Amid this unmet need, researchers at the School of Medicine developed a method to identify the proteins ticks release while feeding on their hosts. Over time, humans and animals can develop resistance to tick bites by producing antibodies that recognize these proteins, blocking disease transmission. 

To pinpoint which proteins trigger this immune response, the team created an antigen library called IscREAM, which contains over 3,000 deer tick antigens and allows for rapid screening of those most likely to aid in developing future diagnostic tests and vaccines.  

“IscREAM stands for the Ixodes scapularis rapid extracellular antigen monitoring, and is a pretty apt name because who wouldn’t scream when they find a tick on them!” wrote Thomas Hart, former postdoctoral associate at the School of Medicine who spearheaded the creation of IscREAM. “We took almost every possible antigen — over 3,000 different proteins — from I. scapularis and engineered yeast cells to display the protein on their surface.”

Creating IscREAM

Hart explained that IscREAM provided a way to effectively categorize the thousands of proteins ticks secrete to find those that lead to resistance. To identify which tick proteins the immune system responded to, the team combined engineered yeast cells expressing tick proteins with an antibody isolated from blood from tick-exposed Lyme disease patients, guinea pigs and mice. 

The team then monitored the yeast cells to see which ones the tick-resistant antibodies bound to. This data, Hart explained, helped researchers filter through the proteins to identify which triggered an immune system response. 

This information allowed the team to identify new ways to induce tick resistance, or reduced likelihood of tick attachment, feeding and disease transmission, in individuals who have not yet been bitten by a tick. 

The Research Journey

According to Yingjun Cui, a researcher at the School of Medicine who authored the study, the team’s work first began with the development of an mRNA anti-tick vaccine. This process, Cui explained, involved collaborating with Drew Weissman’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their role in developing COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

The vaccine works by injecting mRNA — the instructions for a protein that causes an immune-response — into the cells, building tick resistance. Cui emphasized that the initial vaccine was limited in tick-borne disease prevention, so the team continued work after publishing their first study on the topic in 2021 to improve the vaccine. 

The most recent study incorporating IscREAM took the past two years to complete. As Hart explained, the team first looked through all of the proteins in deer ticks to find the candidate proteins secreted or exposed outside the tick cells. Then, the team began their screens of each tick antigen in their expansive library. 

“Creating IscREAM was honestly a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, of course, but it was interesting work, and it’s always exciting to build a technology like this, and to see it come to fruition,” wrote Hart. 

The team worked with the Weissman lab to craft three mRNA cocktails encoding 25 antigens in tick cement — the “glue” they use to bind their mouthpieces to hosts — that would cause an immune system response in the host. From 2023 to 2024, the team immunized guinea pigs with each cocktail and found that one in particular resulted in lower tick weight and early detachment. 

“We are narrowing down the antigen number now, and our initial experiment has a promising result that the guinea pigs immunized with a small cocktail containing 5 mRNAs developed comparative tick rejection to the big cocktail,” Cui wrote. 

Future applications 

Erol Fikrig, professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, said that the team was inspired to take a new global approach to examining all the interactions a tick has with the antibody response in the human body. 

For Fikrig, the team’s research aims to answer two key questions. 

“The first question is, when you’re bitten by a tick, what is it you’re recognizing in terms of making an antibody to that tick bite?” said Fikrig. “The second thing is, are there targets in there that could be linked to tick rejection?”

In Fikrig’s view, the answer for the first question could help pave the way for new diagnostic tests for early tick bites. In the future, patients concerned about having Lyme disease could perform a test to check for Lyme disease and a test if they have had a recent tick bite to confirm their suspicions. 

In terms of the second, Fikrig believes that the team’s work identifying proteins associated with tick rejection shows promise for preventing tick-borne disease transmission.

“In this paper, we show that when you immunize with a cocktail of 25 proteins, we can develop an immune response,” noted Fikrig. “It’s detectable against all of those proteins, which means that it’s a potential target for an anti tick vaccine.”

Fikrig categorized the study as a first step toward creating a diagnostic test and vaccine, and hopes that further research could help bring both to the public within the next 10 years. 

There are over 40,000 tick-borne disease cases in the United States each year. 

The post Yale research may pave way for diagnostic tests and vaccines for tick-borne diseases appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Measles is a highly contagious virus characterized by symptoms such as high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. The uptick in cases, Yale experts the News spoke to suggest, can be attributed to vaccine hesitancy and decreased vaccination rates, among other things. Though the virus is contagious, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is highly effective at preventing infection, with a 93 percent effectiveness rate. The first dose is given at 12-15 months and the second at four to six years of age. 

