HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 22, 2023 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• CDC advisers vote to recommend first RSV vaccines for seniors (CBS)
• Kaiser employees call for halt of surgeries at Zion hospital citing ‘contaminants’ in surgical trays (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Peru is reeling from record-breaking outbreak of dengue fever (NPR)
• 1 year since Roe v. Wade was overturned: Abortion in the US told in graphics (ABC News)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Bird Populations Are in Meltdown (Wired)
• Millions of Americans’ personal data exposed in global hack (CNN)
• DNA sucked into air filters can reveal what plants and animals are nearby (AP)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

CDC advisers vote to recommend first RSV vaccines for seniors (CBS)

The first vaccines to guard against the respiratory illness RSV could soon be available for older adults, ages 60 and over, after a panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted in support of them Wednesday. 

Kaiser employees call for halt of surgeries at Zion hospital citing ‘contaminants’ in surgical trays

 (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Employees at Kaiser Zion Medical Center in Grantville are calling for the suspension of all surgeries at the facility due to what they say is visible contamination of the trays that hold sterilized surgical instruments.

Peru is reeling from record-breaking outbreak of dengue fever (NPR)

So far this year, nearly 150,000 Peruvians have come down with the disease, according to the Pan American Health Organization). The current death toll is 248 in what is by far Latin America's most intense dengue outbreak. …  The disease is on the rise around the globe. The World Health Organization says reported cases jumped from 505,430 in 2000 to 5.2 million in 2019.

1 year since Roe v. Wade was overturned: Abortion in the US told in graphics (ABC News)

Since the decision -- known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization -- the abortion landscape of the U.S. has dramatically changed, including where bans are in place, how many abortions are performed in states and the support levels for abortion. Here's what one-year post-Roe looks like in graphics.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Bird Populations Are in Meltdown (Wired)

Humans rely on birds to eat insects, spread seeds, and pollinate plants—but these feathered friends can’t survive without their habitats… Half of the world’s 10,000-odd bird species are in decline. One in eight faces the threat of extinction. This problem has been worsening for decades… in the US, just shy of 3 billion individual birds have disappeared in only 50 years.

Millions of Americans’ personal data exposed in global hack (CNN)

… Hundreds of organizations across the globe have likely had their data exposed after the hackers used the flaw to break into networks in recent weeks. Multiple US federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, were breached

DNA sucked into air filters can reveal what plants and animals are nearby (AP)

…Scientists have found that air quality monitoring stations — which pull in air to test for pollution — also pick up lots of DNA that can reveal what plants and animals have been in the area.  The method could help solve the tricky challenge of keeping tabs on biodiversity, according to a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology.  The findings suggest that biodiversity data has been collected “on massive scales literally for decades — and nobody’s noticed,” said study author Elizabeth Clare.