Hawaii Health News | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

CYNTHIA S. GOLDSMITH, RUSSELL REGNER/CDC VIA AP / 2003
This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. Israeli authorities said late Saturday, May 21, they have detected the country’s first case of monkeypox in a man who returned from abroad and were looking into other suspected cases.

Israel reports first case of monkeypox, suspects others

By Associated Press
May 22, 2022
Updated 1:16 pm

Israel’s case appeared to be the first identified in the Middle East. Read more

SALVATORE DI NOLFI/KEYSTONE VIA AP
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses delegates during the first day of the 75th World Health Assembly at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

WHO chief: The COVID-19 pandemic is ‘most certainly not over’

By Associated Press
May 22, 2022
Updated 1:16 pm
15 Comments

“Reported cases are increasing in almost 70 countries in all regions, and this in a world in which testing rates have plummeted,” he added. Read more

CDC VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
This 1997 image provided by the CDC during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient, who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage.

African scientists baffled by monkeypox cases in Europe, U.S.

By Associated Press
May 20, 2022
4 Comments

Monkeypox typically causes fever, chills, a rash and lesions on the face or genitals. Read more

CDC / AP / 2003
This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a monkeypox virion, obtained from a sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak.

Officials report possible monkeypox case in New York

By Joseph Goldstein / New York Times
May 19, 2022

The authorities said little about the patient, who is currently in isolation at Bellevue Hospital. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
A 33-year-old mother of three from central Texas was escorted down the hall by clinic administrator Kathaleen Pittman prior to getting an abortion, in October 2021, at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La. Reproductive rights advocates are planning to open new abortion clinics or expand the capacity of existing ones in states without restrictive abortion laws.

Here’s how abortion clinics are preparing for Roe to fall

By Emily Wagster Pettus and Rachel La Corte / Associated Press
May 19, 2022
6 Comments

With the Supreme Court poised to let states tightly limit or ban abortion, reproductive rights advocates are planning to open new clinics or expand existing ones in states where lawmakers are not clamping down on access. Read more

NATHAN J FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane urged lawmakers to vote yes on House Bill 4327 during debate in the House of Representatives at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, today. Oklahoma’s Legislature gave final approval, today, to another Texas-style anti-abortion bill that providers say will be the most restrictive in the nation once the governor signs it.

Oklahoma passes strictest abortion ban; services to stop

By Associated Press
May 19, 2022
156 Comments

Providers said they would stop performing the procedure as soon as the governor signs it. Read more

CYNTHIA S. GOLDSMITH, RUSSELL REGNER/CDC VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
This 2003 electron microscope image shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. European and American health authorities have identified a number of monkeypox cases in recent days, mostly in young men. It’s a surprising outbreak of disease that rarely appears outside Africa.

What is monkeypox and where is it spreading?

By Associated Press
May 19, 2022
5 Comments

It’s the first time monkeypox appears to be spreading among people who didn’t travel to Africa. Read more

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Mental health clinicians picketed in front of Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center on Wednesday to press for better compensation packages.

Kaiser Permanente’s Hawaii mental health clinicians strike

By Sophie Cocke scocke@staradvertiser.com
May 19, 2022
11 Comments

The proposed compensation package would make it hard for Kaiser to attract and retain mental health professionals, according to the employees. Read more

CYNTHIA S. GOLDSMITH, RUSSELL REGNER/CDC VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
This 2003 electron microscope image shows a monkeypox virion, obtained from a sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. Massachusetts has reported a rare case of monkeypox in a man, today, who recently had traveled to Canada, and investigators are looking into whether it is connected to recent cases in Europe.

1st U.S. case of monkeypox this year reported in Massachusetts man

By Associated Press
May 18, 2022
6 Comments

Most people recover from monkeypox within weeks, but the disease is fatal for up to 1 in 10 people, according to the World Health Organization. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS / MARCH 17
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra speaks during an interview in Washington. Another member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet has tested positive for COVID-19. U.S. Health Secretary Becerra tested positive for the virus on Wednesday, May 18, while visiting Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department said.

U.S. health secretary tests positive for COVID-19 on Germany trip

By Frank Jordans and Tom Murphy / Associated Press
May 18, 2022
1 Comments

President Joe Biden’s top health official tested positive for COVID-19 today, the latest member of his Cabinet to be infected with the virus. Read more

Portugal finds 5 monkeypox cases in men as outbreak spreads

By Associated Press
May 18, 2022

The disease belongs to a family of viruses that includes smallpox. Most people recover from monkeypox within weeks, but the WHO said that the disease is fatal for up to one in ten people. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, Sara Atkins holds a pillow with an image of her father Andy Rotman-Zaid, who died of COVID-19 in December 2020. She channels her grief into fighting for global vaccination and better access to health care to honor her father.