“The evidence indicates that the measles outbreak in Texas is due to reduced vaccination rates in that geographic area. Measles is a very contagious disease, but the routine childhood vaccination schedule in the U.S. prevents it,” Dr. Ellen Foxman, associate professor of immunobiology at the School of Medicine, told the News. “When the vaccination rate drops, if there is even one case, the virus can spread quickly to any unprotected contacts. The straightforward way to counteract this is vaccination.” 

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported an outbreak of measles in the Panhandle region of Texas, beginning in January. A majority of these cases are located in Gaines County, with the state health services department reporting one death of a school aged child who was not vaccinated. This is the biggest measles outbreak the state has seen in more than 30 years. 

The child’s parents are members of a Mennonite community, with a kindergarten vaccination rate for measles, mumps and rubella in the county sitting at around 82 percent — the state average vaccination rate is at around 91 percent for the first dose and 80.9 percent for the second dose. In terms of full series vaccination rates, Texas falls behind the rest of the nation, with a state average vaccination rate of 67.8 percent. 

“This outbreak is occurring in an area where there is a low rate of measles vaccination. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases in existence, so to stop an outbreak you need a roughly 95 percent vaccination rate or higher,” Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at the School of Medicine, told the News. “There are pockets of the U.S. where it is significantly less than that, and we are seeing the impact of that in real time.” 

The child’s parents had five children catch measles, and they treated the children with inhaled steroids and castor oil. The couple made comments about not taking the MMR vaccine, saying that the infection “wasn’t that bad” for the other children. 

This outbreak came around the same time Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to be secretary of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has made statements in the past about COVID-19, stating the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System record “confirms that this [COVID] is the deadliest vaccine ever made.” He has also made statements to Fox News about how he believes “autism comes from vaccines.” 

“Secretary Kennedy has been quite vocal about his skepticism toward certain vaccines and has promoted misinformation,” Jackson Higginbottom MPH ’20, vaccine demand strategist at the CDC foundation, told the News. “That said, I think it is important to understand that these outbreaks reflect broader trends. We’ve been seeing declining vaccination rates for several years now, well before the current administration.” 

Deaths as a result of vaccination are a rare occurrence, as there are numerous rigid guidelines that must be met in order to release vaccines to the public, and once they are prepared for human use, there are precautions taken about who gets vaccinated to ensure the utmost safety. 

Despite rigorous evidence from the CDC on the safety of vaccines, the dissemination of Kennedy’s misinformation on vaccination are playing a role in government leadership, and with sweeping cuts to state and community health departments, education and access to vaccines has been affected. 

“What’s happening is that public figures with platforms as significant as Secretary Kennedy’s can amplify existing concerns and potentially accelerate these trends through their policy positions and public statements,” Higginbottom told the News. 

Higginbottom also described the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed dynamics involving vaccine hesitancy, citing factors such as social media platforms being algorithmically designed to amplify content that generates reactions, shifting trust in medical institutions and government agencies and changing ideas on individual choice versus collective responsibility. 

The COVID vaccine’s rapid development raised a lot of questions for people about public health. The nation saw an unprecedented politicization of public health measures, which made it difficult for some to separate true scientific guidance from political messaging. 

“Disproven myths, such as the [measles, mumps and rubella vaccine] causing autism, are continuing to be circulated. Also with the recent changes at Health and Human Services, I worry that local public health departments, who are already resource-strained, will be further reduced over time,” Dr. Roberts told the News. “I worry that misinformation being promoted, coupled with the changes in public health infrastructure, will make stopping this outbreak all the more challenging.” 

The Yale School of Public Health is located at 60 College St. 

The post Yale experts respond to measles outbreak in the United States appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Last month, the Public Health Committee of the Legislature proposed a bill that could help resolve the issue. S.B. 1285 would create a pilot program for four opioid OPCs in Connecticut beginning in June 2026. This would allow people to use drugs in a monitored setting with access to mental health counseling and medical treatment.

“The advantages of overdose prevention centers is that they create a site where people can not just use drugs safely, but also get medical care, get a square meal, a cup of coffee, use a computer and seek treatment through a referral,” Robert Heimer, professor of pharmacology at the School of Public Health, told the News. “It allows drug users to come together, to talk about their problems, to seek treatment if they are ready for it, to talk to people who successfully managed the transition to medication based treatment. It really saves lives.”

According to Heimer, approximately seven million people in the United States struggle with moderate to severe opioid use disorder, contributing to approximately 700,000 deaths annually. In Connecticut alone, the crisis claims an average of 120 lives each month. Though the rate of opioid overdoses is beginning to go down gradually, New Haven continues to be a hotspot for overdose deaths. And the current rate does not appear to be due to increasing fentanyl supply or due to more people going into treatment.

