A BLEAK FEW YEARS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN — A report released today by the United Health Foundation underscores the severity of how the complicated mental health crisis impacts women and children in America. America’s Health Rankings' 2022 Health of Women and Children Report found that mental health challenges widened among women and children during the pandemic and exacerbated long-standing disparities in mental health care that disproportionately impact Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women. Among the key findings: — Fourteen percent more women ages 18–44 reported experiencing frequent mental distress between 2017–2018 and 2020–2021. — Depression increased 27 percent among children ages 3–17 between 2017–2018 and 2020–2021. — The teen suicide rate increased 29 percent at the national level between 2012–2014 and 2018–2020 in 15- to 19-year-olds. — Firearm deaths are up 9 percent for women (20–44) and 18 percent for children (1–19) between 2017–2018 and 2020–2021. HOW JAPAN COULD HELP FIGHT MONKEYPOX — Top Biden White House and health officials are looking to Japan to potentially make its smallpox vaccine available to countries with monkeypox outbreaks, POLITICO’s Erin Banco reports. While U.S. monkeypox cases have declined, Mexico, Peru and Chile are among the nations still struggling to contain outbreaks. Last week, the Pan American Health Organization called for increased surveillance to help stop the spread, and officials at the WHO have urged greater global coordination to help curb monkeypox in countries that don't have access to vaccines and treatments. The Biden administration wants to help, but the U.S. has limited vaccine supply left. The idea of working with Japan to get doses out came up in a call in September with members of the White House monkeypox task force and a group of outside, informal public health advisers on the U.S. international response to monkeypox, according to a person familiar with the matter. DOCTORS URGE PATIENT FOCUS IN 'SUPERBUG' BILL — Physicians are lobbying lawmakers to push through legislation that would overhaul the market for novel antimicrobial drugs. The objective is to make improving patient outcomes the chief priority for any new incentives created by Congress, Lauren reports. Doctors like Yale School of Medicine’s Reshma Ramachandran and former FDA official John Powers argue that the bill, known as the PASTEUR Act, doesn’t focus primarily on identifying and promoting new treatments that could be effective in treating patients with antimicrobial-resistant bugs. Previous efforts by Congress to address the antibiotics market “got more drugs, and none of them improved patient outcomes,” said Powers, now a professor of clinical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine, who argues that’s because the drugs aren’t studied in the people who actually need them. Updated version: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), two of PASTEUR’s lead sponsors, have offered an updated version as an amendment to the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill “based on feedback we received to ensure that the contracts are awarded to treatments that improve patient outcomes,” a Bennet spokesperson said. The amendment also comes with a $6 billion price tag, down from $11 billion in the original version.
| 
