Nearly Nearly one-quarter of LGBTQ adults who reported having negative health care experiences said tNearly one-quarter of LGBTQ adults who reported having negative health care experiences said those experiences caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults.
April 3, 2024, 6:53 PM EDT By Jo YurcabaLesbian, NBC News Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults are twice as likely as their non-LGBTQ counterparts to report having had negative health care experiences over the last three years, according to a new report. One-third (33%) of LGBTQ adults say they were treated unfairly or with disrespect or had at least one negative experience with a health care provider, compared to 15% of non-LGBTQ adults, according to a new report by KFF, a health care and polling nonprofit formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of the LGBTQ adults who reported negative experiences, 61% said a provider assumed something about them without asking, suggested they were personally to blame for a health problem, ignored a direct request or question or refused to prescribe needed pain medication, compared to 31% of non-LGBTQ adults who reported negative experiences. Those negative encounters have an effect on LGBTQ adults’ health, the survey found. Of LGBTQ adults who reported having negative health care experiences in the last three years, nearly one-quarter (24%) said those experiences caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults; 39% said those experiences made them less likely to seek health care, compared to 15% of non-LGBTQ adults; and 36% said such negative experiences caused them to switch health care providers, compared to 16% of non-LGBTQ adults. Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ health policy at KFF, said the report provides a helpful update on the experiences of LGBTQ people at a time when dozens of state bills have targeted their access to health care and protections from discrimination. TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/1-3-lgbtq-adults-say-ve-treated-unfairly-health-care-provider-rcna146310 Nearly one-quarter of LGBTQ adults who reported having negative health care experiences said those experiences caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults.hose experiences caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults.one-quarter of LGBTQ adults who reported having negative health care experiences said those experiences caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults.
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Peter Treitler, PhD1,2; Stephen Crystal, PhD1,3,4; Joel Cantor, ScD1; et alOriginal Investigation Substance Use and Addiction March 25, 2024 Key Points
Question Is implementation of an emergency department (ED)–based peer recovery support program for opioid overdose associated with improvements in initiation of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD)? Findings In this cohort study of 12 046 patients treated for nonfatal opioid overdose, those treated in EDs that implemented peer support were significantly more likely to initiate MOUD than patients treated in comparison EDs. The outcome varied across EDs and by time since peer support implementation. Meaning The findings suggest that ED-based peer recovery support is associated with increased postdischarge MOUD receipt, but outcomes likely depend on additional factors such as program characteristics and availability of other substance use disorder services. TO CONTINUE READING:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816733 Opponents of SSPs argue that they enable drug use and make neighborhoods less safe. However, when
implemented according to best practices, there is actually plenty of evidence to the contrary. Dr. Jerome Adams and Mazen Saleh Opinion contributors USA TODAY It can seem counterintuitive to provide clean syringes to individuals who inject drugs. After all, why make it easier to consume illicit substances that are increasingly resulting in overdoses? In the fight against fentanyl, however, a clean syringe can be a lifesaving connection. We might not be able to stop every overdose, but if we can provide a tool to forge those connections and make illicit drug use safer, then we should. Colloquially known as syringe services programs, SSPs aim to reduce infectious disease transmission acquired from shared needles. In this regard they are undeniably effective, yielding a 50% reduction in HIV and hepatitis C transmission. Syringe exchange programs are certainly not without controversy, but having been around for more than three decades, SSPs are neither novel nor lacking in evidence of their public health efficacy and societal cost savings. TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/04/03/fentanyl-opioid-epidemic-syringe-services-harm-reduction/73169725007/ https://www.contagionlive.com/view/beneficial-treatment-for-early-stage-hepatitis-c-and-hiv-co-infectionMarch 5, 2024 By Sophia Abene