Currently, there are various frameworks for addressing the opioid overdose crisis in New Haven. The first approach is expanding access to methadone, a medication that reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings, to help individuals manage opioid use disorder; second, efforts have intensified to distribute naloxone and clean syringes in cities to prevent overdoses and reduce harm; lastly, programs now test drug samples to detect dangerous substances, ensuring users are aware of what they’re consuming. 

However, Heimer points out that accessing these services requires financial resources, awareness, time and personal commitment — barriers that make it challenging for many individuals to get the help they need. OPCs can tackle these barriers.

OPCs provide a safe space for people to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of trained staff, without fear of arrest or of overdose. They provide sterile use supplies, answer questions on safer use practices, administer first aid and watch for an overdose. OPCs have sprang up across the world in 14 countries, though in New England, there is only one in Rhode Island. 

Kimberly Sue, assistant professor of internal medicine at the School of Medicine, indicates that what makes OPCs different from treatment centers like the APT Foundation is the lack of direct treatment. At the APT Foundation, individuals can access treatments like methadone and receive primary care; OPCs are for individuals who are trying to use drugs safely.

“If you inject fentanyl, you don’t know how strong it is. You basically could overdose in the span of one minute to 20 minutes, depending on how much you’re doing. So to reverse that overdose, OPCs provide oxygen or even naloxone. So that’s a medication that’ll kick the fentanyl off of opioid receptors, and you can start breathing again, and it saves your life. Time is brain,” Sue said.

These centers do more than just reverse potentially fatal overdoses; it provides a community of medical and mental support. OPCs are associated with better health benefits as they promote cleaner use of drugs and needles through education, reducing transmissions of diseases. Individuals can access medical resources like vaccines and regular wellness care for half the cost. And when they’re ready, they can access substance use disorder and mental health counseling with educational information. For the community, OPCs reduce public drug use and drug debris.

“In addition, OPCs prevent people from having to go to the emergency department or call anyone or ambulances to send them to the hospital,” Benjamin Howell, assistant professor of general medicine, said. “That is where people and the city can save money. OPCs definitely have been shown to be cost-effective in the long run.”

With holistic care, laundry services and computer access, OPCs can serve as vital community hubs, offering social support to drug users who have been marginalized, abandoned and left to struggle alone on the streets.

According to Heimer, OPCs can also reduce the stigma and its impact around drug addicts and drug users. Many individuals may feel demoralized or blamed for their disease and medical problems, when it’s usually a secondary mental health problem that inspired their drug use. And with the stifling stigma of mental health care, many would rather turn to drugs that make them feel better than seek mental health treatment. The stigma around drug use has also led to subpar treatment in hospitals, where they aren’t prioritized for care and forced to go through withdrawals.

In New York, OPCs are frequently used by the same individuals. According to Sue, during an OPC’s first year of operation in NYC, it recorded 48,000 visits and intervened in 636 overdoses. Most of these visitors were registered with the OPC. While Connecticut’s OPCs will likely see fewer visitors, they will also require individuals to register for services.

Last year, the bill was proposed in the state House of Representatives, though it didn’t pull through despite support from psychiatrists and harm reduction activists. One of the reasons why it didn’t pass was because of fears that OPCs will encourage drug use. However, Sue believes that people will find a way to use drugs, especially those physically dependent on them. 

“So there’s two options,” Sue told the News. “One, I’m going to go use a Dunkin’ Donuts bathroom. I’m going to use a needle that I’ve used multiple times before, that is not sterile and has been shared. I could miss my vein and I could overdose and die there. The other option is you go to a place where it’s clean. You can wash your hands. You can use a new sterile syringe. Someone with training who will watch you and make sure that you’re safe.”

In addition, some community members were fearful that construction of these OPCs will increase local crime. However, according to Sue, that’s been proven false in various research articles done at the national and international level. 

Currently, the Public Health Committee has expressed support for this bill. Howell acknowledges that while Connecticut’s opioid crisis is not as severe as in New York or Vancouver, he sees OPCs primarily as an educational tool and a symbol of solidarity rather than just a response to overdose deaths. 

However, Howell believes that the biggest challenge to passing the bill in Connecticut may not be community sentiment but rather the need for strong governmental support — especially given the political climate under the current presidency. Trump is looking to prosecute those who provide a place to use drugs, and Howell is unsure if the state government is ready to take on the federal attention OPCs might bring.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong; OPCs absolutely work. It’s a great public health intervention,” Howell said. “It just takes a lot of courage on the state’s level to pass a bill that might get some fire from the federal government.”

As of 2025, Connecticut residents are more likely to die from unintentional drug overdose than a motor vehicle crash.

