Polio vaccinations wrap up in Gaza as officials try to inoculate 90% of children under age 10
Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(TEL-AVIV, Israel) — The last day of the polio vaccination campaign is wrapping up in Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.
The campaign was launched after the first case of polio in Gaza in more than 25 years was recently detected. Health officials from the WHO, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and partner organizations said they would be vaccinating children in three-day phases starting in central Gaza, then in southern Gaza, and ending in the north.
As of Thursday morning, more than 552,000 children under age 10 out of 640,000 have been vaccinated in Gaza, according to the WHO. The organization said at least 90% coverage is needed to stop a potential outbreak in Gaza, and the campaign may be extended if that 90% figure isn’t achieved on Thursday.
Poliovirus was first detected in sewage samples from the cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis – in central and southern Gaza, respectively – in mid-July, in tests conducted by the Gaza Ministry of Health in coordination with the UN.
In mid-August, the Ministry of Health reported the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, in a 10-month-old child who had not been vaccinated. Doctors suspected polio after symptoms resembled the virus, which was confirmed in test conducted in Amman, the capital of Jordan, according to the WHO.
Children are receiving two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), which has been used for outbreak response under the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing approval since March 2021. A second dose is typically given four weeks after the first.
“We want to protect our children from diseases and give them the necessary vaccines because prevention is better than cure,” Islam Saleh, a mother in northern Gaza, said in a video issued by the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday.
“I fear for my son because there is no cure for polio. This dose he received will protect him, and it is safe,” Saleh added.
Officials have said that the vaccination operation is complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and fuel shortages. Israel has agreed to “temporary” pauses in fighting each day in order for the vaccinations to be administered.
Earlier this week, a convoy of UN vehicles in northern Gaza was stopped and questioned by Israeli Security Forces before being released, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Polio largely affects children under age 5 and can lead to paralysis or death. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are about 341,000 children under the age of five in Gaza.
Children in the U.S. are recommended to get the inactivated polio vaccine as part of routine childhood immunization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It consists of four doses in total administered first at 2 months of age, then at 4 months, 6-18 months, and 4-6 years.
“It has been heartening to see the response to the campaign,” the WHO said in comments released after a press briefing on Thursday. “Everywhere the team has gone, parents are doing all they can to ensure their child does not miss vaccination. Many vaccination sites received more than expected crowds. Special coordinated missions were also conducted to reach children in insecure and heard to reach areas.”
ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Dana Savir contributed to this report.
While the United States has made considerable progress fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis since its peak in the 1980s, headway has not been equal among racial/ethnic groups.
Overall, HIV rates have declined in the U.S. and the number of new infections over the last five years has dropped among Black Americans and white Americans. However, Hispanic and Latino Americans have not seen the same gains.
Between 2018 and 2022, estimated HIV infections among gay and bisexual men fell 16% for Black Americans and 20% for white Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, Hispanic Americans saw rates held steady, the CDC said.
There may be several reasons for the lack of decline, including Hispanic Americans facing health care discrimination, experts told ABC News. Some may also face the stigma that prevents patients from accessing services or makes them feel ashamed to do so. There is also a lack of material that is available in their native language or is culturally congruent, experts said.
“Where we are in the HIV epidemic is that we have better tools than ever for both treatment and for prevention, and we have seen a modest slowing in the rate of new infections, but we have seen a relative increase in the rate of new infections among Latino individuals, particularly Latino men who have sex with men,” Dr. Kenneth Mayer, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical research director at Fenway Health in Boston, told ABC News.
“So, the trends are subtle, but they’re concerning because it does speak to increased health disparities in that population,” he continued.
Hispanic Americans make up more cases and more deaths
Although Hispanic and Latino Americans make up 18% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 33% of estimated new HIV infections in 2022, according to HIV.gov, a website run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This is in comparison with white Americans, who make up 61% of the U.S. population but just 23% of HIV infections.
Hispanic and Latino gay men currently represent the highest number of new HIV cases in the U.S.
What’s more, Hispanic males were four times likely to have HIV or AIDS compared to white males in 2022 and Hispanic females were about three times more likely than white females to have HIV over the same period, according to the federal Office of Minority Health (OMH).
Additionally, Hispanics males were nearly twice as likely to die of HIV Infection as white males and Hispanic females to die of HIV Infection in 2022, the OMH said.
Erick Suarez, a nurse practitioner and chief medical officer of Pineapple Healthcare, a primary care and HIV/AIDS specialist located in Orlando, Florida, told ABC News that watching the lack of progress made in the HIV/AIDS crisis for the Hispanic and Latino population is like “traveling back in time.”
“When I say traveling back in time for the Hispanic/Latino population with HIV, I mean [it’s like] they are living before 2000,” he said, “Their understanding of treatment and how to access it is in that pre-2000 world. … The state of HIV and AIDS in the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States right now is a few steps back from the general American population.”
He said many Hispanic/Latino HIV patients come to the United States unaware of their HIV status. If they are aware of their status, they come from countries where prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is hard to find or doesn’t exist.
