Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week. Tonight is the first Presidential Debate of the season. Topics like the economy, inflation, the military, and immigration will likely take center stage. However, I am eager to hear what both candidates say about health issues, including health insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, abortion access, and funding/support for public health. Additionally, I am curious to see how each candidate's physical and mental health impacts the debates and election…
This is the first Presidential Election since I started writing Epi(demiology) Matters. You can expect to hear more from me as each candidate unveils his plans (or lack thereof) for healthcare and public health. Be sure you are subscribed so that you do not miss a post —
And if you have a question about either candidate’s plans regarding health, healthcare, insurance, or public health, please ask —
Should there be any significant debates around health this evening, I will post an update tomorrow. In the meantime — this week, news about an ice-cream recall, gun violence, and how little adults know about sexually transmitted diseases caught my attention.
Hoping these posts help to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Ice-Cream Recall
On Monday, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) shared that Totally Cool, Inc. (of Owings Mills, Maryland) was recalling multiple brands of ice-cream, including Friendly’s ice-cream cakes, various Hershey’s ice-cream cakes and cones, and ChipWich sandwiches, among others, because they all may have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Listeria is a bacteria that can survive refrigeration and freezing. If an individual ingests listeria, they will likely get sick with a fever, nausea, and diarrhea a few days (but up to 30) after ingestion. A listeria infection can be very serious (often fatal) for pregnant people, older adults, and individuals with weakened immune systems.
The complete list of Totally Cool ice-cream products that have been recalled is available HERE. If you have any of the recalled products in your freezer, you can return them to the store where they were purchased for a complete refund.
Do NOT eat any of the products that have been recalled.
To date, no one has been diagnosed with listeria after eating ice-cream. This is because public health was at work. The contaminated products were pulled out of the freezers before they could be eaten exposing individuals to listeria — primary public health prevention.
Gun Violence is (officially) a Public Health Crisis
On Tuesday, the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared that gun violence is a public health crisis in the United States. A full report detailing the crisis and steps to curb the violence is available HERE. Dr. Murthy told the AP —
“People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe. America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship, without having to worry that that’s going to put our life at risk.”
His announcement came on the heels of the latest mass shooting (this one in Alabama) that left dozens dead or injured. The AP wrote —
It was the second straight weekend that saw an outbreak of mass shootings across the U.S.
I want to remind each of you that (in the words of Will McAvoy from The Newsroom, which I have quoted often) —
In his declaration, Dr. Murthy noted that —
Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the U.S.
More than half (54%) of adults in the U.S. reported that either they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident.
Gun violence leads to increased harm in our communities (see below)
Preventative/public health action is needed to end the crisis.
The Surgeon General is calling for (among other things) —
A ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines for civilian use.
Universal background checks for all gun purchases.
Penalties for individuals who fail to store their guns properly/safely at home.
We need to voice our support for Dr. Murthy’s plan to end the gun violence crisis.
And we need to stand behind Vice President Harris, who said —
“As a nation, we must have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and fight for sensible gun safety laws to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
Adults Know Far Too Little About STIs
Earlier this month, the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) published the results of its most recent Science & Public Health Knowledge Survey, which asked questions about knowledge of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The study — a national probability sample of American adults — found that there are A LOT of misconceptions and misunderstandings about STIs.
Specifically — just over half of the respondents (54%) knew that syphilis can be cured (with antibiotics). And (of great concern!) most respondents (84%) mistakenly believed that a vaccine to prevent syphilis exists.
There is NO syphilis vaccine.
There was also a lack of understanding about HPV (human papillomavirus)… one-third of the respondents did NOT know that there is a vaccine to prevent HPV infections and related cancers.
Everyone between 9 and 45 years old should get their HPV vaccine.
Surprisingly, only 39% of respondents recognized that mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is an STI, and far fewer (12%) knew that Zika virus is an STI.
Why is this lack of understanding concerning?
This lack of understanding is occurring at the same time as —
Syphilis cases have increased by 80% between 2018-2022 in the US
One in five Americans have an STI right now (many do not realize it)
Each year there are more than 13 million new cases of HPV in the US
Each year more than $16 billion is spent on caring for STIs
Nearly half of all new STI cases are among young people (15-24)
STIs are on the rise among older people (60+)
The most common symptom of an STI is — NO SYMPTOMS
In states where people report being more religious/practicing religion, there are higher rates of teen pregnancy
The only way to prevent new cases of STIs is to learn about them — what diseases are spread sexually? how are they spread? why symptoms do they cause? how are they diagnosed? treated? can one be cured? how do we break the chain of disease transmission? how do we protect an unborn fetus from contracting an STI? how to we prevent spreading STIs through other modes of transmission (many can be transmitted via blood/needles)?
Education is needed.
It is not a question of would you like to learn more. We all need to learn about STIs.
It is a question of how would you like to learn. Please let me know… a series of posts? an online class? a series of flashcards you could work through on your own? a virtual book club?
Please vote & let me know —
Seriously, vote and let me know how you would like to learn more. If you select “something else,” please leave a comment and let me know what. And if you’re local and would like to meet at the Meadville Library for a book club, please let me know.
As always, be sure to share this post & all the others with your friends and family, especially the ice-cream lovers in your lives —
Epi(demiology) Matters is written by Dr. Becky Dawson, PhD MPH — an epidemiologist, teacher, mom, wife, and dedicated yogi. She is a tenured professor at Allegheny College, Research Director at a community hospital, and an exclusive contributor (all things health & medicine) at Erie News Now (NBC/CBS). Her goal is to create healthy communities for all. She writes Epi Matters — first & foremost because epidemiology does matter (to all of us) and she hopes that each post will help to educate and empower readers to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Be sure you and your friends and family are subscribed so you don’t miss a post —
Epi(demiology) Matters is free — because science, reports, news, updates, and alerts about health should NOT be behind a paywall. EVER. Everyone needs access to up-to-date health information in order to be healthy and create healthy communities for all.