The post How overdose prevention centers can change the game in the fight against the opioid epidemic appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Lurking in the metal crevices of your Stanley, or snuggled within the silicon lip of your Owala might be a mysterious dark splotch — mold. Should students be concerned about their potential mold exposure?

“Molds can be both beneficial and harmful. Some are useful, while others can pose risks, especially to people with allergies or specific health conditions,” Zheng Wang, a senior research scientist in the Townsend Lab at the School of Medicine, said. “However, except for individuals with severe allergic reactions, most molds in the environment aren’t a major concern.”

Molds are a type of fungi that can be found in a variety of environments, from tropical forests to within our homes.

While mold grows on surfaces rich in organic matter, some species hide on any humid surface, such as the bathtub or kitchen countertops.

Zheng Wang told the News that even though molds are usually not harmful to healthy individuals, some species like yellowish-green Aspergillus produce toxins that can lead to cancer on rare occasions.

“Your mom told you not to eat moldy food because some molds produce and release toxins as they grow – and eating these toxins can make you sick,” Dr. Barbara Kazmierczak, a professor of medicine and microbial pathogenesis, said. “A second risk of drinking mold-containing water is that some of it can go up your nose or into your lungs – and that’s a way of introducing molds into your sinuses or airways.”

Based on a visual analysis alone, it is difficult to ascertain the danger of a mold. 

Denny Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale School of Public Health, studies mycoparasites, fungi that essentially eat other fungi. He says the main concerns with mold are around their secondary metabolites, toxic chemicals they produce to kill competing microbes.

Aflatoxins are one of the most notorious secondary metabolites, which can appear in contaminated peanuts and dried fruit. High doses of these toxins can lead to liver failure, and even low dosage can be carcinogenic, or cancer-causing.

“Fortunately, not all molds are that toxic, and for most people, accidental mold consumption is unlikely to cause severe harm,” Wang said.

Another complication due to exposure to mold is allergies, Wang noted. Coughing and asthma are common symptoms and individual reactions can vary. So, people who are more sensitive should be more cautious about the molds that may exist in their living environment.

According to Wang, rare and sometimes life-threatening fungal infections can occur in immunocompromised patients. These infections can be difficult to treat due to how evolutionarily similar fungi are to humans; antifungals that can effectively kill fungi may harm human cells as well.

As for Yalies who deep-clean their bottles once every break? The concern around mold exposure is minimal.

“If you wouldn’t eat a moldy piece of food or brie, then just wash your water bottle,” Kazmierczak said.

Chaetomium, a common indoor fungus, can cause major health issues. 

The post Haven’t cleaned your water bottle? Yale experts break down the dangers of mold appeared first on Yale Daily News.

These are just some of the effects of the current diaper crisis in Connecticut — even with current initiatives like diaper banks, individuals struggle to provide a consistent supply of diapers for their children. 

However, in late January 2025, Connecticut lawmakers introduced House Bill 6397, aiming to expand Medicaid coverage to include diapers for children from birth to age 3 when deemed medically necessary. The impact this bill has on families across the state, including in New Haven, is transformative.

“Looking at it from a basic needs standpoint, diaper access represents a huge financial burden for many of our families that are on Medicaid,” Dr. Maryallen Flaherty-Hewitt, professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, told the News. “This bill will have a long term positive impact on the growth and development of our infants into being healthy toddlers and children. It can also help our families to have some financial freedom to spend money in other ways.”

What is the diaper disparity?

For many families across the country, diapers represent a critical yet overlooked necessity. According to Flaherty-Hewitt, infrequent diaper changes can cause patches of inflamed skin to develop on babies. Additionally, a lack of regular diaper changes increases the risk of urinary tract infections, which affect any part of the urinary system.

The medical ramifications of a lack of diapers affect the mother’s health as well. 

“In 2013, there was a study done that was published in the Journal of Pediatrics that showed the highest correlation between maternal depression and stress in moms and diaper need,” Janet Alfano, the executive director of the Diaper Bank of Connecticut, said. “This is a recurring stressor that’s going to happen every few hours over the first three years of your baby’s life, and it can interfere with what would be normal bonding with one’s child and how you feel about yourself as a parent.”

Diaper disparities also exacerbate economic hardships on a family. Many childcare centers will not accept children whose parents do not provide diapers, even if they rely on subsidized health care. This leads to parents not being able to go to work to care for their children, missing at times four days of work a week. Alfano points out that this leads to an average loss of $6,000 in wages.

To put diaper costs in perspective, most infants need diaper changes every two hours, leading to an average of 10 diapers per day. Most parents need 700 to 1000 diapers a year, waning off each year as the child becomes more independent. That means $60-$100 just for diapers each month. 

For families who earn low incomes or qualify for Medicaid, the cost is a significant barrier for diaper access. Alfano indicates that with costs of the basic needs like diapers rising, the income stagnancy forces families to improvise.