Shortened treatments have shown promise in the early stages of hepatitis C (HCV), with a study on the 4-week glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P) regimen presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), highlights a promising strategy for HCV elimination, particularly in HIV co-infected populations. From November 2019 to January 2023, the study enrolled 45 participants predominantly male (98%), with a diverse racial background (51% White, 27% Black, 31% Hispanic/Latino), and a median age of 36 years (ranging from 22 to 65) from the US and Brazil. Of these, 27% reported a history of injecting drug use, 84% were diagnosed with their first HCV infection, and 51%were living with HIV, The median time from HCV diagnosis to study enrollment was 31 days (IQR: 15-49), with participants exhibiting a median baseline HCV RNA level of 5.3 log IU/mL (IQR: 3.3-6.0), predominantly genotype 1 (71%), and a median ALT level of 146 U/L (ranging from 22-3866). The phase 2 study explored the efficacy and safety of a once-daily oral regimen of G/P 300 mg/120 mg for 4 weeks in adults with early-stage HCV. Eligibility for early-stage HCV included a significant new increase in ALT levels (either ≥5x the upper limit of normal (ULN) or >250 U/L if a normal ALT was documented in the year prior, or ≥10x ULN or >500 U/L if no prior ALT or an abnormal ALT was recorded) or detection of HCV RNA after a previously negative antibody test (indicating a first infection) or HCV RNA test (indicating reinfection) within the 24 weeks leading up to study participation. TO CONTINUE READING: Beneficial Treatment for Early-Stage Hepatitis C and HIV Co-Infection https://www.contagionlive.com/view/beneficial-treatment-for-early-stage-hepatitis-c-and-hiv-co-infection by Manisha Krishnan, Vice News
A growing number of academics are openly discussing their past and present drug use in an attempt to reduce stigma and help overcome addiction. When drug policy researcher Jean-Sébastien Fallu saw a recent op-ed in the Atlantic argue that destigmatizing drug use has been “a profound mistake,” he was furious. The piece said “cultural disapproval of harmful behavior can be a potent force for protecting public health and safety” and that we need “more consistent rejection of drug use, not less.” Fallu, 50, an associate professor at Université de Montréal’s school of psychoeducation, believes the opposite is true. Stigma, he said, is leading to worse health inequities and excluding people from society. It’s a feeling he’s familiar with, as an academic who for years hid the fact that he uses drugs. But now he’s “come out” about the fact that he enjoys using LSD, MDMA, 2C-B (a stimulant and hallucinogenic), weed, and alcohol, and that he thinks they’ve made him a better, more confident person. He believes his honesty, coupled with the respect he’s garnered through his career, is “destroying people’s perception that if you use drugs you’re a bad person and you cannot achieve anything good.” “I refuse to be dehumanized,” he said. TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3w4nb/these-academics-went-public-about-using-drugs EEN INTERLANDIJENEEN INTERLANDIEN INTERLANDI By Jeneen Interlandi Photographs by Damon Winter
Ms. Interlandi is a member of the editorial board. Mr. Winter is a staff photographer on assignment in Opinion Dec. 13, 2023 NY Times CHAPTER I Humanize Drug Users Raina Mcmahan, a 42-year-old recovery coach, spent roughly half her life seeking treatment for her own opioid use disorder. She tried detoxing multiple times at different inpatient facilities, but those programs usually discharged her after a week or two without any follow-up care. She paid one doctor $500 to treat her with buprenorphine, a medication that helps reduce opioid cravings, but he administered that medication improperly. When she got sick, he told her she was allergic — a falsehood she believed for years. She tried methadone, another medication used to treat opioid addiction, but the hurdles proved insurmountable. The only clinic that had space for her was two hours away by subway, required her to report in person every day and stopped serving patients at 10 a.m. sharp. “If you got there at 10:01, they would shut the window in your face,” she told me recently. When that happened, she would have to either go without medication for the day and wind up in withdrawal or use street drugs and risk a positive urine test (which could get her expelled from the program) or an accidental overdose (which could kill her). TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/opinion/addiction-policy-treatment-opioid.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20231217&instance_id=110412&nl Thousands die from hepatitis C every year, even though we have a nearly foolproof cure. A new plan would change that. By Jonathan Cohn Nov 26, 2023, 08:00 AM EST |Updated Nov 26, 2023 HUFF POST Dying from hepatitis C is a notoriously miserable way to go.
The virus attacks your liver ― in many cases, destroying its ability to make proteins and filter blood. You might not notice at first, because it can inflict damage gradually and “silently” until finally you start to feel symptoms that could include fatigue, jaundice, mental disorientation, severe itching and joint pain. Your belly could fill up with so much fluid that doctors have to drain it, while gastrointestinal difficulties might have you vomiting up blood. This could go on for months or years, and eventually your liver could fail completely. A transplant might save you, but only if you can get one, and only if it works. Hepatitis C kills thousands of Americans every year, making it the nation’s deadliest bloodborne infectious disease. And it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s a cure for hepatitis C that works in almost all cases ― an antiviral medication that’s been around for a decade, needs to be taken for just two or three months, and has relatively mild side effects. But lots of Americans diagnosed with the disease aren’t getting the drug because it’s too expensive, or they’re getting it only after the virus has already done severe damage. Takeup is worst among low-income groups and uninsured people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although even among the privately insured, only about one-third have initiated treatment within a year of testing positive. TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-plan-eliminate-hepatitis-c_n_655e1590e4b0c0333bee58ac November 11, 2023 HC P LIVE Abigail Brooks, MA Conference|American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Tatyana Kushner, MD, MSCE, sat down with HCPLive to discuss the White House hepatitis C elimination plan.
