K-ZONE WPKZ FM105.3/AM 1280

Your Hometown Radio

listen nowLISTEN NOW
listen nowLISTEN NOW
K-Zone Studio Line 978.348.1280

Health

Salem Hospital faces lawsuit after hundreds of patients possibly exposed to HIV, hepatitis

by

An Amesbury woman is suing Salem Hospital after she and hundreds of other patients may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV during a medical imaging procedure.

Keches Law Group has filed a class action lawsuit against Mass General Brigham, Salem Hospital and 10 hospital employees on behalf of plaintiff Melinda Cashman, a resident of Amesbury whom the firm says “suffered permanent injuries, additional testing requirements, extreme anxiety, emotional distress, and decreased quality of life due to potential exposure to these infections.”

Hospital officials revealed on Wednesday that roughly 450 patients receiving an endoscopy between June 2021 and April 2023 were potentially exposed during the administration of IV medications “in a manner not consistent with our best practice.”

Cashman received a letter from Mitchell Rein, chief medical officer and senior vice president of medical affairs at Salem Hospital, on the afternoon of Nov. 3, a Friday, when she got home from work.

The letter did not define whether the infection was viral or bacterial, informing patients potentially affected to contact the hospital Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

It was 4:45 when Cashman said she got the letter, meaning she had little to no outlets to seek answers from over the weekend.

“I did a lot of googling and research to try to figure it out, but I didn’t know what I was doing because everything was just the word ‘infection.’ There are so many different infections it could have been,” Cashman told reporters Friday afternoon at Keches Law’s Milton office.

“I literally just couldn’t stop trying to figure it out,” she continued. “Was I going to need a kidney or liver transplant? Was I going to get an infection that was going to require me to not be around anymore, and I’m the sole caregiver of my parents? There are a lot of things that went through my brain.”

Keches Law, in a release, highlighted the hospital notified Cashman that “she would need to undergo testing, screening and an evaluation to determine whether she was infected, a process that could take months or even years. As a result, she will continue to suffer severe emotional distress and mental anguish.”

Attorneys representing Cashman and “others similarly situated” have indicated the focus of the lawsuit is primarily to get answers to a wide array of questions, more so than seeking financial damages.

Cashman has taken tests, which she said she had to fight for to be done on the spot, but a doctor has yet to review them, causing further confusion on how to proceed.

“The fix is to be transparent, to give the patients a clear idea about what happened, how it happened, and what they could and should do going forward,” attorney Jonathan Sweet said. “Patients are unsatisfied with just getting uninterpretable lab results sent to them.”

A statement from the hospital highlighting the development on Wednesday did not provide details on how the exposure may have occurred and how it was corrected. Officials have remained mum about specifics since.

After becoming aware of the issue earlier this year, officials said they fixed the practice and notified its quality and infection control teams.

“Salem Hospital has notified all potentially impacted patients, set up a clinician-staffed hotline to answer questions, and we are providing them with free screening and any necessary support,” officials said in a statement. “There is no evidence to date of any infections resulting from this incident.”

The hospital has been working with the state Department of Public Health in managing the situation, with the department conducting an onsite investigation.

A department spokesperson told news outlets that the department also advised the hospital “to offer free-of-charge follow-up care, including testing.”

The tests being offered are “standard tests for an exposure of this kind because they are common blood-borne pathogenic viruses that often don’t produce symptomatic infection,” a hospital spokesperson said.

Keches Law received about a dozen calls on Friday from “extremely concerned and anxious” patients who are feeling “betrayed,” attorney Jeff Catalano said. Some calls came in every five to 10 minutes, he said.

“Let’s keep in mind, these are vulnerable people,” Catalano said. “These are people who have undergone an endoscopic procedure for a very specific reason. That reason being that they have some medical complication … that is potentially on its own life altering and potentially life threatening.”

SALEM, MA - February 20, 2021: Salem Hospital, part of the North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Massachusetts. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
Herald file photo
Salem Hospital, part of the North Shore Medical Center. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

Men die nearly 6 years before women, as US life expectancy gap widens: Harvard Public Health

by

The life expectancy of American women is now 5.8 years longer than that of men, a trend that researchers say is driven by the COVID pandemic and the opioid overdose epidemic.

U.S. men dying nearly 6 years before women is now the largest life expectancy gap between sexes since 1996, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and UC San Francisco.

The life expectancy gender gap of 5.8 years in 2021 was a jump from 4.8 years in 2010, when the gap was at its smallest in recent history.

The pandemic, which took a disproportionate toll on men, was the biggest contributor to the widening gap from 2019 to 2021 — followed by unintentional injuries and poisonings (mostly drug overdoses), accidents, and suicide.

