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Good morning! We’ve got a vice presidential debate tonight. What do you think of the decision by CBS not to have moderators fact-check the candidates like ABC did for the presidential debate? (Watch this space tomorrow for a recap of health and medicine topics that come up.)
There’s a big outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda. Here’s what that means
Yesterday, STAT’s Helen Branswell informed us about a large outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda that has already infected 26 people and killed eight. That may not sound huge, but Marburg outbreaks have historically involved fewer than 10 cases. There have only ever been two reported outbreaks with more than 100 cases.
In a statement issued later in the day yesterday, WHO categorized the risk of spread to neighboring countries as high. Experts suggest that Rwanda’s advanced health care system is up to the challenge of handling the outbreak.
“Rwanda has become really kind of a stellar standout in the region for its contribution to health security,” said Craig Spencer, a physician who has worked in Africa and Southeast Asia as a field epidemiologist. Read the latest from Helen.
Three hospitals evacuated, 37 health centers closed in Lebanon
More than 1,600 people have died in Lebanon in the 11 days since Israel used pagers as explosives in an attack on the militant group Hezbollah, according to a new WHO report on the emergency between Sept. 17-28. The continued violence already had deep impacts on the country’s health care system, as three hospitals have been evacuated and 37 out of 317 health centers have closed.
As more and more people are displaced, there are staff shortages and limited capacity at hospitals in the country. WHO is providing staff, financial, and technical support to the emergency operations center in Beirut. The organization has also distributed trauma emergency surgical kits and is working to get blood testing kits.
Redlining linked with lower life expectancy
In 1940, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation systemically labeled neighborhoods inhabited by Black people as “hazardous” and denied credit to borrowers in those communities. A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that, upon turning 65, people who lived in these redlined neighborhoods in 1940 had life expectancies that were lower by 1.44 years than those in the best-ranked (white) areas.
The study analyzed HOLC data and individual death records from 30 of the biggest cities in the U.S. Redlining had “sizeable and statistically significant associations” with people’s risk of death as they got older, the authors wrote. Still, they also noted that other recent work has warned against attributing associations like these specifically to HOLC. Rather, the results can be interpreted as the result of broader sociopolitical forces “that were all effectively encoded within HOLC maps,” the authors wrote.
A separate study also published yesterday in the same journal found that people in historically redlined neighborhoods of New Orleans who get diagnosed with HIV have longer times to viral suppression than those living in other areas.
STAT has previously reported on how where you live affects your health in our second season of the Color Code podcast.
Everything you need to know about two major health policy leaders
Today at STAT we have two stories focused on major health leaders in Washington. You can’t get this stuff anywhere else!
First, we have a Q&A with Jeanne (pronounced “Jeannie”) Marrazzo. A year ago, Marrazzo became the first new director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in almost four decades after the departure of Anthony Fauci. She usually stays out of the spotlight, but last week she sat for an interview with STAT’s Helen Branswell to discuss the U.S. outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in cows (and what’s going on with those health workers in Missouri), mpox outbreaks in Africa, and her hopes for NIAID. Read the interview.
And second, STAT’s Mohana Ravindranath writes about Micky Tripathi, the top HHS official overseeing much of President Biden’s agenda for regulating how artificial intelligence is used in health care. How successful Tripathi is — or isn’t — at his job right now could have a huge impact on how this technology is adopted across the health care system. And when you combine AI’s propensity to hallucinate and cause harm with the government’s typically slow, bureaucratic pace? The stakes are high. Read more from Mohana about how Tripathi may have the hardest job in Washington right now.
We’re one step closer to having a brain-computer interface on the market
Synchron announced Monday that implanting its brain-computer interface did not produce dangerous side effects after a year. Researchers implanted the Stentrode device, which allows users to control personal devices using their thoughts, in six patients with neurodegenerative diseases. While a few participants initially reported mild headaches, nobody had a serious event such as stroke. The signal from the implant did not weaken over twelve months, nor did it migrate from its initial position in the brain, a problem that has plagued competitor Neuralink.
The news is the latest positive result for a startup that has blazed through the healthtech world over the last decade with its endovascular interface that does not require invasive brain surgery. The next step? Turn this feasibility study into a trial that proves the technology’s clinical significance to the FDA. The company also recently demonstrated that people with its implant can connect with consumer technologies such as Amazon’s Alexa, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s mixed-reality headset.
— Timmy Broderick
How much sleep and exercise kids get around the world
Fewer than 1 in 6 children around the world are meeting the WHO’s guidelines for physical activity, screen time, and sleep, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. The WHO recommends that three- to four-year olds get at least at 180 minutes of activity each day, no more than one hour of sedentary screen time, and 10-13 hours of good quality snoozing.
The researchers, which looked at pooled analysis data on more than 7,000 children in 33 countries, didn’t find clear geographical or socioeconomic patterns. Low- and lower-middle-income countries had 16.6% of children meeting overall guidelines, whereas just 12% did in upper-middle income countries and 14.4% in high-income countries. Regionally, 24% of kids met the guidelines in Africa, but just 7.7% did in North and South America.
It’s hard to draw conclusions from the data, especially since most of the papers the new study drew from took place before the pandemic. But it’s important to implement culturally relevant local programming and policies to improve health in young children, the authors wrote.
What we’re reading
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Has social media fueled a teen suicide crisis? New Yorker
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The GOP’s tipping point on weed, Atlantic
- Five things FDA ad comm members want, STAT
- Maryland seemed poised this year to legalize medical aid in dying. What happened? NPR
- HPV vaccine study finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14, STAT