CDC will start screening travelers from Rwanda to the US for Marburg virus

…Marburg is an orthomarburgvirus, a virus that naturally occurs in fruit bats. It’s in the same family as the Ebola virus. Marburg can spread from human to human when someone comes into contact with bodily fluids from a person who’s been infected. People can also get sick after handling a patient’s clothing or bedding. CNN.

Two California farmworkers test positive for bird flu

…Health officials say the risk to the general public remains low. Farm workers are at higher risk, however, and the CDC has recommended that farmworkers wear personal protective equipment including a face shield or goggles, a face mask and gloves to reduce the risk of infection. CNN.

Arm Position During Blood Pressure Check May Result in Wrong Hypertension Diagnosis, Study Finds

Blood pressure readings may not be accurate unless a person’s arm is positioned correctly, a new study suggests. A comparison of blood pressure readings taken while people held their arms three different ways  — leaning on a surface, resting on the lap or hanging by the side of the body — showed certain positions could lead to a significant increase in systolic pressure, the upper number in a blood pressure reading, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. NBC.

Harris To Propose New Medicare Home Care Benefit for Seniors 

Kamala Harris during a Tuesday appearance on “The View” is expected to announce a new policy aimed at helping families care for aging seniors. The vice president will propose establishing a home care benefit through Medicare focused on helping families afford the cost of caring for seniors at home instead of in nursing facilities, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to share details of the proposal. The senior official said the proposal would help older Americans age at home and avoid the costs of in-facility care, which can be thousands of dollars more a month than in-home care. The benefit would cover the costs of various home care services, including in-home health aides. Politico.

Biden sets 10-year deadline for US cities to replace lead pipes

President to announce in Wisconsin EPA rule aimed at ensuring drinking water is safe for all Americans

… The rule is the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in roughly three decades. Lead, a heavy metal used in pipes, paints, ammunition and many other products, is a neurotoxin that can cause a range of disorders from behavioral problems to brain damage. Lead lowers IQ scores in children, stunts their development and increases blood pressure in adults. Guardian.

Anthony Fauci: West Nile virus caught from mosquito ‘nearly took me down’

US’s former longtime top public health official describes ‘terrifying’ disorientation from the virus

… “After I spent more than 50 years chasing and fighting viruses, one fought back and nearly took me down,” Fauci added in his Times op-ed. “There is no treatment for West Nile virus disease, and I was left to deal with its toll on my body.” The physical and mental exhaustion that the virus inflicted on Fauci was “terrifying”, he wrote. Guardian.

Severe Covid infections can inflame brain’s ‘control centre’, research says

Scans of people hospitalized with Covid may explain the long-term breathlessness and fatigue some patients experience

… High-resolution MRI scans of 30 people hospitalised with Covid early in the pandemic, before the introduction of vaccines, found signs of inflammation in the brainstem, a small but critical structure that governs life-sustaining bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure…. Guardian.

Rises in life expectancy have slowed dramatically, analysis finds

Rapid rises achieved in 20th century have slowed significantly, with life expectancy in the US falling

… Writing in Nature Aging, the researchers describe how on average, life expectancy in the longest-living regions rose only 6.5 years between 1990 and 2019. They predict that girls born recently in the regions have only a 5.3% chance of reaching 100 years old, while boys have a 1.8% chance. Guardian.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Alabama IVFs Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review an Alabama ruling that triggered concerns about in vitro fertilization availability by allowing couples to pursue wrongful death lawsuits over the the accidental destruction of frozen embryos. A fertility clinic and hospital had asked the court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision that a couple, who had a frozen embryo destroyed in an accident, could pursue a lawsuit against them for the wrongful death of their “minor child.” Justices turned down the petition without comment. AP.

Medical Students from Abortion Ban States Turn To Papayas To Practice Lifesaving Procedures 

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion training at medical schools in more than a dozen states with near-total abortion bans has been severely limited. Now some medical students, many of whom attend prestigious schools, have chosen to travel out of state to attend workshops that teach them how to perform a manual vacuum aspiration. It’s a procedure used for patients seeking induced abortions, but also for those facing life threatening pregnancy complications. CNN was invited to a hotel conference room in Philadelphia to witness a training. CNN.

A Peek Inside Human Brain Shows a Way It Cleans Out Waste 

A unique peek inside the human brain may help explain how it clears away waste like the kind that can build up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Brain cells use a lot of nutrients which means they make a lot of waste. Scientists have long thought the brain has special plumbing to flush out cellular trash, especially during sleep – they could see it happening in mice. But there was only circumstantial evidence of a similar system in people. Now researchers have finally spotted that network of tiny waste-clearing channels in the brains of living people, thanks to a special kind of imaging. AP.