Sign of the times

If you happen to be sitting in traffic on I-575 North just past exit 14, check out the new billboard from Drug Free Cherokee, made possible thanks to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities:

DCH facing budget cuts

The agency is preparing to trim its budget by $10.4 million, most if not all in administration. The Kemp administration, which won’t raise taxes to make up budget shortfalls, wants to be able to make more money available for other programs.

Texas toast

If vaccination rates continue to decline, Texas is doomed. At least, that’s the finding of an analysis of a simulated measles outbreak — and, of course, it applies to any large metro area where vaccinations dip below a certain threshold.

A 5% decrease in vaccination rate was associated with a 40% to 4000% increase in potential outbreak size, depending on the metropolitan area.

Prices in drugs ads: The Saga Continues

HHS was going to require that drug makers put the prices of any medication that costs more than $35 in their television ads*!

Drug makers challenged the rule, saying HHS didn’t have the legal authority, and that requiring them to provide that info would violate their First Amendment rights (and would be too complex). They won in court based on the first argument.

Now HHS is going back to court (as expected), filing a notice of appeal that it’s challenging that ruling.

* Remember, only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct to consumer pharma ads.

Lyme disease vaccine comeback?

So you know there’s a vaccine for Lyme disease, right? It used to be available for humans, but now only dogs can get it; a combination of side effects, low demand, and vaccine fear got it pulled from the market.

That might change, though. The warming climate is increasing the range of disease-carrying ticks, leading to more cases of Lyme and more people thinking, “Y’know, it’s not fair that Rover is vaccinated but I’m not.” Two potential replacements are in the works.

Don’t say we weren’t warned

Newly released documents show that two government scientists sounded the alarm about opioid abuse, especially among teens, back in 2006.

[T]he directors from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health flagged “disturbing” data showing a dramatic uptick in opioid addiction — including among teenagers — and requested urgent action.

Nothing was done.

Don’t inhale

Oh, air pollution, what can’t you do?

• Early death: “A new international study has found that air pollution is linked to increased cardiovascular and respiratory death rates.”
• Macular degeneration: “Vehicle exhaust pollutants linked to near doubling in risk of common eye condition”.
• Psychiatric disorders: “Environmental pollution is associated with increased risk of psychiatric disorders in the US and Denmark”.

Elsewhere: Yes, you can be embarrassed

Just as measles is making a comeback in the U.S. thanks to uninformed anti-vaxxers, Nigeria announced that its widespread vaccination program has eliminated polio from the country — making the entire continent of Africa polio-free.

Science!

You know about services that will make custom pill packages for patients. But how about combining all their meds into a single, personalized pill?

[R]esearchers from the Athlone Institute of Technology’s Materials Research Institute have combined the fields of materials science, additive manufacturing and injection moulding to create a rather unique pill. Instead of taking a number of different pills in a given day, this personalised pill could combine the different medications into just one tablet.