Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of July 24, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of July 24, 2023–July 28, 2023.

The New York Times (7/27, Anthes) reports that hundreds of thousands of “Americans may be living with alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy that has been linked to tick bites, with many of those people going undiagnosed, according to two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The Times adds, “Alpha-gal syndrome was most common across a large swath of Southern, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states, where the lone star tick is known to live, the researchers found.”

According to the Washington Post (7/27, Sun), one report indicated that “between 2010 and 2022, there were more than 110,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome.”

The AP (7/27, Stobbe) reports, however, that “health officials believe many more have the problem and don’t know it.” Meanwhile, the “second report estimated that as many as 450,000 Americans have developed the allergy.”

NBC News (7/27, Edwards) reports, “In one of the new reports, 42% of 1,500 doctors surveyed had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome,” while “a further 35% said they were not confident in their ability to detect or treat the illness.” The reports are available here and here.

The New York Times (7/26, Baumgaertner) reports, “A new analysis of data from a large clinical trial of healthy older adults found higher rates of brain bleeding among those who took daily low-dose aspirin, and no significant protection against stroke,” according to findings published in JAMA Network Open. The study randomized “9,525 people to take 100 milligram daily doses of aspirin and 9,589 people to take matching placebo pills.”

MedPage Today (7/25, Henderson) reports, “The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that there is not enough evidence to make a recommendation on primary care screening for speech and language problems in children five years and younger who” show no signs. In particular, the USPSTF “found a lack of evidence on whether such screening leads to improvements in speech, language, and other outcomes like school performance, according to a draft recommendation statement and draft evidence review” concurring “with recommendations from 2015.”

Healio (7/25, Bascom) reports, however, that children “showing signs of difficulty or whose parents raise concerns about language development or speech,” should, “according to the USPSTF...be evaluated and receive treatment if needed.” Meanwhile, “the task force’s draft recommendation statement and draft evidence review are available for public comments, which can be submitted here until August 21.”

HealthDay (7/25, Gotkine) provides links to the full Draft Evidence Review, the Draft Recommendation Statement, and the Comment on Recommendation Statement on the USPSTF’s website.

USA Today (7/24, Alltucker) reports, “A study of more than 1.4 million Danish adults found those diagnosed with depression were more than twice as likely to get dementia later in life,” an association suggesting that “depression may increase dementia risk,” according to findings published online July 24 in JAMA Neurology. After examining “a Danish registry of nearly 250,000 citizens diagnosed with depression and nearly 1.2 million without depression,” researchers found that “those with depression were 2.4 times more likely to have dementia later in life compared to those without depression.”

According to CNN (7/24, Holcombe), the study provides “strong evidence that depression is not only an early symptom of dementia, but also that depression increases dementia risk.”

MedPage Today (7/21, DeBenedette) reported, “The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in pregnant women increased 16-fold over a 21-year period, with associated higher risks of adverse perinatal outcomes, according to a cross-sectional study.” Investigators found that “among more than 70 million hospital admissions for childbirth or spontaneous abortion in the U.S. from 1998 through 2018, the prevalence of HCV-positive pregnancies increased from 0.34...cases per 1,000 pregnancies to 5.3...cases per 1,000 pregnancies.”

HealthDay (7/21, Mozes) reported that approximately “three-quarters of the infected women were white and about two-thirds were under 31.” Meanwhile, “nearly 3 in 10 reported opioid use.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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