“There’s been a lot of research into the decline in life expectancy in recent years, but no one has systematically analyzed why the gap between men and women has been widening since 2010,” said first author Brandon Yan, a UCSF internal medicine resident physician and research collaborator at Harvard Chan School.

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped in 2021 to 76.1 years — falling from 78.8 years in 2019, and 77 years in 2020.

The shortening lifespan of Americans has been attributed in part to so-called “deaths of despair.” The term refers to the increase in deaths from such causes as suicide, drug use disorders, and alcoholic liver disease, which are often connected with economic hardship, depression, and stress.

“While rates of death from drug overdose and homicide have climbed for both men and women, it is clear that men constitute an increasingly disproportionate share of these deaths,” Yan said.

Using data from the National Center for Health Statistics, Yan and fellow researchers from around the country identified the causes of death that were lowering life expectancy the most. Then, they estimated the effects on men and women to see how much different causes were contributing to the gap.

Before the COVID pandemic, the largest contributors were unintentional injuries, diabetes, suicide, homicide, and heart disease.

But during the pandemic, men were more likely to die of the virus. That was likely due to a number of reasons — including differences in health behaviors, as well as social factors, such as the risk of exposure at work, reluctance to seek medical care, incarceration, and housing instability.

“We have brought insights to a worrisome trend,” Yan said. “Future research ought to help focus public health interventions towards helping reverse this decline in life expectancy.”

Mass General Brigham is offering buyouts for digital employees: ‘Decisions like these are never easy’

by

Mass General Brigham has told Digital employees that it’s offering buyouts, as the health care behemoth called it a “difficult decision” to cut down its workforce.

MGB Digital employees were informed about the voluntary separation program during a staff meeting last week. The “voluntary employee separation” application period opened on Nov. 1 and will close on Wednesday, Nov. 15, according to an internal confidential document obtained by the Herald.

The Digital team represents the technology division of Mass General Brigham.

“As we move toward a more modern technology infrastructure, we have made the difficult decision to offer volunteer separation to employees on our Digital team to better optimize our workforce while providing an opportunity for employees who may wish to leave the organization,” Mass General Brigham said in a statement on Thursday.

“Decisions like these are never easy and we strive to treat our employees with the dignity and respect they deserve while ensuring we are able to successfully carry out our mission well into the future,” the health care organization added.

Digital employees were given information about the buyout program, as well as consultations with HR to go over their options.

After the voluntary employee separation application period ends on Wednesday, Mass General Brigham on Nov. 22 will announce how many people took the buyouts.

“As care delivery changes, whether in a hospital or clinic setting or delivered remotely through in-person or virtual appointments, the tools and technology used to reach patients and support our mission also continues to evolve,” Mass General Brigham said in its statement.

“As a result of these changes, we have undertaken a comprehensive review of our Digital team, which represents the technology arm of Mass General Brigham, to better align our workforce resources and skills with our organizational needs and those of the communities we serve,” MGB added.

Last December, Mass General Brigham reported an operations loss of $432 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022. The health care system cited historic cost inflation, significant workforce shortages, and a worsening capacity crisis.

In MGB’s latest financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, the system reported an overall profit of $437 million. MGB had an operating income of $69 million for the quarter. The labor and supply cost pressures that began to intensify last spring had moderated, but continued to impact operating performance, according to MGB.

“Healthcare organizations across the country, including Mass General Brigham, are making modest progress toward financial recovery, but we still have much more work to do,” Niyum Gandhi, MGB’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said in the third quarter report. “Our recent performance improvement reflects systemwide initiatives to address capacity constraints but we also need to moderate our expense growth trend through productivity enhancement and resource stewardship to meet our annual budget targets and position Mass General Brigham for long-term financial stability.”

CTE risk increases with longer rugby careers: Boston University study

by

A rugby player’s risk for developing CTE increases the longer their career lasts, according to a new landmark study involving Boston University researchers.

Scientists from BU, the University of Glasgow and University of Sydney have found new evidence that links playing rugby union — either at the amateur or elite level — with developing the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Much of the focus around CTE has involved American football players, and their exposure to repeated head impacts and concussion head injuries. Researchers are only able to diagnose CTE in those who have died.

This latest study looked at the results of postmortem brain examinations of 31 former amateur and elite rugby union players whose brains were donated for research purposes in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Australia. CTE was found in 68% of the brains examined, and in both amateur and elite players.

The risk for developing CTE was tied with the length of a player’s rugby career — with each additional year of play adding 14% to CTE risk. Player position or level of participation, either amateur or elite, did not appear to influence CTE risk.

“CTE is a preventable disease,” said Ann McKee, director of the BU CTE Center and UNITE brain bank.

