Author: Alexa Opdyke

Preidt, Robert. (June 21, 2019) New Drug Combats Leading Cause of Dwarfism. U.S. News & World Report. Available at https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-06-21/new-drug-combats-leading-cause-of-dwarfism (Accessed June 23, 2019).

The intervention that the article focused on was using a drug called vosoritide to regulate the bone development in children with the genetic bone disorder achondroplasia. Achondroplasia is the most common form of dwarfism. In the United States, France, United Kingdom and Australia a four-year phase 2 trial was conducted. 35 children aged 5-14 were separated into four groups and given daily doses of vosoritide in increasing quantities. This caused the children to increase in height an average of 2.4 inches a year. It increased the children’s growth rate on average by 50%. The side effects of the drug were generally minor. I am convinced of the effectiveness of this intervention because of the increased growth rate of the children with only minor side effects. Achondroplasia affects approximately 1 in 25,000 infants and is caused by a FGFR3 gene mutation which adversely affects bone growth. An overactive signal that stops development is what causes achondroplasia. This intervention is effective because vosoritide helps to stop that overactivity thus helping to solve the problem. The intervention is likely to catch on because from a policy perspective it is addressing the needs of these children by improving their future health on a yearly basis. The key decision makers are likely to agree to recommend and fund this intervention because it increased the growth rates of children with achondroplasia per year to nearly the same growth rates per year of children of average height. Many children with achondroplasia have other complications such as spinal chord compression, spinal curvature and bowed legs. These complications require corrective surgeries in approximately half of the children. This intervention may improve the children’s health outcomes, functioning and access to their environment which would increase the likelihood that it would be funded by key decision makers.

BBC News (June 19, 2019) Women not aware enough of breast cancer link to alcohol. BBC News. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48677953 (Accessed June 19, 2019).

Consumption of alcohol is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Women who drink 2 units of alcohol a day increase their risk of developing breast cancer from 8% to 11%. Because I am a woman with a family history of breast cancer but I only drink minimal amounts of alcohol at social events, my perceived susceptibility of developing breast cancer is still only based on my family history. However, my perceived severity of breast cancer is high because I could get very sick and/or die from it. This information about alcohol increasing the risk of breast cancer affects my thoughts by making me think I should continue to drink minimal amounts of alcohol, as it is a risk factor I can control. I did not have any background knowledge that drinking alcohol increased the risk of breast cancer. Comparing my knowledge that drinking alcohol may affect heart health and can affect liver health helped me realize that it can affect other parts of the body as well. This led me to understand that it increases the risk of breast cancer. I interpreted the number of units of alcohol that increases the risk of breast cancer (2) as far lower than the recommended alcohol limits for men and women per day (14). Slovic’s work described how if a risk is familiar one might not think of it as risky as an unknown risk. Slovic’s work does not apply to my own perceptions of the risks of breast cancer. Even though drinking alcohol is a familiar risk like driving a car as opposed to an unknown risk like nuclear weapons and genetically modified food I took this into account in my perceptions. Although 14 units of alcohol is the recommended limit to drink a day and a familiar risk I perceived that to lower my risk for breast cancer I would need to drink a much lower amount, less than 2 units of alcohol a day.

Avramova, Nina. (June 6, 2019) One million STDs diagnosed every day, World Health Organization says. CNN. Available at https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/health/global-sti-cases-who-data-intl/index.html (Accessed June 9, 2019).

This article describes the time trend of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also known as STDs, of chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and syphilis. More than a million of these STIs are contracted per day and 376 million a year. There are several determinants contributing to this epidemic. Dr. Melanie Taylor says that these trends show that “people are taking risks with their health” and that in worldwide figures these STIs show “no substantial decline,” since 2012. Treating these STIs is difficult. There are shortages of enzathine penicillin to treat syphilis and there is antimicrobial resistance to gonorrhea treatments. Because many of the STIs show no symptoms, people do not realize they are infected and need to be treated. Also, STIs are as Dr. Taylor says, “associated with shame and stigma” adding to this “hidden” epidemic. Public health strategies could try to find alternative treatments for these infections as well as encourage people to take less risks with their health. Public health strategies could also test for STIs more often as they do not present symptoms and try to stop the shame and stigma associated with these infections so that it will no longer be a “hidden” epidemic. I would want to know more about how this information varies by region and the different ways it is being handled in different places. That way it would be easier to identify which strategies are working for containing this problem and can be implemented successfully worldwide. I agree with the conclusions presented by the author from the data. It is specific in saying that this information is about 4 specific STIs and not all STIs. I trust this source. The information is straightforward and backed up by data from the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as other credible sources.