Gamble Pays Off For Patients Who Accepted Organs Infected With Hep C

Powerful new drugs can cure the virus, so scientists wanted to test out if the transplants would be successful despite the donor being infected. “When there’s such a bad organ shortage, we can’t just do business as usual,” said Dr. Peter Reese, a kidney specialist who led the study. “We need to shake off that these organs aren’t valuable and that people will not want them.” In other public health news: ticks, microbiome testing, gene-muting drugs, cancer, postpartum struggles, and more.

The Associated Press: Patients Who Accepted Infected Kidneys Cured Of Hepatitis C

Some patients in desperate need of a kidney transplant participated in a bold experiment where they received organs infected with hepatitis C. The gamble paid off. Their new organs are working fine thanks to medication that got rid of the virus, researchers reported Monday. (8/6)

The New York Times: An Invasive New Tick Is Spreading In The U.S.

For the first time in 50 years, a new tick species has arrived in the United States — one that in its Asian home range carries fearsome diseases. The Asian long-horned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, is spreading rapidly along the Eastern Seaboard. It has been found in seven states and in the heavily populated suburbs of New York City. At the moment, public health experts say they are concerned, but not alarmed. (McNeil, 8/6)

Stat: As Microbiome Testing Firms Proliferate, So Do Questions About Their Claims

Microbiome testing companies have become a thing, offering consumers a chance to see a snapshot of the billions of microbes that reside in their bodies. Some promise even more from a swab: personalized advice on how to improve your health. ...There’s no doubt that the microbiome, the community of trillions of bacteria and viruses that live in a person’s body, has a profound impact on human health. But our understanding of the microbiome isn’t advanced enough, nor are the commercial tests precise enough, to guide customized health recommendations, experts told STAT. (Shaffer, 8/7)

Stat: The FDA Is Poised To Approve Alnylam's First-Ever RNA Interference Drug

After a decades-long wait, the FDA is on the brink of approving a landmark rare disease treatment — the first to rely on a Nobel prize-winning technique known as RNA interference, or RNAi. The widely anticipated approval will be a watershed moment not only for its manufacturer, Alnylam, but for the broader field of research into RNAi, which lets scientists mute genes that aren’t functioning properly. The FDA must announce its decision by Friday to meet a a regulatory deadline. (Sheridan, 8/7)

The Washington Post: She Made A Career Out Of Studying The Brain. Then Hers Veered Off Course.

The walls inside Barbara Lipska’s office at the National Institute of Mental Health are plastered with race plaques: first-, second-, third-place awards. Lipska, 67, only started running in her 40s, but because she does nothing halfway, in short order she was doing marathons and triathlons, while commuting to work in Bethesda, Md., on her bike, a total of 40 miles a day. A decisive, fast-moving woman — capable, her boss tells me, of accomplishing the workload of three or four people — Lipska directs NIMH’s Human Brain Collection Core. “We might get a brain today,” she says hopefully on a Wednesday in late February. (Copeland, 8/6)

The Associated Press: Cancer Study Of Nuclear Test Site Expected To Finish In 2019

A long-anticipated study into the cancer risks of New Mexico residents living near the site of the world’s first atomic bomb test likely will be published in 2019, the National Cancer Institute announced. Institute spokesman Michael Levin told The Associated Press that researchers are examining data on diet and radiation exposure on residents who lived near the World War II-era Trinity Test site, and scientists expect to finish the study by early next year. (Contreras, 8/6)

The Associated Press: Serena Williams Shares Postpartum Struggles On Social Media

Serena Williams says she's been struggling with postpartum emotions and wants other new moms to know they are "totally normal." The 23-time Grand Slam champion suffered the most lopsided defeat of her career, a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Johanna Konta in San Jose, California, last Tuesday. She then withdrew from this week's Rogers Cup in Montreal, citing personal reasons. (8/6)

NPR: What Does It Mean To Be A Doctor With A Disability?

Lisa Iezzoni was in medical school at Harvard in the early 1980s when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She started experiencing some of the symptoms, including fatigue, but she wasn't letting that get in the way of her goal. Then came the moment she scrubbed in on a surgery and the surgeon told her what he thought of her chances in the field. "He opined that I had no right to go into medicine because I lacked the most important quality in medicine," Iezzoni recalls "And that was 24/7 availability." (Gordon, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Thousands Of Inebriated Pedestrians Die Each Year In Traffic Accidents

It’s 11 p.m. on a Saturday on U Street in Washington, and music is blaring from the glittery bars and clubs. Many of the partyers will stick around till the bars close at 3 a.m., then pour out onto the sidewalks — and sometimes into the streets. “I’ve seen drunk people wandering into the street around 2 or 3 in the morning like zombies,” said Austin Loan, a bouncer checking IDs at Hawthorne, a restaurant with five bar areas and DJs on the weekends. “When you get drunk, you think you can rule the world. You may not be paying attention to anything else.” (Bergal, 8/6)

Kaiser Health News: How Genetic Tests Muddy Your Odds Of Getting A Long-Term-Care Policy

In general, long-term-care insurers can indeed use genetic test results when they decide whether to offer you coverage. The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers from asking for or using your genetic information to make decisions about whether to sell you health insurance or how much to charge. But those rules don’t apply to long-term-care, life or disability insurance. (Andrews, 8/7)

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