Change is back (sort of)

UnitedHealth Group reports that its pharmacy systems are back online, more than three weeks since it was attacked by an unnamed foreign government.

The healthcare conglomerate expects the payment platform to be functional and begin restoring the medical claims network starting mid-March. UnitedHealth is likely to need several months to make a full recovery, according to security experts.

Colon cancer: no more probes or bottles?

There are some people, surprisingly, who don’t like either the idea of a colonoscopy or pooping into a cup. There’s good news on the horizon, though, as researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have developed a blood test that’s as accurate as at-home poop-in-a-bottle tests.

Of the 7,861 people included in the report, 83.1% of those with colorectal cancer confirmed by colonoscopy had a positive blood test for circulating tumor DNA. Meanwhile 16.9% had a negative test — in which a colonoscopy indicated colorectal cancer but the ctDNA test did not.

It’s not as good as a colonoscopy, but it’s “an early effort” and could very well get more accurate over time. More importantly, it could mean a lot more people get screened and a lot more cancer gets caught early.

The company that developed it, California-based Guardant Health, says the FDA will be reviewing the pre-market application in late March. If approved, Guardant will charge $895 for the test, which will hopefully be covered by insurance.

A fond farewell…

…to Mercer College of Pharmacy’s Dean Brian Crabtree, who will be stepping aside at the end of July. He’ll be succeeded by Pamela Moye, currently a clinical professor of pharmacy practice, effective August 1.

Short takes

Put the distilled water next to the neti pots

If the risk of a brain-eating amoeba isn’t enough to keep you from putting tap water into a neti pot, how about two brain-eating amoebas^*? Yep, the CDC has confirmed that Acanthamoeba, although extremely rare, can be found in tap water — and if it gets into your nose it can eat your brain.

^* Amoebi?

Why do they even sell this stuff?

You might want to stop giving licorice to kids as a punishment. Swedish researchers have found that even a small amount can raise blood pressure. “This is mainly due to a substance called glycyrrhizic acid that affects the body’s fluid balance through effects on an enzyme in the kidney.” (Previous research suggested that it took a large amount to have the hypertensive effect.)

Insulin-making cow

A cow in Brazil has been genetically engineered to make human insulin in its milk. What makes this attempt different is that the technique only affects the DNA of the mammary tissue. Oh, and it worked:

“Our goal was to make proinsulin, purify it out to insulin, and go from there. But the cow basically processed it herself. She makes about three to one biologically active insulin to proinsulin.”

It’s still proof of concept, but the concept was proven. Next up will be to perfect the technique; this first cow couldn’t be impregnated, so they had to use hormones to induce lactation, resulting in less milk (and insulin) production.

Money quote: “The mammary gland is a magical thing.”

Tryptophan’s good side

The other day we told you how when tryptophan is broken down in the gut, it produces byproducts that can lead to arthritis.

But don’t give up on Thanksgiving turkey just yet. It turns out that tryptophan has another (good) trick up its sleeve: It can protect you from E. coli.

Apparently (found Cornell researchers) some of the metabolites it breaks down into can make it harder for E. coli to attach to the lining of the gut and cause an infection. Instead, thanks to the tryptophan, “the pathogen benignly moves through and passes out of the body.”

US maternal deaths

We all know that the maternal death rate in the US is awful, way behind other modern countries, and has been getting worse. Or do we? A group of Canadian researchers looked more closely at the data and conclude that the sky is, in fact, not falling.

In short, the National Vital Statistics System counted any death where the victim was pregnant as a maternal death. Pregnant and killed in a car accident? Maternal death. Cancer? Maternal death. It’s even worse than that; sometimes that “Pregnant” checkbox was ticked by mistake:

For example, hundreds of decedents, 70 years of age and older (including 147 women aged 85 years and older in 2013), were certified as pregnant at the time of death or in the year prior.

The good news: Recalculated, the US maternal death rate is about 10.4 per 100,000 live births — half what the NVSS reported.

The bad news: In contrast, Norway’s is 1.66. (Canada’s is 11.0 and Portugal’s is 11.8, so we’re not at the bottom of the barrel.)

The Long Read: Missing Out on Paxlovid edition

Paxlovid is far from perfect, but it’s still pretty good at keeping mild Covid from becoming not-so-mild Covid, and just as important for reducing the risk of long Covid.

So why aren’t more people using it? There’s not one answer, but lack of knowledge — by patients and pharmacists — is high on the list.