​AUTHORDavid Brand   DATEMarch 30, 2022    CITY LIMITS

The Adams administration has touted Safe Havens as an alternative for those who would rather sleep outside than in a traditional homeless shelter. But there are too few of the facilities to accommodate the majority of unsheltered New Yorkers.

After more than a year sleeping in parked cars and city parks, Michael Torres got a chance to try something new earlier this month.

When a bed opened up in a Safe Haven shelter near Crotona Park, Torres, 45, received a referral from an outreach team and moved into a room he shares with one other person.

Safe Havens have fewer restrictions than most facilities in the city’s sprawling shelter system and allow people to come and go as they please. Along with similar so-called stabilization shelters, they are designed to appeal to homeless New Yorkers, like Torres, who have left or avoided other congregate facilities—typically due to autonomy, privacy or safety considerations—and have instead opted to bed down in public spaces. The arrangement is not perfect—Torres says he really wants a permanent apartment—but the flexibility is working for him.

“I don’t need a curfew,” Torres said outside a Manhattan drop-in center Tuesday. “I just need to eat a bowl of oatmeal and go out looking for work.”

The specialized shelters also feature on-site services and, ideally, a pathway to housing via case managers and social workers who assist residents with rental subsidy or supportive housing applications.

But there are too few of the facilities to accommodate the majority of unsheltered New Yorkers. That means outreach workers can rarely offer placement to people in need, even as police, under the direction of Mayor Eric Adams, drive them off the trains and sanitation workers throw their belongings into garbage trucks. Adams, who came into office pledging to evict homeless New Yorkers from the subway system, said last Friday that he also plans to order the removal of every homeless encampment in the city, stepping up a practice that his predecessor Bill de Blasio accelerated at the tail end of his tenure.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://citylimits.org/2022/03/30/the-city-is-pushing-homeless-new-yorkers-off-the-streets-and-subways-where-will-they-go/​

Published April 19, 2022 | Originally published on The Scientist MD Linx

Scientists and public health officials in the UK, US, and Spain are investigating the cause of a number of cases of severe hepatitis in children younger than 10.
On April 5, public health officials in Scotland notified the World Health Organization of 10 cases of severe hepatitis—liver inflammation—in children under the age of 10 years old, according to a WHO press release. Within three days, 74 cases had been identified throughout the United Kingdom. All of the children were admitted to and diagnosed in the hospital. As of April 12, none of the children had died, but some were severely ill. Seven have had to receive liver transplants.
“This is a severe phenomenon,” Deirdre Kelly, a pediatric hepatologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in England, tells Science. “These [were] perfectly healthy children . . . up to a week ago. Most of [the children] recover on their own,” Kelly notes. According to New Scientist, doctors in the UK have been advised to watch out for children age under age 16 who have symptoms of hepatitis, which include jaundice (a yellowish tinge to the skin), discoloration of the urine or feces, itchy skin, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain.
​On April 14, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that nine cases of hepatitis have been identified in children ages one to six in Alabama since last fall. Two of the nine needed liver transplants, Science reports. In a statement issued to STAT, the CDC says it’s working with the Alabama Department of Public Health and other state departments to investigate the cause of the outbreak. STATreports that the Alabama public health department issued an alert to doctors in early February that mentioned a case in another state, but the alert did not give details.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the government of the Madrid region announced on April 13 that three regions—Madrid, Aragón, and Castilla-La Mancha—have each reported one case of severe hepatitis of indeterminate origin in young children, according to Science, and one of those children has received a liver transplant.
Hepatitis is typically caused by pathogens, most commonly the hepatitis C virus. That virus, along with the hepatitis A, B, and E viruses, was not present in any of the UK or Spanish cases, according to Science. According to STAT, hepatitis viruses have also been ruled out as a potential cause of the outbreak in Alabama. Severe cases of hepatitis are rarely found in children who are not immunocompromised, and the cause of the current outbreak is still unknown.

“Seeing children with severe [hepatitis] in the absence of severe underlying health problems is very rare,” pediatrician Karen Landers, a district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, tells STAT in an interview. “That’s what really stood out to us in the state of Alabama.”
Experts tell Science that an adenovirus, a virus that typically causes colds, may be the culprit. Adenoviruses typically attack the respiratory tract but have occasionally been linked to hepatitis.

Researchers in Scotland published a study on April 14 detailing cases of children with hepatitis in five children ages three to five this year, writing that an adenovirus infection is “the leading hypothesis.” According to Science,as many as half of the affected children in Spain and the UK tested positive for an adenovirus upon entering the hospital. Five of the nine children in Alabama also tested positive for an adenovirus.

