How to avoid the emergency room during the holidays
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(NEW YORK) — Three states — Louisiana, Kentucky and New Hampshire — are reporting high levels of respiratory illness, including common cold, flu, RSV and COVID, according to the CDC. In addition, children under four are currently experiencing the highest levels of RSV hospitalizations.
Dr. Neil C. Bhavsar, an emergency medicine resident at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, said that those illnesses come out “roaring” at this time of year because people are staying indoors, coming from all over and spending time with family.
He wants people to know the severity of their illness and where to go so it’s best treated, he said.
“Urgent Care is a quick fix,” Bhavsar said. Typically, it’s best for non-life-threatening conditions that are addressed within 30 minutes to a few hours.
“The ER or the emergency department is for serious injuries, life-threatening illness or something that can become very serious,” he said.
He explains that respiratory illnesses may take a few days to figure out.
“When we’re talking about respiratory illnesses, I would say, if you’re not feeling too well for like two to three days, have a low grade fever, a cough that’s been lingering for a little bit longer than you want, some facial pressure, sinus pressure, congestion, urgent care is your friend,” Bhavsar said.
But he warns that if “your fingertips are blue, your lips are blue, you’re feeling short of breath and you have chest pain” to go to the emergency department. Any child with these symptoms, especially trouble breathing, should be evaluated in an emergency room.
For upper respiratory illnesses, Bhavsar urges people to stay hydrated.
“Drink warm fluids, soup, broths, hot teas, you can try a nasal spray for congestion and honey is a big thing we’ve been doing for a sore throat or a cough,” Bhavsar said. But he warns honey should never be given to infants or anyone less than a year old due to the risk of a severe illness called botulism.
He also recommends steam inhalation and over-the-counter decongestants for respiratory illnesses, but these should not be used for more than 3-5 days in a row.
In addition, Bhavsar said ibuprofen or acetaminophen can help with body aches and chills. Always follow dosing instructions, ages for use, and consult with a physician if uncertain on how to take any these medications.
The election of former President Donald Trump to a second term has put a spotlight on what his return to the White House may look like, particularly when it comes to women’s health.
Online searches for topics related to women’s health have spiked since the Nov. 5 election, particularly when it comes to birth control, Google data shows.
Searches for IUDs, birth control pills, and Plan B are trending higher than they have since June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, giving states the power to decide abortion access.
Since then, at least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, and 21 states have put into effect restrictions on abortion.
The current abortion landscape combined with Trump’s comments about birth control on the campaign trail and his first administration’s efforts to roll back insurance coverage of contraceptives have led to uncertainty about what will happen in his second term.
Here are five questions answered.
1. What does the term ‘birth control’ include?
Birth control, also known as contraception, is the broad term for the act of preventing pregnancy.
The term includes everything from medicines and methods to devices and surgery used to prevent pregnancy, according to the National Library of Medicine.
One of the most widely-known and used types of contraception is the birth control pill, an oral, hormonal medication that commonly requires a prescription.
Around 14% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 to 49 currently use the pill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2. What did Trump say about birth control on the campaign trail?
During an interview with a Pittsburgh TV station in May, Trump was asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraceptives.
“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump responded with. “And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting and it’s another issue that’s very interesting.”
When asked to clarify if he was suggesting he was open to supporting some restrictions on contraceptives, “like the morning-after pill,” Trump responded, “Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”
The former president quickly took to social media to clarify his position, claiming that he was not advocating for restrictions on contraceptives.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” he wrote in a May 21 post on his social media platform.
The Trump campaign further attempted to clarify, claiming the policy Trump was referring to during the interview was mifepristone, often used in pregnancy termination. However, Trump was not asked about the abortion medication.
After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump and the transition team have been advised on health-related appointments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has also been in discussions to possibly fill a major role in the next administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
ABC News has not found public comment from RFK Jr. on the issue of birth control.
3. What happened on birth control during Trump’s first administration?
During Trump’s first term, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules allowing more employers to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act mandate guaranteeing no-cost contraceptive services for women.
The Supreme Court upheld the HHS decision in a 7-2 ruling in 2020, giving an employer or university with a religious or moral objection to opt out of covering contraceptives for employees.
4. As president, what power does Trump have over birth control?
As president, Trump would have the authority to order rollbacks of measures implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration to protect birth control.
As recently as October, the Biden administration announced a plan to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter contraceptives.
In January, the administration announced several other measures to protect contraception access, including federal agencies issuing new guidance to “clarify standards” and make sure Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive medications are available for free under the Affordable Care Act.
Once Trump is in office, he will also have the chance to appoint Supreme Court justices if vacancies arise. During his first term, Trump appointed three justices.
Trump could also work with Congress to enact legislation on women’s reproductive rights, including birth control. Following the Nov. 5 election, control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air, while ABC News has projected that Republicans will win the Senate.
5. What has the Supreme Court said on birth control?
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a solo concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas included a line on birth control.
In his opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it illegal to use birth control devices or to advise about their use.
“We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote, citing the Griswold ruling among others.