U.S. deaths from COVID hit 1 million, highest official total of any nation

By Carla K. Johnson / Associated Press
May 16, 2022
135 Comments

The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Curtis Means kissed his mother, Michelle Butler at their home in Eutaw, Ala., on March 23. Butler was just over halfway through her pregnancy when her water broke and contractions wracked her body. She couldn’t escape a terrifying truth: Her twins were coming much too soon.

The tiniest babies: Shifting the boundary of life earlier

By Associated Press
May 11, 2022
1 Comments

Growing numbers of extremely premature infants are getting life-saving treatment and surviving. Read more

STAR-ADVERTISER
A blood drop is sampled in vial at right in test for hepatitis.

Hawaii Health Department investigating case of acute hepatitis in Maui child

By Nina Wu nwu@staradvertiser.com
May 10, 2022
8 Comments

DOH said the child, who is under age 10, was hospitalized for several days at the end of April with abdominal pain and fever but has since been released. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS / AUG. 17
An infant receives a routine vaccination at First Georgia Physician Group Pediatrics in Fayetteville, Ga. The vaccinations that U.S. schoolchildren are required to get to hold terrible diseases like polio, hepatitis, tetanus and whooping cough.

Hawaii Department of Health investigating case of acute hepatitis in child on Maui

By Nina Wu nwu@staradvertiser.com
May 9, 2022
2 Comments

DOH said the child was hospitalized for several days with abdominal pain and fever at the end of April. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this photo provided by Pfizer, a lab technician inspects COVID-19 Paxlovid tablet samples in Freiburg, Germany in December . As more doctors prescribe Pfizer’s powerful COVID-19 pill, new questions are emerging about its performance, including why a small number of patients appear to relapse after taking the drug.

Rare cases of COVID-19 returning pose questions for Pfizer pill

By Matthew Perrone / Associated Press
May 9, 2022

Experts say there is still much to be learned about the drug, which was authorized in December for adults at high risk of severe COVID-19. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2015
A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform in New York on Jan. 27, 2015 in this file photo. So far this year in New York, people have called in about 7,400 rat sightings — that’s up from about 5,800 during the same period last year, and up by more than 60% from roughly the first four months of 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.

Oh, rats! As New Yorkers emerge from pandemic, so do rodents

By Bobby Caina Calvan / Associated Press
May 8, 2022
5 Comments

In each of the first four months of 2022, the number of reported rat sightings was the highest recorded since at least 2010, the first year online records are available. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The headquarters for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seen in March 2020, was shown in Atlanta, Georgia. Twenty-five U.S. states and territories have reported cases of children’s hepatitis with no known cause, bumping the total number under investigation to 109, health officials announced today.

CDC investigating 109 children’s hepatitis cases, 5 deaths

By Bloomberg News
May 6, 2022
10 Comments

Twenty-five U.S. states and territories have reported cases of children’s hepatitis with no known cause. Read more

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES / JAN. 7
A heart from a genetically modified pig being transplanted into a human patient, David Bennett Sr. Bennett, who survived for two months after the transplant, carried signs of a virus that infects pigs, according to the surgeon who performed the first-of-its-kind procedure.

Signs of an animal virus discovered in man who received a pig’s heart

By Roni Caryn Rabin / New York Times
May 5, 2022

A 57-year-old Maryland man who survived for two months with a heart transplanted from a genetically altered pig carried signs of a virus that the animals are known to carry, according to the surgeon who performed the first-of-its-kind procedure. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2021
Containers of the medication used to end an early pregnancy sit on a table inside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights, Ill. Women with unwanted pregnancies are increasingly considering getting abortion pills by mail.

Everything you need to know about the abortion pill

By Bloomberg News
May 5, 2022

A report that suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade has raised the potential for widespread changes in access to reproductive health care. Read more

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bottles of the drug misoprostol sat on a table at the West Alabama Women’s Center, March 15, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The drug is one of two used together in “medication abortions.” According to Planned Parenthood, misoprostol, taken after mifepristone, causes cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus.

Next battle over access to abortion will focus on pills

By Associated Press
May 5, 2022

Use of abortion pills has been rising in the U.S. since 2000 when the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone — the main drug used in medication abortions. Read more