TO CONTINUE READING:
https://www.mdlinx.com/news/mysterious-hepatitis-cases-reported-in-young-children/5Wu8skb3qpDTFgmCmSMHZF?show_order=5&article_type=sele





















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Gastrointestinal System Disorders > Hepatitis (Viral)
Mysterious hepatitis cases reported in young childrenPublished April 19, 2022 | Originally published on The Scientist









Scientists and public health officials in the UK, US, and Spain are investigating the cause of a number of cases of severe hepatitis in children younger than 10.
On April 5, public health officials in Scotland notified the World Health Organization of 10 cases of severe hepatitis—liver inflammation—in children under the age of 10 years old, according to a WHO press release. Within three days, 74 cases had been identified throughout the United Kingdom. All of the children were admitted to and diagnosed in the hospital. As of April 12, none of the children had died, but some were severely ill. Seven have had to receive liver transplants.
“This is a severe phenomenon,” Deirdre Kelly, a pediatric hepatologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in England, tells Science. “These [were] perfectly healthy children . . . up to a week ago. Most of [the children] recover on their own,” Kelly notes. According to New Scientist, doctors in the UK have been advised to watch out for children age under age 16 who have symptoms of hepatitis, which include jaundice (a yellowish tinge to the skin), discoloration of the urine or feces, itchy skin, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain.
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On April 14, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that nine cases of hepatitis have been identified in children ages one to six in Alabama since last fall. Two of the nine needed liver transplants, Science reports. In a statement issued to STAT, the CDC says it’s working with the Alabama Department of Public Health and other state departments to investigate the cause of the outbreak. STATreports that the Alabama public health department issued an alert to doctors in early February that mentioned a case in another state, but the alert did not give details.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the government of the Madrid region announced on April 13 that three regions—Madrid, Aragón, and Castilla-La Mancha—have each reported one case of severe hepatitis of indeterminate origin in young children, according to Science, and one of those children has received a liver transplant.
Hepatitis is typically caused by pathogens, most commonly the hepatitis C virus. That virus, along with the hepatitis A, B, and E viruses, was not present in any of the UK or Spanish cases, according to Science. According to STAT, hepatitis viruses have also been ruled out as a potential cause of the outbreak in Alabama. Severe cases of hepatitis are rarely found in children who are not immunocompromised, and the cause of the current outbreak is still unknown.
“Seeing children with severe [hepatitis] in the absence of severe underlying health problems is very rare,” pediatrician Karen Landers, a district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, tells STAT in an interview. “That’s what really stood out to us in the state of Alabama.”
Experts tell Science that an adenovirus, a virus that typically causes colds, may be the culprit. Adenoviruses typically attack the respiratory tract but have occasionally been linked to hepatitis.
Researchers in Scotland published a study on April 14 detailing cases of children with hepatitis in five children ages three to five this year, writing that an adenovirus infection is “the leading hypothesis.” According to Science,as many as half of the affected children in Spain and the UK tested positive for an adenovirus upon entering the hospital. Five of the nine children in Alabama also tested positive for an adenovirus.

Published April 19, 2022 | Originally published on MedicalXpress Breaking News-and-Events

MD Linx

Proposed changes to the CDC's opioid prescribing guideline are inadequate and will not undo the damage caused to patients and the practice of pain management, according to a large new survey by Pain News Network, an independent, non-profit news organization. Most survey respondents (63%) want the guideline revoked, not revised.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a long-awaited draft revision of its 2016 guideline in February, giving healthcare providers more flexibility in how they manage pain with opioids. Although voluntary, the original guideline was misapplied as a rigid "standard of care" by many states, insurers, doctors and law enforcement, causing millions of patients to be taken off opioids or tapered to lower doses.

Although the revised guideline states that "opioids can be essential medications for the management of pain" and encourages doctors to use their own best judgment when prescribing them, many patients and providers believe the changes don't go far enough and may even make the crisis in pain care worse.

"Appreciate the effort, but too little too late. These revisions are like trying to prevent disaster by course correcting the Titanic after it hit the iceberg," one patient said. "The revisions offer no protection against overzealous DEA interference and prosecution, and are meaningless in court. Until the draconian laws spawned by the guidelines are changed, things will only continue to get worse."

​TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.mdlinx.com/news/patients-and-providers-say-changes-to-cdc-opioid-guideline-inadequate/lUZ9coUonQm7BXOXtj39a?show_order=