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Will McDuffie, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The FDA has expanded the approval of Eli Lilly’s obesity medication Zepbound to include treating moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea for people with obesity — the first medication approved for the condition.
The new, expanded Zepbound approval means that insurance providers, including Medicare, will likely cover the medication for people with sleep apnea and obesity. Some insurance providers, including Medicare, do not offer reimbursement to treat obesity alone.
The new approval is for people with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea who are also living with obesity. Eli Lilly estimates that is about 15-20 million adults in the U.S.
Obstructive sleep apnea isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a serious medical condition that impairs breathing and sleep quality. Obesity and obstructive sleep apnea are linked. People tend to see their obstructive sleep apnea get better when they lose a significant amount of weight. It’s likely the weight loss associated with the medication is helping improve the sleep apnea.
Right now, there is no medicine to treat obstructive sleep apnea — it’s only treated with a positive airway pressure device.
In a study, people who took Zepbound had at least 25 fewer breathing interruptions per hour while they slept. They also lost an average of 20% of their body weight.
The study also followed people over a year, and found that up to half of the adults taking Zepbound no longer had obstructive sleep apnea symptoms at the end of the year.
Obstructive sleep apnea is more common in men than women. Up to 34% of U.S. men have OSA compared to 17% of U.S. women, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Common signs of sleep apnea include heavy snoring at night, long pauses in breathing while sleeping as well as excessive daytime sleepiness, forgetfulness and morning headaches. The symptoms of the disorder can lead to significant medical problems.
(NEW YORK) — Nicole Hallingstad credits her cat, Rudy, with finding her breast cancer.
Despite an unremarkable mammogram screening just seven months earlier, the 42-year-old knew something was wrong when Rudy kept pawing at something on the right side of her chest.
Hallingstad had another mammogram, which this time found a golf-ball-sized tumor in her breast that she said was from a fast-growing form of breast cancer.
After surgery, she needed both radiation and chemotherapy – but neither were available where she lived.
Hallingstad faced a difficult decision. Her options were to travel more than 1,000 miles once a month for chemotherapy and then relocate for six weeks of radiation treatment, or move to another state where she could get chemotherapy and radiation in one place. Hallingstad chose the latter.
“I was very fortunate that I was able to take the option to move and continue working and receive the care I needed,” Hallingstad told ABC News. “But that is a choice that is unsustainable for far too many Native women, and frankly, uncertain.”
Why was cancer care so inaccessible for Hallingstad? Because she lived in Alaska.
Hallingstad, a member of the Tlingit and Haida Native Indian Tribes of Alaska, faced profound barriers to breast cancer care that are shared by many American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women. These barriers have contributed to growing disparities over the last three decades.
“It’s often really difficult to get to a qualified health care center that is close to the rural areas where so many of our people live,” Hallingstad said. “And transportation is not readily available for many people to get the trip to the center, to get their screening to even have access to the kind of machinery that is needed for this important treatment work.”
A recent report by the American Cancer Society (ACS) showed that the rate of breast cancer deaths among U.S. women has decreased by 44% from 1989 to 2022. But that progress has not held true for all women, including AI/AN women, whose death rates have remained unchanged during that same time.
While AI/AN women have a 10% lower incidence of breast cancer than white women, they have a 6% higher mortality rate, according to the ACS.
The ACS also found that only about half of AI/AN women over 40 years old surveyed for the report said they’d had a mammogram in the last two years, compared to 68% of white women. That lack of timely screenings increased the risk of discovering cancer in more advanced stages, which in turn could result in higher death rates.
“This is a population for which we are very concerned,” Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, told ABC News. “Given the mammography rates [of AI/AN women] that we’re actually seeing, which are well behind other women across the country.
Knudsen emphasized the need to “create that additional awareness about the importance of getting screened for breast cancer early because of the link to improved outcomes,” especially in Indigenous communities.
There are also cultural barriers to cancer care and awareness. “Culturally, we don’t often speak about very deep illness, because we don’t want to give it life,” Hallingstad said.
That fear, not necessarily shared by all Indigenous communities, is a common reason people from any background may choose not to discuss cancer risk, or to seek help if they think they have a serious health problem.
Melissa Buffalo, an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa, is the CEO of the American Indian Cancer Foundation, where she works alongside Hallingstad. Her organization recently received a grant to study the knowledge and beliefs surrounding cancer and clinical trials among Indigenous people in Minnesota. Buffalo said she hopes to “create resources and tools that are culturally relevant, culturally tailored, so that we can help to build trust within these healthcare systems.”
Advocates like Buffalo and organizations like the ACS are also creating toolkits to help existing systems increase their outreach to AI/AN women. However, “there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to everything,” Dr. Melissa Simon, an OB/GYN at Northwestern University and founder of the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative, told ABC News.
“We have to also acknowledge that the patient has some variation too, just like the cancer itself. To treat it has some variation,” Simon said.
“We have to talk about it,” Hallingstad said about breast cancer in the Indigenous community. “We need to understand treatment options. We need to bring care facilities closer and we need to make sure our populations are being screened and are following treatment.”
Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH is a physician board-certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine and a medical fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Sejal Parekh, M.D., is a board-certified, practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
