Use it or lose it

Earlier this year DeKalb County was one of four sites in the country to get a pilot grant from HHS — $1.5 million — to develop programs to help end HIV.

Unfortunately neither the state nor the county was actually able to spend a lot of the money; about $720,000 is still on the table, and so they’ll have to return it to the feds. (An option is to request an extension, which the Georgia DPH says it’s going to do.)

Several HIV support organizations in the state had expressed concern about how the money would be spent; none had received any of it. In fact…

Both the DeKalb and the Georgia health departments relied on “several well-established relationships” when allocating the funds, according to a document outlining how the state would spend the grant.

Life imitates art

“Last month my company both invented and cured restless eye syndrome. Ka-ching, ya blinky chumps!” —Bernadette Wolowitz, “The Big Bang Theory”

Meanwhile: “Sackler-owned opioid maker pushes overdose treatment abroad“.

“You’re in the business of selling medicine that causes addiction and overdoses, and now you’re in the business of selling medicine that treats addiction and overdoses?” asked Dr. Andrew Kolodny, an outspoken critic of Purdue who has testified against the company in court. “That’s pretty clever, isn’t it?”

Flu numbers

The latest flu figures: At least 1,300 dead in the U.S. this season so far. (And 2.6 million infections, and 23,000 hospitalizations.)

This is your brain on diabetes

Thanks to the constant swings in their blood-glucose levels, kids with type-1 diabetes have brains that are, effectively, less efficient than they could be — in some cases on the level of much older people, or those who have suffered from concussions or even multiple sclerosis.

Despite a lot of attention to the problem, say the study’s authors, “[C]hildren with diabetes are still at risk of having learning and behavioral issues that are likely associated with their disease.”

988

That will be the new nationwide suicide-prevention phone number, replacing 1-800-273-TALK. But it’s still months away, including time for a comment period.

Hormone replacement — muddy waters indeed

Should postmenopausal women get hormone therapy, or will it increase their risk of breast cancer? The latest study says…. it depends. Specifically, it depends on the hormones.

Estrogen and progestin? Danger, Will Robinson. They not only increase the risk of breast cancer the effects last for years.

Estrogen alone? Good news: It’s exactly the opposite, with a lower risk of breast cancer. But wait! Estrogen therapy still leads to an increase in blood clots and stroke (but not heart attacks) … and it can lead to uterine cancer.

Bottom line: There is no clear answer, and the debate continues.

What happens when a city takes fluoride out of its drinking water?

Shocker: Kids get more cavities — an average of about one extra cavity per year. (That’s about $300 per year per child compared to literally pennies per kid to put the fluoride in.)

The Long Read: Drugs in the water

“‘Dump it down the drain’: How contaminants from prescription-drug factories pollute waterways”

Did you know there are no federal or state laws prohibiting dumping pharmaceuticals into wastewater? “[P]harmaceuticals are not a regulated pollutant in the U.S.” So manufacturers and hospitals — and to a lesser extent consumers — are essentially drugging wildlife.

It’s enough that the U.S. Geological Survey (!) reported finding “substantially elevated amounts of 33 different drugs” in wastewater downstream from factories.

It was standard practice, the former workers said, to then hose down some of the rooms and machines for up to eight hours and then spray them with alcohol to clear the remaining drug residues, and the wastewater would flow down a drain in the center of each room.

“You just go dump it down the drain,” said the employee who was laid off in 2018.