When they get to the United States, they be afraid or unsure of where or how to access health care. Even Hispanic/Latino Americans whose families have been here for generations, have trouble accessing health care due to racial and ethnic disparities, Suarez said.
Previous research has shown Hispanic/Latino Americans with HIV reported experiencing health care discrimination, which could be a barrier to accessing care.
Facing discrimination, stigma
Hispanic and Latino patients with HIV report facing discrimination in health care, experts told ABC News. A CDC report published in 2022 found between 2018 and 2020, nearly 1 in 4 Hispanic patients with HIV said they experienced health care discrimination.
Hispanic men were more likely to face discrimination than Hispanic women and Black or African American Hispanic patients were more likely than white Hispanic patients to face discrimination, according to the report.
There may also be stigma — both within the general population and within their own communities — associated with HIV infection that could prevent patients from accessing services, according to the experts.
Suarez said one of his most recent patients, who is Cuban, traveled two hours to a clinic outside of their city to make sure no one in their familial and social circles would know their status.
“The interesting part is that even though I speak with them like, ‘You understand that everything that happens within these walls is federally protected, that it is private information. No one will ever know your information, and our goal is for you to get access healthcare. You can do this in your own city,'” Suarez said.
“Now, because of the stigma, they will travel long distances to avoid contact with anyone and make sure that no one knows their status. So, stigma is a huge factor,” he continued.
Rodriguez said this stigma and mistrust has led to many Hispanic and Latino Americans to not seek medical care unless something is seriously wrong, which may result in missed HIV diagnoses or a missed opportunity to receive post-exposure prophylaxis, which can reduce the risk of HIV when taken within 72 hours after a possible HIV exposure.
Making resources ‘available, attainable and achievable’ Experts said one way to lower rates is to make information on how to reduce risk as well as how to get tested and treated available in other languages, such as Spanish, and making sure it is culturally congruent.
However, Rodriguez says translating documents is not enough. In the early 2010s, when the CDC was disseminating its national strategy to reduce HIV infection, the agency began to circulate materials on how to reduce HIV incidence, reducing stigma and increasing use of condoms for sex, Rodriguez said.
He said that of a compendium of 30 interventions, maybe one was in Spanish. When he took the materials back to his native Puerto Rico, many were having trouble understanding the materials because it has been translated by someone who is of Mexican heritage.
Secondly, rather than the materials being written in Spanish, they had been translated from English to Spanish, which doesn’t always translate well, Rodriguez said.
“When we talk about Hispanics, we have to talk about, first of all, the culture. Our culture is very complex. Not one Spanish language can speak to all of the Hispanic communities,” he said. “And then we also have to look at the generations of Hispanics. Are you first generation, second generation, third generation? “
He added that the key is making resources “available, attainable and achievable.”
This month, the White House convened a summit to discuss raising awareness of HIV among Hispanic and Latino Americans and to discuss strengthening efforts to address HIV in Hispanic and Latino communities.
Mayer said it’s also important to make sure information is disseminated on social media that is culturally tailored for Hispanic and Latino experiences.
“It’s important for social media to seem culturally relevant, to make sure that they understand that HIV is not just a disease of old white guys, and that they may have a substantial risk,” he said. “Make sure that they’re educated by what they can do to protect themselves since we have highly effective pre-exposure prophylaxis, and we have ways to decrease STIs with a doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis.
The experts added that having more Hispanics and Latinos represented in medicine, research and public health may encourage more Hispanic and Latino Americans with HIV or at risk of HIV to seek care or treatment.
“Seeing and being able to recognize that your healthcare provider looks like you, sounds like you, in some way it represents you, is a key aspect of getting people on treatment and access,’ Suarez said. “And not only that, but keeping them in treatment and having them come back and stay and keep that going, that’s a key issue.”
(NEW YORK) — The journey to get pregnant can be a long road for many women, some of whom are sharing that they found unlikely help from an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine.
The hashtag #mucinexdpregnancy has over 1,500 posts on TikTok from women claiming the medication Mucinex helped them get pregnant.
“I tried the Mucinex hack [and] it worked!,” one TikTok user captioned a post with more than one million views. “After 5 months of trying gave it a shot [and] got pregnant first try.”
“Trying to conceive for years just to take Mucinex and get pregnant,” another TikTok user captioned a viral video with two million views.
According to people sharing their stories on social media, taking a Mucinex pill every day during their high-fertile window helped them get pregnant.
ABC News’ Good Morning America spoke with board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Jessica Shepherd to break down the trend and whether it’s research-proven to work.
Why would Mucinex help with pregnancy?
Mucinex contains an active ingredient, guaifenesin, that helps with congestion by thinning phlegm, a type of mucus produced by the respiratory system.
The theory in using Mucinex to help with fertility is that guaifenesin could also help thin cervical mucus, making it easier for sperm to reach an egg during fertilization, according to Shepherd.
In addition to Mucinex, guaifenesin is also an active ingredient in other over-the-counter cough and cold medications.
“The reason why people think that this is going to be a way that’s going to help increase chances of fertility is that the actual medication is going to thin secretions,” Shepherd said. “Now, when we think of thinning secretions, we are usually looking at it from a perspective of cervical secretions.”
