California confirms first US case of more severe mpox strain — but risk to public remains low
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(SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif.) — Health officials in California have confirmed the first domestic case of a more severe strain of mpox in a traveler from Eastern Africa, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The risk to the public remains low, according to the agency. Health officials are working to identify any people who may have been exposed to the person who recently traveled from Eastern Africa and was treated shortly after returning to the U.S. at a local medical facility, the CDC said.
Casual contact — including during travel — is unlikely to pose significant risks for transmission, the agency noted.
This is the first confirmed case in the U.S. of a strain, or clade, of the virus called clade 1b.
Another strain, clade 2b, was primarily responsible for the global outbreak in 2022. During the outbreak, mpox primarily spread through close sexual contact — and a strong vaccination effort was credited with helping slow the surge of cases. This less severe version continues to circulate in the U.S at low levels. The CDC does not currently recommend booster shots for those who are considered high-risk and already fully vaccinated.
Clade 1b was recently found in September in the Congo, likely responsible for a growing outbreak in Africa that led the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency. Early data shows that this clade is more severe and may be spreading through other contact routes in households and often to children.
People with mpox, which was formerly known as monkeypox, often get a rash that can be located on hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals, the CDC said.
(NEW YORK) — Lactaid milk is being recalled due to the potential presence of almonds, a common tree nut allergen.
The Food and Drug Administration and HP Hood LLC announced the voluntary recall Sept. 20.
HP Hood said it discovered the potential almond contamination following a “routine maintenance” review but also said they have not received any reports of any illnesses so far.
Five varieties of refrigerated Lactaid milk in 96-ounce containers are included in the recall – whole milk, 2% milk, 1% milk, fat-free milk, and calcium-enriched milk – for potentially having trace amounts of almonds, which are undeclared in the recalled milk products’ ingredients list.
The recalled milk products were shipped to retailers and wholesalers in 27 states in September.
A list of Lactaid milk containers affected by the recall and their best by dates, product names and expiration dates can be found on FDA’s website.
Customers with the recalled Lactaid milk, which doesn’t contain the lactase sugar found in traditional cow’s milk, are advised to return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund or exchange. Impacted customers can also reach out to Hood Consumer Affairs at 800-242-2423. The call line is available on weekdays between 9 a.m. ET and 5:00 p.m. ET.
In a statement Monday, HP Hood LLC told “Good Morning America,” it was recalling the 96-ounce containers of Lactaid milk “out of an abundance of caution because the product may contain trace amounts of almond, which is not listed on the label.”
“HP Hood, the manufacturer of Lactaid Milk products, has long recognized consumer and public health concerns related to the potential presence of undeclared allergens in food products. Hood’s allergen and sanitation management programs are aligned with all regulatory and industry standards,” the company said.
(NEW YORK) — A new study suggests that GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic, which are used for diabetes management and weight loss, may help reduce the risk of overdose and alcohol intoxication in people with substance use disorders.
“It helps to underline another significant benefit of this class of medication,” Dr. Angela Fitch, the co-founder, and chief medical officer of knownwell, a company that provides weight-inclusive health care, told ABC News.
The large study, published in the journal, Addiction, analyzed the health records of 1.3 million people from 136 U.S. hospitals for nearly nine years. That included the records of 500,000 people with opioid use and more than 800,000 with alcohol use disorder.
Those who took Ozempic or a similar drug had a 40% lower chance of overdosing on opioids and a 50% lower chance of getting drunk compared to those who didn’t take the medication, the study found.
“The existing medications for treating substance use disorder are underutilized and stigmatized,” said Fares Qeadan, associate professor of biostatistics at Loyola University in Chicago. “These medications intended for diabetes and weight loss can help addiction without the associated stigma, which will be a new window for how to deal with addiction.”
The protective effects were consistent and even applied to people with Type 2 diabetes, obesity, or both conditions.
Fitch expressed optimism about the study’s results.
“As clinicians, recognizing that people can get double benefits from something is always helpful and as more obesity medications enter the market, this can help personalize treatments,” she said.
GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and the combination drug tirzepatide also included in the study, mimic a natural hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1 to help regulate blood sugar and insulin levels. For managing obesity and diabetes, these medications work by slowing digestion, reducing appetite, and enhancing insulin release in response to meals.
Scientists don’t fully understand how these drugs work yet. Some studies indicate that they activate specific “reward” receptors in the brain that make high-calorie foods less gratifying, so users eat less.
This could also be the reason these drugs may reduce cravings for alcohol and opioids. For example, a previous study found that adding the GLP-1, exenatide, was effective at helping some people with obesity and alcohol use disorder drink less.
The Addiction study does not prove that GLP-1 medications directly lower the risks of opioid overdose and alcohol intoxication, only that people taking them seemed to be helped. And it only included hospitalizations so it’s not clear if they will work as well in less serious cases.
Prescribing the drugs to treat substance use, at least for now, isn’t possible because they aren’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that purpose, Fitch pointed out.
“One of the challenges that we have as clinicians is we know that some of these benefits help patients. And not being able to get them access is very challenging,” she said.
People with substance use disorder keep using drugs or alcohol even though it causes problems in their life. According to the CDC, there are 178,000 annual deaths linked to excessive drinking. Over 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2022 involved opioids.
If you or someone you know is living with substance use disorder, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling or texting the national lifeline at 988.
Dr. Faizah Shareef is an Internal Medicine Resident Physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating its recommendations for testing, treatment and protection for workers who may be exposed to animals infected with bird flu.
The update comes after the agency found evidence of dairy workers with positive antibodies, suggesting more bird flu infections that previously reported, according to a new report released Thursday afternoon.
Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, found that eight out of 115 workers, or 7%, who were exposed to bird flu during outbreaks among cows at dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado had evidence of recent infection.
All eight workers said their jobs included either milking cows or cleaning a milking parlor. Four workers recalled experiencing symptoms, mainly conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. The remaining four patients said they did not experience symptoms when the cows were ill.
As a result, the CDC said it is updating its guidance addressing who should be tested for bird flu to include workers who were exposed to bird flu and do not have symptoms.
“There may be individuals infected but who do not recall having symptoms,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told reporters during a media call Thursday morning. “That means we need to cast a wider net in terms of who is offered a test.”
Secondly, the CDC is now recommending offering oseltamivir – a prescription medication to treat influenza that’s often marketed under the name Tamiflu – to asymptomatic workers who have experienced high-risk exposure to animals infected with bird flu and who did not wear adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Shah said a high-risk exposure event could include a splash in the face with raw cow milk, or a culling event without PPE being worn.
He added that the Tamiflu treatment recommendation both reduces asymptomatic cases from becoming symptomatic because they are being treated, and reduces the risk of infected individuals spreading the virus to close contacts.
Lastly, the Shah said the CDC was changing its PPE guidance for workers.
Although the risk of bird flu transmission from dairy cows to humans Is low, the CDC said there have been few reports addressing how PPE is used during work activities on dairy farms.
The new CDC report said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) offered PPE to all Colorado farms before or during the bird flu outbreak in cows in 2024.
When asked if they had access to PPE before a bird flu outbreak, 88% of workers reported access to gloves, 76% reported access to eye protection such as safety glasses or goggles, 71% reported access to rubber boots or boot covers, and 69% reported access to head covers, according to the report.
“Reported use of many individual PPE items was higher among dairy workers who reported exposure to ill cows in the week before or week after the detection of [bird flu] on the farm compared with those who did not report exposure to ill cows,” according to the CDC report.
Shah said that CDC recommendations will now prioritize what PPE a farm worker should wear based on which farm tasks present the highest risk for bird flu.
“Simply put, the higher-risk activities will call for more PPE use,” Shah said. “The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 [bird flu] to humans and reduce the possibility of the virus changing,” Shah said.
As of Thursday, there have been 46 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S. this year, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the media call.
Of those cases, 26 were due to the outbreak in dairy cows and 20 were due to people coming into contact with infected poultry. There is one case in Missouri that had no known animal exposure.
All of the patients experienced mild conjunctivitis or mild respiratory symptoms and all have recovered, according to the CDC.
