. Now, that same insurance coverage is out of reach for many Americans. CNBC Read more
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3-D Mammograms Are Overtaking Traditional Scans. But Are They Better?
Women going in for routine mammograms are increasingly being screened with a new type of imaging tool: digital breast tomosynthesis. The new technology, which is sometimes referred to as 3-D mammography or D.B.T., lets doctors look at the breast in greater detail. Some research has shown that it can detect slightly more cancers with fewer false positive results than conventional mammograms — though it’s still too early to know whether these benefits will translate to fewer cancer deaths. NY Times Read more
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U.S. Health Panel Adds Self-Testing Option For Cervical Cancer Screening
Women should have the option of taking their own test samples for cervical cancer screening, an influential health panel said Tuesday. Draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are aimed at getting more people screened and spreading the word that women can take their own vaginal samples to check for cancer-causing HPV. Women in their 20s should still get a Pap test every three years. But after that — from age 30 to 65 — women can get an HPV test every five years, the panel said. East Bay Times Read more
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After A Tumultuous Run, San Francisco Set To Close Exorbitantly Expensive Homeless Site
San Francisco is closing its only safe parking site for homeless people living out of vehicles after three tumultuous years filled with legal disputes, code violations and extensive complaints from those living in and around the site. The Bayview Vehicle Triage Center located in an underused parking lot in Candlestick Point will permanently shutter in early March — nine months before the city’s lease for the site was set to expire. Case managers will work with residents living in the site’s 30 vehicles over the coming months to transition them into permanent housing or shelter or provide them with other support such as vehicle repairs, according to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. The closure is surprising considering city officials finally managed to connect the site to reliable power in October, nearly three years after its opening. But the site served far fewer people than projected, failed to make a dent in San Francisco’s homelessness crisis and cost significantly more than initial estimates. SF Chronicle Read more
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California’s Housing Crisis Has Gotten Worse, Not Better, Over The Last 30 Years
The Public Policy Institute of California, a think tank that conducts vigorous and objective research into vital state issues, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a series of retrospective reports. Housing, or the chronic lack thereof, is arguably the most important of those issues, since it lies at the core of so many of California’s existential challenges. They include the nation’s highest levels of homelessness and poverty, a yawning gap in generational wealth, and the outflow of people and jobs to other states with more abundant and less expensive housing. Unfortunately Public Policy Institute researchers Hans Johnson and Eric McGhee could find little progress over the past three decades, writing, “While California’s housing market has undergone tremendous changes over the years, with some aspects worsening in the last decade, the central problem — high housing costs — remains the same. “As California’s population has increased, more housing units have been built — yet housing costs and rent increases have outpaced building,” they add. CalMatters Read more
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California Bill Would Put Tobacco-Like Warnings On Social Media Apps
Taking a cue from tobacco regulation, California’s attorney general wants to force social media companies to slap warning labels on their apps that clearly state the risks posed to kids and teens. The proposal follows the advice of the U.S. surgeon general, who called earlier this year for Congress to mandate warning labels on the federal level — a call that so far, lawmakers have not answered. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Orinda Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan announced the new legislation at a Boys & Girls Club in San Francisco on Monday, alongside a family whose daughter died by suicide four months ago after becoming, as her mother Victoria Hinks said, obsessed with social media. “She was hooked,” a tearful Hinks said of her 16-year-old, Alexandra. Hinks noted that she and her husband implemented all the advice of experts in terms of limiting Alexandra’s screen time, taking her phone away at night and using parental filters and controls. KQED Read more
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Leaded Gas Created A Mental Health Crisis For Gen X
Researchers have long warned about the harmful effects of lead in paint, pipes and other products. But another once-widespread source − leaded gasoline − might have harmed the mental health of a generation. Gen X (the generation born between 1965-1980) bears an extra burden of conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and neurotic behavior because of the leaded gasoline they were exposed to as children, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Leaded gas was banned in the United States in 1996, but the study said years of exposure during development made them particularly vulnerable. Lead gas peaked from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, and children born during that era would later develop some of the highest rates of mental health symptoms, the study said. The study also linked leaded gas to "disadvantageous" traits, such as struggling to concentrate, stay on task or organizing thoughts. "I tend to think of Generation X as 'generation lead,'" said Aaron Reuben, a study co-author and assistant professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia. "We know they were exposed to it more and we're estimating they have gone on to have higher rates of internalizing conditions like anxiety, depression and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."
USA Today Read more
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Kaiser Mental Health Workers' Strike Leaves Some Patients Struggling For Care
More than 300 Kaiser mental health workers have been on strike since Oct. 21, demanding better pay and more time for patient care. The strike has left some patients feeling forgotten as they face difficulties accessing the mental health services they rely on. Alana Molino has been a Kaiser patient since 2018. She said it’s frustrating to have to restart therapy with temporary providers. "It’s hard enough trying to admit that you need therapy," Molino said. "You have to start pretty much from scratch with the new therapist and uncover all the trauma again that you’ve just worked out with someone else." Savana Pheifer, another Kaiser patient who works as a school mental health caseworker, empathized with the strikers. "But at the same time it's like, 'what about us?' Like we got forgotten and left hung out to dry, basically," Pheifer said. She said before the strike it took about three weeks to get an appointment, but now it’s longer. KPBS Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends | | |
Amid Fentanyl Crisis, Bay Area Health Center Sees More Folks Turning Away From Deadly Drug
Mila Rampola’s life has been full of overcoming struggles. Now, as she spends her days helping others in the same predicament, those experiences have come back to uplift her. Rampola, a peer support worker at Bay Area Community Health, is dedicating her life to helping folks overcome substance use disorder. It is a daily, lifelong struggle, but she’s well-equipped to dish out assistance because 20 years ago, she was the one seeking it. “What BACH helped me realize was that, this negative place I was in — it doesn’t have to stay that way,” Rampola said. “It took a little bit of time but I finally realized, ‘Hey, I have control here. I can take life by the reins and it doesn’t have to be a defeatist situation.’” Bay Area Community Health, based in Fremont and San Jose, offers medical treatment, addiction counseling and other health services to tens of thousands of people every year. The organization’s target population is the “medically unserved,” including unhoused or impoverished residents, as well as people suffering from HIV/AIDS and transgender people, BACH’s website says. East Bay Times Read more
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Could Ozempic Treat Addiction?
In 2018, Matt Christensen kicked heroin by replacing drugs with drinking. When he stopped drinking in 2022, he turned to food. He put on 95 pounds. His doctor recommended he try Wegovy, part of a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, to help him lose weight. Eventually he switched to a different drug called Zepbound, which targets both GLP-1 and GIP agonists. The drugs worked. But a funny thing happened on his weight-loss journey: His cravings for food had diminished but so had his cravings for drugs and alcohol. Washington Post
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Milk Chocolate Or Dark? The Answer Could Affect Your Risk Of Diabetes
A large new study suggests there might be good reason to indulge in chocolate this holiday season: It found that people who regularly ate chocolate had a lower likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes. But the findings came with an important caveat. It was only dark chocolate that was associated with a lower risk of developing the disease, not milk chocolate. It’s not entirely clear why that is. But the researchers believe that dark chocolate offers greater metabolic benefits than milk chocolate because it contains less sugar and higher levels of plant compounds that have been shown in some studies to reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity. Washington Post Read more
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About Eden Health District | | |
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.
The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other health issues.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.
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