Is there any research proving Mucinex can help with fertility?
Not really, according to Shepherd.
“When we actually look at the data and the studies that have been done on Mucinex and fertility, we know that it hasn’t significantly improved the quality of cervical mucus, which could, again, help with some of the motility of the sperm getting to the egg,” she said. “However, it is, again, something that women can try on their own, but there is no strong data that’s going to say that it’s significantly going to increase their chances of fertility.”
The most frequently-cited study is one published over 40 years ago in 1982, in a journal entitled Fertility and Sterility. In the study, which included 40 couples over a span of 10 months, the female was given 200 mg guaifenesin three times daily from day five of her menstrual cycle through when she was ovulating. Scientists studied how well the sperm moved through her cervical mucus after using the guaifenesin.
Of the 40 patients, two-thirds showed some improvement in sperm motility. Fifteen of the 40 couples became pregnant during the study, though their pregnancies cannot attribute that solely to guaifenesin.
More recently, in 2010, a case study showed anecdotal evidence of improvement in one patient’s sperm count and motility after taking guaifenesin 600 mg extended release tablets twice a day for two months.
However, the study’s researchers said it was “not clear” why the patient had improvement and that more research on guaifenesin and male fertility was needed.
What does the maker of Mucinex say about taking it for infertility?
Reckitt, the maker of Mucinex, told GMA in a statement that taking the medication for infertility is considered “off-label use.”
“Reckitt is aware of recent social media activity surrounding Mucinex and fertility, and we understand why there is heightened interest in this topic. As a global leader in health and hygiene, it is important that we clarify that Mucinex should only be used as intended in line with label directions. Taking Mucinex for infertility constitutes off-label use,” the company said in a statement.
“Taking any medications outside their approved indications or without acknowledging all active ingredients may be harmful. In case of doubt, we recommend women have a discussion with their healthcare professional. Please always read the label and safety information before taking any self-care medication,” the company said.
Is guaifenesin safe to take during pregnancy?
Guaifenesin is considered pregnancy category C by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
That classification means means there’s no data on human fetuses and studies on animal fetuses showed adverse effects.
Women who are pregnant or are trying to become pregnant should always check with their medical provider before taking any medication.
What causes infertility?
Female infertility is known to decline with age as well as smoking, excessive alcohol use, obesity, low body weight and excessive physical or emotional stress.
Medical conditions that impact the ovulation cycle, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries can also contribute to infertility, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Shepherd said it is important that women talk with their doctor if they have concerns about infertility, which is defined by the CDC as being unable to get pregnant after one year of trying or after 6 months if 35 years or older.
“When we look at the different trends that we may see on social media … I think that is so important for every woman to take into account that they need to discuss this specifically with their doctor to ensure that it doesn’t cause any harm, but also that they are following recommended ways for them to improve their chances [for pregnancy] in health and wellness,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — People who were diagnosed with severe COVID-19 infections from the first wave of the pandemic could face double the risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study has found.
The study, published this week in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology and supported by the National Institutes of Health, found the elevated risk could last for up to three years
Researchers focused on the long-term cardiovascular risks for unvaccinated people who were sick with the virus during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020.
Compared to someone who never had COVID-19, the likelihood of heart attack, stroke and death doubled for anyone who was ever ill with the virus, and was four times higher for people who required hospitalization, the study found.
The elevated danger persisted for more than three years after the initial infection, which, according to the study, posed a serious cardiovascular threat comparable to that of type 2 diabetes.
“Findings suggest severe COVID-19 infection as a catastrophic component,” Dr. Hooman Allayee, the study’s principal investigator, told ABC News. “Cardiovascular mortality trends from 2010 to 2019 were steadily going down. Then, all of a sudden, between 2020 and 2022, ten years of work [was] completely wiped out because of COVID-19.”
People with blood types A, B and AB were especially vulnerable to increased cardiovascular risk from COVID-19, while people with type O blood had a reduced chance of facing such issues, according to the study.
“Blood type is known to be associated with heart attack and stroke risk,” said Allayee, who is a professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. “If your blood type is A, B or AB, the virus is more likely to infect you and makes these blood cells open to viral entry.”
The study analyzed individuals from the UK Biobank, a large medical database consisting primarily of data taken from older, wealthier and predominantly white participants. However, similar studies looking at other populations came to nearly identical conclusions, according to Allayee.
The study emphasized the importance of COVID-19 vaccinations, Allayee said.
“No matter what vaccine you got, just six months after the vaccination or the booster, the chance of heart attack and stroke went down,” he said. “But immunity wanes over time, which is why you need the boosters. If not, you could be susceptible to getting severe COVID again.”
Anyone who has ever had a severe COVID-19 infection, especially if they required a hospital stay, should discuss the potentially increased health hazards caused by the virus with their health care provider, Allayee stressed.
“Talk to your doctor and start the discussion with your physician,” he said. “It’s not going away, so we have to start talking about it. Stay on top of your vaccinations and boosters and get regular check-ups.”
Mahir Qureshi, M.D. is an internal medicine physician resident at Cooper University Hospital and a member of the ABC Medical Unit.
