Some people find these masked bandits cute. Having battled with raccoons over garbage, I do not. And as a health reporter, I know they carry some significant human health risks. CDC’s online journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, reported on one such risk for children this week, a rare disease called baylisascariasis, which results from the ingestion of roundworms that infected raccoons excrete in copious amounts in their feces. These roundworms can cause permanent neurological damage, and even death.
Two L.A. County children were diagnosed with the condition last September by a savvy doctor. One was a 14-year-old autistic child with a history of pica (an impulse to eat non-food items like soil), the other was a previously healthy 15-month-old. Once diagnosed, the children were treated with an anti-worm agent and corticosteroids. The older child recovered, but a three-month delay in diagnosing the younger child resulted in cognitive, motor, and visual impairments.
Given the ubiquity of raccoons in urban settings, doctors should consider baylisascariasis in young children and people with developmental disabilities if they show signs of progressive neurological deterioration or eosinophilic meningitis, the authors said. — Helen Branswell
from AXIOS:
| Trump gives drugmakers 60 days to cut prices |
| By Tina Reed |
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| Trump issuing the drug pricing executive order in May. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images |
| President Trump yesterday said he demanded commitments from 17 big drugmakers to lower their U.S. prices by committing to a “most favored nation” policy he laid out in a May executive order.
Why it matters: The move raises the stakes for pharmaceutical manufacturers as they brace for threatened tariffs on the sector. Driving the news: Trump posted on Truth Social letters to the CEOs of companies including Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbvie and Pfizer demanding a “binding commitment” to the most-favored nation policy within 60 days.
Trump said if companies don’t comply, his administration would “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing.” The other companies sent letters were: Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Regeneron and Sanofi. More here |