Ella Thomas, a missionary at Mt. Bethel Baptist Church, points out that some individuals are also forced to make harsh economic decisions; some have to decide between buying food and buying diapers or buying gas and buying diapers. 

Across the country, about one in three families struggle with access to diapers. In Connecticut, it’s one in two families. According to Flaherty-Hewitt, the issue of diaper disparity access goes beyond just concerning caregivers and parents.

“I believe this issue is important to everybody, because there’s so many things downstream that diaper disparities can affect,” Flaherty-Hewitt said. “What may seem insignificant, is not insignificant as a lack of access to diapers can have long-term impacts on the growth of that child. It should be, as a group, we want to make sure that our next generation is healthy and developing well. And it may not seem like diapers are associated with that, but they really are.”

How the diaper disparity is currently being addressed

One of the ways New Haven is addressing this need is through the hospital’s diaper distribution programs. Flaherty-Hewitt told the News that pediatricians and nurses at the Yale New Haven Hospital will keep a supply of diapers for patients and their families in their offices. Physicians also hold diaper drives across the hospital and the School of Medicine twice a year to drive up diaper supply.

Another way the city is addressing the growing need is through the expansion of diaper banks. The Diaper Bank of Connecticut partners with over 100 shelters, social service agencies and health clinics to distribute free diapers to families. The Diaper Bank helps nearly 7,000 families access diapers. One of the bank’s partners is Mt. Bethel Missionary Church in New Haven, which serves more than 200 babies every fourth Saturday of the month. 

“It’s the role of the church to do anything that we can,” Thomas said. “That’s one of the things we believe we are commissioned to do, was to help somebody. So if there’s a need, we’re supposed to address it as a church.”

According to Alfano, the bank only serves 7 percent of the diaper needs in the state. In her opinion, the most effective way to address the diaper care disparity is through enacting state-wide policies. Currently though, the only “policy” available is $75,000 from the state budget to an array of organizations, from faith-based to family resource centers, that act as diaper banks for their communities. Also, state Medicaid already provides diapers to children above the age of 3 for medical conditions.

However, Flaherty-Hewitt points out that local initiatives to expand diaper access are only short-term solutions to a systemic problem. According to Thomas, the demand for diapers increases each year, as more and more families come to the church for diapers. Additionally, the cost of other essentials like diaper wipes and creams adds another layer of financial strain for struggling families.

“They’ll look at a baby and say, Oh, she’s cute, or he’s cute, but they don’t think that that baby might be in need. People, to me, don’t see children as people,” Thomas said. “They’re not little people, they’re people within themselves, and they have to be taken care of.”

The bill

In past years, there were bill proposals inspired by community organizations like the Diaper Bank meant to democratize access to diapers. Initially, these organizations tried to allow everyone on Medicaid to receive diapers from the state; however, that was simply too costly for some lawmakers.

The new bill proposal filed by the Human Services Committee is more conservative. The bill states that for families on Medicaid to access diapers, a doctor needs to determine whether or not the diaper is medically necessary. This includes when the child is having a persistent diaper rash or if there’s a neurological condition that inhibits a child’s ability to use the restroom normally. 

“We [The Diaper Bank of Connecticut] had some discussions with the Department of Social Services to get this bill to happen,” Alfano said. “We’re only scratching the surface with this bill but we’re happy we at least get some language from policymakers they’re interested in this issue.”

Alfano is relieved that the diaper disparity in Connecticut is receiving more attention and that there is more support among the bill than last year. Lawmakers in Connecticut and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are especially interested in enacting this bill. 

However, as Alfano suggests, this bill does not provide preventative care as the state only assumes responsibility if a medical condition already arises. It does not address the root cause of the diaper need itself. Thomas and Flaherty-Hewitt believe there should be no medical necessity requirement for diapers, as the diapers represent a medical necessity on their own. 

“Pediatrics, as a field, has been focused on trying to be less reactionary and more preventative,” Flaherty-Hewitt said. “I would hate for the medical necessity to be, ‘this baby has a really bad diaper rash because they didn’t have enough diapers, and now we can give them more diapers.’”

In addition, with the federal government threatening to make cuts to Medicaid, Alfano is worried that the bill might fail to pass for a third consecutive year. The estimated annual cost for the state is $119.9 million; and with federal reimbursements from Medicaid, the state’s share could be reduced to only $59.9 million.

Alfano told the News that to help move this bill forward, lawmakers may need to understand the specific impacts of diaper disparities in their communities.

“Throughout the legislative session up until June, hearing from folks in the community about why this is critical and what it means to your community, whether you have children or not, is incredibly important,” Alfano said.

The Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church is located at 100 Webster St.

The post How a proposed bill can increase access to diapers in Connecticut appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Following this report in October, CMHC staff released an anonymous follow-up letter revealing their own concerns regarding the hospital’s management, citing concerns about specific members of staff and their unregulated practices.

State lawmakers on the Public Health Committee aim to discuss the issue in the coming legislative session. State Sen. Saud Anwar, who chairs the committee, explained that there will be the possibility of expanding oversight by Connecticut’s Department of Public Health. Anwar’s press aide, Joseph O’Leary, stated that the team “don’t expect a conclusion to come in the immediate future.”

Currently, most state-owned inpatients are not supervised by independent bodies, the one exception being Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut.

Attorneys within DRCT, such as Rachel Mirsky, have called for greater oversight of state-owned inpatient units, voicing concerns about the complaints being placed against CMHC. 

“Outside entities are not really looking at what’s going on at Connecticut Mental Health Center or other inpatient psychiatric hospitals that are owned by the state, with the exception of one,” said Rachel Mirsky, supervising attorney at DRCT.

The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, which runs centers like CMHC, responded that there is already rigorous oversight in place.

Sen. Anwar proposed Senate Bill 477 highlighting the need to address improvements in how state-run psychiatric facilities are run. He wrote to the News that this puts us “in a better place as a starting point.”

Currently, the question of oversight is framed by issues regarding budget limitations. Last year, staff from the department of public health were proposed to oversee healthcare in prisons. Creating this new office — under bill SB 957 — had an estimated cost of $2.4 million.

“If the financial issues and budgetary restraints restrict us, then we’ll have to find other options,” Anwar said.

Regardless of budget, Anwar told the News that the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is committed to improving mental health care quality and that he is holding them accountable for updates on oversight strategy. 

“I wish I had a magic wand that could tell you this is what we need, and all of these things would fall into place and we would have the best system of care,” Sarah Gadsby, CEO of River Valley Services in Connecticut, said. “It’s just not that easy, and it’s not that black and white.”

CMHC is located at 34 Park St.

The post Almost a year on, state psychiatric hospital oversight discussion unresolved appeared first on Yale Daily News.

H5 Bird Flu, a strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, has become widespread in wild birds worldwide and has caused sporadic outbreaks in U.S. poultry flocks and dairy cattle. It is transmitted through contact with infected birds or their droppings.

According to the experts interviewed by the News, bird flu does not pose a major risk to humans, but recent health communications freezes have hampered the ability to combat it.

“Right now for humans, bird flu is not a huge risk unless you work in an occupational hazard area,” said Stephanie Perniciaro, a research scientist in epidemiology at the School of Public Health. “But it’s something that we definitely need to keep a close eye on.”

In the U.S., there have been 67 confirmed human cases of bird flu since 2024, with one associated death. There have been no reports of person-to-person spread. Human infections with avian influenza viruses most often occur after lengthy unprotected contact with infected birds or surfaces that sick birds or their saliva, mucus or feces have touched.

In Connecticut, outbreaks have been reported in commercial and backyard chicken flocks. Several human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers have also been reported.

Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport reported a case of bird flu following testing of a deceased goose found on its grounds. 

In accordance with federal and state guidelines, the zoo restricted public access to birds, enhanced safety measures for staff and euthanized the remaining birds in the pond community that may have been exposed to the virus. Birds in nearby exhibits without direct contact with the affected flock were quarantined and tested.​

“Preliminary results received last week were negative for HPAI,” Rowena White, a representative of Beardsley Zoo, wrote to the News. “To be clear and reiterate, these birds are currently remaining in a separate safe space while being monitored for their protection.”

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture also confirmed an outbreak within a backyard flock in New Haven County on Jan. 24.

Backyard flock owners are recommended to take extra security measures to ensure the safety of themselves and their poultry by minimizing contact with wild birds and rodents and increasing hygiene and disinfection.

“In the past, we would have let them out to be around the yard when we were out working in the yard,” Steve Machesney, a New Haven local who keeps a backyard coop of six chickens, said. “We’re not doing that anymore, so they don’t have the opportunity to interact with wild birds or with wild bird excrement.”

Disruptions to health communication have impacted the nation’s response to bird flu since President Donald Trump took office.

According to Perniciaro, the Centers for Disease Control had some of their data sets taken down and have been prohibited from making external communication.

“Having no signal means that we have no real way to gauge our risks of exposure and thus no real idea how much of a response to deploy,” Perniciaro said.

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the agency’s primary vehicle for distributing public health information and recommendations, took an unprecedented three-week pause after the Trump administration halted all external communications for federal health agencies.

The report resumed on Feb. 6.

