Wins
* Patients with undetectable HIV cannot transmit the virus, according to Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a long-time advisor on the topic of HIV-AIDS. Although this concept is not new, there is now firm scientific support for it, say Fauci and colleagues, whose viewpoint on the topic can be found in the February 5 JAMA. They emphasize that adherence to antiretroviral therapy is key.
* Improvements in physical activity levels among adults and consistent declines in U.S. tobacco use among adults and children were reported in the 2019 update on heart disease and stroke statistics from the American Heart Association, published in Circulation.
* Death rates in children from malignant neoplasms and drowning decreased between 1993 and 2016, according to a special report on the leading causes of mortality in children and adolescents in the December 20, 2018, New England Journal of Medicine.
* The overall cancer death rate decreased by 27% from 1991 to 2016, according to findings from an American Cancer Society data analysis, published in the January CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
* A registry of crisis intervention beds for patients with serious mental illness is being created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and 23 states have agreed to participate in the new SAMHSA-funded initiative: http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/press-announcements/201901240130.
Losses
* The rate of benzodiazepine prescribing during outpatient visits to nonpsychiatrists-mostly primary care physicians-doubled from 2003 to 2015, according to an analysis in the January 25 JAMA Network Open. The rate at which these agents were coprescribed with other depressants that affect the central nervous system also increased.
* Rates of death from motor vehicle accidents and firearm injuries are higher in U.S. children than in those in other high-income countries, and drug overdoses rose to the sixth leading cause of death, according to the December 20, 2018, New England Journal of Medicine special report.
* The 2016 rate of opioid-related inpatient stays among women increased with patient age and was higher among whites than other ethnicities, according to the U.S. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb247-Opioid-Hospital-Stays-Women.
* Cervical cancer remains the second leading cause of death in women ages 20 to 39, according to the January CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.