The worst kind of outbreak

Georgia (and Florida) is the epicenter of a national outbreak of cyclosporiasis, probably from raw imported broccoli and other veggies. The worst part is that the main symptom is explosive diarrhea.

It can take a week or two for the symptoms to appear (they also include “nausea, a loss of appetite, cramping, bloating, increased gas, and fatigue”). The treatment, luckily, is simple: trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, aka Cotrim. If a patient is allergic to sulfa drugs … well, there’s nothing to do but wait it out.

[T]he CDC recommends that the “best way to prevent cyclosporiasis” is “avoiding food or water that may have been contaminated with feces.” That is important news if all along you’ve been seeking food or water contaminated with feces.

Medicaid news

Disenrollment troubles

More than 1.5 million Americans have been “disenrolled” from Medicaid since the end of June. The worst part: 71% of them were disenrolled for “procedural reasons,” not because they weren’t eligible. (Of those, 35% were children.)

Procedural disenrollments are cases where people are disenrolled because they did not complete the renewal process and can occur when the state has outdated contact information or because the enrollee does not understand or otherwise does not complete renewal packets within a specific timeframe.

In response to so many people losing coverage, the Biden administration has given states more options to slow the disenrollment flow, including allowing states an extra month “to conduct more targeted outreach to individuals” and — notably for Buzz readers — “allowing pharmacies and community-based organizations to reinstate coverage for some individuals disenrolled for procedural reasons.”

Elsewhere

Michigan is taking advantage of that offer and will pause disenrollments until the end of July while it works to help its citizens complete the paperwork.

South Dakota became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act; it will cover people earning $20,120 per year for an individual or $41,400 for a family of four.

A trip down under

Australia has become the first country to legalize psychedelics to treat some mental health conditions: “MDMA to those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and magic mushrooms for some types of depression.” It’s by prescription only and “Use of the psychedelics would be carefully monitored and not a case of ‘take a pill and go away’.”

Bonus: Includes the phrase “game changer” twice.

Blood mutation-Alzheimer’s connection

A blood condition called clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) has an odd association: People who have it are significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

Unfortunately, they’re also much more likely to develop blood cancers and heart conditions.

CHIP is caused by a mutation in the bone marrow’s blood-producing cells. It results in mutant blood cells that outcompete normal ones. The twist is that some of those cells slip into the brain and can replace the brain’s immune cells — the microglia. Those are supposed to do trash pickup in the brain.

So … could these mutant cells be boosting the microglia so they fight Alzheimer’s? You know the mantra: More research is needed.

The cost of weight loss

Sure, Americans want to lose weight, and we love an easy way to solve a problem. But when it comes to all those new weight-loss drugs, a poll shows there’s a limit to how much people are actually willing to spend.

Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy — they all cost big bucks, and many insurers aren’t covering them. With a list price of $900 to $1,600 per month, even with insurance that’s a lot of co-pay. It’s also co-pay that keeps on taking, because you can’t just use these drugs to hit a goal; you have to take them forever.

Short Takes

Saving you a click

“Can you really ‘address’ annoying eye floaters with a supplement?” No.

Worried about health insurance companies’ profits?

Don’t be. They’ll do just fine.