“Not having public data availability isn’t just a population-level health problem. It’s also preventing doctors from being able to treat their patients most effectively,” Perniciaro said. “This affects lives, this affects dollars, and we should care.”

As of Feb. 6, bird flu has been detected in over 150 million poultry.

The post Connecticut bird flu cases rise as federal health communications flounder appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease — MASLD — and an aggressive subtype of this disease, called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis — MASH — are growing in prominence in the United States. It is estimated that one-third of the Connecticut population could be living with this metabolic liver disease. A few School of Medicine professors and researchers worked with other experts to make recommendations to the Connecticut General Assembly Public Health Committee to pursue a statewide course of action against this disease. 

MASLD is the most common cause of chronic liver disease and proves a significant clinical burden. A recent microstimulation approach, which inspired the formation of the working group, utilized a statistical model that predicted the prevalence of MASLD would increase from 33.7 percent to 41.4 percent by the year 2050. Based on this model, approximately 122 million American adults are projected to have MASLD by 2050. 

“MASLD is closely linked with metabolic risk such as obesity and diabetes, and given the rising prevalence of these risk factors, it is foreseeable that MASLD prevalence will continue to rise,” Dr. Bubu Banini, assistant director of the Yale Liver Center, told the news. “Concerningly, MASLD rates are increasing in pediatric and young adult populations as well. The data indeed serves as a call to continued action in our quest to reverse the prevalence of this condition.”

The professors part of the working group developed 20 recommendations to address the climbing rates of the disease. This working group was asked to address nine topics which were grouped into categories. The categories included population data, policy and other interventions to reduce disease burden, creating structures to increase awareness, detection and treatment. At the end of the group’s session, they produced a final report to the Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly.

According to the report, to accomplish this, the working group took the nine prompts and made 20 recommendations, providing a range of options for policymakers to decide how to best address the growing burden of the disease in the state. 

The group worked to reach a consensus on what recommendations should be made, not based on disagreements surrounding addressing the public health issue, but based on if the recommendations would realistically be pushed through to create policy, Dr. Wajahat Mehal, director of the Yale Fatty Liver Disease Program, explained.

“It provides politicians with a buffet of ten things that if they choose to pick one of them to run with, then at least they know there is some quality control behind it, opposed to just some random person coming up and saying fructose is bad for people,” Mehal told the News. “It just gives them quality control that these things actually have some basis behind them.” 

Some of these recommendations include designating a day as “CT Liver Healthy Day,” developing a broad outreach program, highlighting the specific risk of fructose in the development of MASH, utilizing various healthcare models and communicating with the community to educate people about the disease. 

According to state Sen. Saud Anwar, these recommendations made by the working group provide a comprehensive path for policymakers to create both short and long term strategies for addressing the disease. 

We have a responsibility to work on protecting the well-being of our citizens and public health disasters are one of the top causes of mortality and morbidity in every community,” Anwar told the News. “Having a strong, robust public health system that works across the state almost to grassroot levels in every town can provide robust protection from various challenges and create a mechanism to develop a stronger protection strategy.” 

The task now falls on the Connecticut General Assembly to evaluate these physician and researcher-backed recommendations and work to get policy passed that will translate into statewide action to mitigate the effects and prominence of the disease. 

The Department of Internal Medicine is located at 333 Cedar St. 

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The Bright Bodies Program, which runs multiple 10 to 12-week sessions annually, engages both children and their families. The program utilizes the Smart Moves Weight Management Curriculum, an approach to weight loss prioritizing knowledge-based behavioral change rather than dieting.

“We want to teach kids how to make permanent, healthy lifestyle changes,” said Mary Savoye-DeSanti, founder of the Bright Bodies Program and author of the Smart Moves curriculum. “We really respect where each family’s coming from, and work with the resources they have.”

The Smart Moves curriculum consists of four components: nutrition education, behavioral modification, physical activity and parental support. Children enrolled in the program meet twice per week to exercise and attend classes. When suitable, caregivers are encouraged to attend classes with their children and parental support groups.

The program’s non-diet approach to weight management focuses on teaching skills and behaviors that allow kids to develop healthy habits and make better food choices in any situation. Nutrition lessons are taught with the understanding that different families have different resources and foods available — the priority is placed on flexibility and improvement over perfection.

“There’s lots of parent support which is excellent,” Mark Ceneri, whose son is enrolled in the program, said. “It’s hard enough raising kids anyways, and this is one more layer that’s woven into that complexity. It’s nice to be sharing that with other parents and to bounce ideas and strategies off other individuals.”

The last meeting of the past year was divided into two parts — for the physical activity portion, kids played classic physical education games, like tag or sharks and minnows. In the nutrition education portion, kids and caregivers learned how to read and interpret nutrition labels.