“There is an urgent need to reduce not only the number of head impacts, but the strength of those impacts, in rugby as well as the other contact sports, in order to protect and prevent CTE in these players,” added McKee, a co-author of the rugby CTE study.

Rugby union is known to have a high risk of concussions, with injury rates highest in the professional game.

In this study, the average rugby career length was around 18 years, with an equal number of forward and backs. Twenty-three (74%) played rugby exclusively as amateurs, with eight (26%) reaching elite level.

“These results provide new evidence regarding the association between rugby union participation and CTE,” said Willie Stewart, consultant neuropathologist and honorary professor at the University of Glasgow.

“Specifically, our data show risk is linked to length of rugby career, with every extra year of play increasing risk,” Stewart added. “Based on this it is imperative that the sport’s regulators reduce exposure to repeated head impacts in match play and in training to reduce risk of this otherwise preventable contact sport related neurodegenerative disease.”

Red meat tied to higher risk for type 2 diabetes, plant-based protein may lower risk: Harvard study

by

Have you been trying to cut back on red meat? It could help you avoid a serious disease that affects tens of millions of people across the U.S.

People who eat two servings of red meat a week may have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who eat fewer servings, and the risk increases with greater consumption, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The Harvard researchers also found that replacing red meat with healthy plant-based protein sources — such as nuts and legumes — or modest amounts of dairy was tied with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

“Our findings strongly support dietary guidelines that recommend limiting the consumption of red meat, and this applies to both processed and unprocessed red meat,” said first author Xiao Gu, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Nutrition.

Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney disease, cancer, and dementia.

While previous studies have found a link between red meat consumption and type 2 diabetes risk, this study now adds a greater level of certainty about the association.

The researchers analyzed health data from 216,695 participants from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The participants were asked about their diet in food frequency questionnaires every two to four years, for up to 36 years. During this time, more than 22,000 participants developed type 2 diabetes.

The scientists found that consumption of red meat — including processed and unprocessed red meat — was strongly linked with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Participants who ate the most red meat had a 62% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who ate the least.

Every additional daily serving of processed red meat was linked with a 46% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and every additional daily serving of unprocessed red meat was associated with a 24% greater risk.

The researchers also estimated the potential effects of substituting one daily serving of red meat for another protein source. They found that substituting a serving of nuts and legumes was linked with a 30% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and substituting a serving of dairy products was associated with a 22% lower risk.

“Given our findings and previous work by others, a limit of about one serving per week of red meat would be reasonable for people wishing to optimize their health and wellbeing,” said senior author Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition.

The researchers also said swapping red meat for healthy plant protein sources would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and provide other environmental benefits.

The red meat and type 2 diabetes study was published on Thursday in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

An ‘exciting’ glioblastoma study: Boston researchers create virus that can effectively target the aggressive brain cancer

by

Could a virus treatment designed by Boston researchers be the key to treating the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma?

Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists report that they have created a cancer-attacking virus that can effectively target glioblastoma. The oncolytic virus treatment extended survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, especially among patients with pre-existing viral antibodies.

The virus can infect cancer cells and stimulate an anti-tumor immune response, according to the researchers.

“Almost no immunotherapies for GBM have been able to increase immune infiltration to these tumors, but the virus studied here provoked a very reactive immune response with infiltration of tumor-killing T-cells,” said corresponding author E. Antonio Chiocca, chair of the BWH Department of Neurosurgery.

“That’s hard to do with GBM, so our findings are exciting and give us hope for our next steps,” Chiocca added.

This Phase I, first-in-human trial looked at the safety of an oncolytic herpes simplex virus called CAN-3110. The cancer-attacking virus is the same type of virus used in a therapy for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Overall, the trial showed the safety of CAN-3110 in 41 patients with high-grade gliomas, including 32 with recurrent GBM. The most serious adverse events were seizures in two patients.

Notably, GBM patients who had pre-existing antibodies to the HSV1 virus (66% of the patients) had a median overall survival of 14.2 months.

The researchers believe that the presence of HSV1 antibodies sparked a rapid immune response to the virus — which brought more immune cells to the tumor and increased the levels of inflammation in the tumor microenvironment.

“GBM has an aggressive effect in part because of a milieu of immunosuppressive factors surrounding the tumor, which enable the tumor’s growth by preventing the immune system from entering and attacking it,” Chiocca said. “This study showed that with a virus we designed, we can reshape this ‘immune desert’ into a pro-inflammatory environment.”

Moving forward, the researchers plan to complete prospective studies to further investigate the effectiveness of the oncolytic virus in patients who do and do not have antibodies to HSV1.

After showing the safety of one viral injection, the scientists will be testing the safety and efficacy of up to six injections over four months — which, like multiple rounds of vaccination, may increase the effectiveness of the therapy.