In an interview with HCPLive during The Liver Meeting 2023 from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in Boston this weekend, Tatyana Kushner, MD, MSCE, associate professor of medicine in the division of liver diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussed the White House hepatitis C elimination plan, clinicians’ role in addressing this issue, and disparities in patients affected by HCV. “The goal is to have a national plan to work towards hepatitis C elimination, and within that proposed plan, there are specific aspects to address,” Kushner explained. Components of the goal include providing easier access to medications, improving the process from testing to treatment, and emphasizing the need for research, especially as it pertains to the development of a hepatitis C vaccine. Beyond those elements, Kushner also described the role clinicians must play in eliminating HCV and emphasized the need for screening. “If you're seeing a patient, whether it's in primary care or any other healthcare setting, you need to screen them for hepatitis C. And that is really, really important. Even if you're not someone who sees many hepatitis C patients, it is an important part of your healthcare maintenance that you need to screen,” Kushner said TO CONTINUE: https://www.hcplive.com/view/tatyana-kushner-md-msce-hcv-screening-treatment-and-elimination Published: September 28, 2023 11.52am EDT, The Conversation
A growing number of people living in the UK are going abroad to have tattoos, piercings and cosmetic surgeries. Any procedure, no matter where it’s performed, can carry the risk of injury and infection. But people heading abroad for cosmetic procedures may want to be extra cautious – with recent reports suggesting thousands of UK residents may have unknowingly contracted hepatitis C this way. Over 170 million people worldwide are estimated to have hepatitis C. There are approximately one million new infections each year. In England, more than 70,000 people had hepatitis C in 2022. But many more could unknowingly be infected, as hepatitis C symptoms can take years to show up. Hepatitis C can develop into severe and fatal liver disease if undiagnosed. But when caught early, treatment is over 95% effective – highlighting just how important timely testing is. TO CONTINUE READING: https://theconversation.com/hepatitis-c-britons-getting-tattoos-and-cosmetic-procedures-abroad-may-be-at-risk-heres-how-to-avoid-it-212645 MARKEY, YOUNG, BALDWIN ANNOUNCE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO COMBAT OPIOID-RELATED INFECTIOUS DISEASES10/3/2023 News/Press SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
Bill Text (PDF) Washington (September 26, 2023) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security and a member of the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, along with Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), today announced the reintroduction of the Eliminating Opioid-Related Infectious Diseases Act, bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) ongoing initiative to eliminate the risk of infectious disease caused by substance use disorder to continue through 2028. In 2018, Senators Markey, Young, and Baldwin secured the passage of legislation to expand the CDC’s initiative to collaborate with states to improve education, surveillance, and treatment of opioid use-related infectious diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C. The connection between HIV, hepatitis C, and injection drug-use is well-documented. This follows the CDC reporting an increasing number of hepatitis C infections over the past decade, most of which is due to injection drug-use. The high rates of transmission, especially among young people, highlights the continued need for these targeted programs to stop the spread of preventable diseases. “The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, and infectious diseases compound the health challenges faced by Americans suffering from substance use disorder,” said Senator Markey. “Our federal government has a duty to empower providers serving on the frontlines so they can treat every impact of this epidemic, including the spread of infectious diseases. The Eliminating Opioid-Related Infectious Disease Act gives Americans access to life-saving treatment through commonsense programs based on science. We need to lead with care that is compassionate to end this opioid and overdose crisis once and for all.” “The fentanyl and opioid epidemic has far-reaching and deadly public health impacts, including spreading infectious diseases like hepatitis and HIV,” said Senator Baldwin. “While I am fighting to stop these drugs from coming into our communities and boost treatment and recovery efforts, Washington also needs to step up to help states curb the spread of diseases related to this crisis. Our bipartisan bill will give communities the tools they need to help save lives and fight this public health crisis on all fronts.” TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/markey-young-baldwin-announce-bipartisan-legislation-to-combat-opioid-related-infectious-diseases |
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