Kids were excited to be running around with their peers and equally enthusiastic about answering questions during the class section, with no shortage of hands raised in response to every question. 

Caregivers said that the program had positively impacted their own parenting styles and their children’s approaches to food and healthy eating.

“He’s a lot more conscious about what he eats and the content of what he’s eating,” Willian Whitehead, describing his 11-year-old grandchild enrolled in the program, said. “He loves this. He’s the one that gets on me about being on time getting here. He enjoys it immensely.”

The meetings take place at the medical center on 1 Long Wharf Drive.

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Diabetes, alcohol-related deaths and chronic liver and kidney disease are notably high for adults of non-Hispanic Native American descent. While genetics and socioeconomic status significantly influence health outcomes, revitalizing Indigenous languages may offer preventative health benefits, according to researchers.

“Historic trauma and systemic racism along with the loss of land and the way of life increased 

the risk of chronic diseases across Indian Country,” Dr. Setu Vora, the chief medical officer of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, wrote to the News.

Nationally, Native American and Alaska Native adults are 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Office of Minority Health.

Diabetes and kidney disease have affected Indian communities since European colonial times and can be attributed to a combination of genetic and non-genetic factors, such as poverty, lack of education and limited healthcare access.

Vora explained that currently, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe covers the majority of healthcare costs through its own resources while also providing primary and preventive care on-site with federal funding from the Indian Health Service, or IHS.

The IHS, a branch within the Department of Health and Human Services, provides comprehensive and culturally appropriate health services to Native American and Alaska Native people. Any individual enrolled in a federally recognized tribe is eligible for IHS services. 

While IHS is congressionally funded, it is not an entitlement program like Medicare or Medicaid. The Indian Health Service is not an insurance program and does not provide an established benefits package.

Clan Mother Shoran Waupatuquay Piper, the tribal head leader of the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe, wrote to the News, “We have come a long way and have succeeded in many ways but still struggle in so many ways and departments.”

The Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe’s reservation is located in the southwestern corner of Connecticut. Because the land only spans a quarter acre, many of the 100 members live throughout Trumbull and Colchester, Connecticut.

The Paugussett tribal system is structured around the clan mother, the tribe leader, who has the power to appoint or remove a chief and has veto power over the decisions made by the rest of the tribal council. In turn, a clan mother protects and advocates for the tribe, maintaining traditional beliefs and knowledge.

“We have to go to the state and apply for medical [care] through a state agency because there is no access to Indian Health Services for our tribe,” Piper wrote.

Piper explained that tribal communities around the country, not just in Connecticut, suffer from both short-term and long-term health issues and access to health care.

She added that for some members, medical care is not entirely free, as there are co-pays or monthly charges, and some may not be eligible for free healthcare at all. “Finding easy access to doctors who know how to care for you” is especially difficult for tribal members, according to Piper.

A 2023 analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office underscored issues with the IHS, including 61 percent of IHS facilities being in fair or poor condition. The report also noted the prevalence of incomplete or unreliable medical devices and equipment, suggesting that “broken medical equipment or having to refer patients to other facilities could lead to delays in care—potentially exacerbating patients’ medical conditions.”

Integration of culturally sensitive practices has been shown to have positive prevention for Native American patients. 

The 2022 study led by Douglas Whalen, a linguistics researcher at Yale, indicates that language use and revitalization are protective factors that promote positive Indigenous health outcomes. Other factors, such as traditional food practices and consumption, community relationships and spiritual practices also relate to positive health outcomes. 

Whalen is the founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund and an organizer for the Algonquian Conference, an annual event focusing on the languages of the Algonquian peoples. This year, the conference held a special session highlighting language and health.

“As a preventive measure, revitalization could be funded by health programs rather than culture programs,” Whalen said. “However, the medical system, at least in the U.S., does not emphasize prevention, so there are two hurdles to overcome: prevention as worthwhile in general, and the specific contribution of language maintenance and revitalization.”

Reviving Indigenous languages is one way preventative healthcare providers can better connect with the Native community, many of whom mistrust the medical system or lack familiarity around it.

Going forward, Vora believes coverage for health-related social services, including when Indigenous traditional wellness and cultural health practices are required, will be beneficial.

“Tribal Nations are sovereign political entities and not just racial/ethnic categories,” Vora wrote. “Tribal health sovereignty and upholding the US Government’s federal trust obligations are vital.”

Piper expressed her desire for her Paugussett Tribe members to have free access to all medical benefits and transportation services, including those provided by the IHS. Most importantly, she hopes tribal members “are not ignored or forgotten.”

The Golden Hill Paugussett Reservation is located at 427 Shelton Rd. in Trumbull, Conn.

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