Agencies iterate: Get vaccinations
Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued statements in recent days underlining the importance of vaccinations.
The statements come as diseases commonly vaccinated against, such as measles and whooping cough, have surfaced in areas across the U.S., including in Northwest Arkansas. Several children in Northwest Arkansas were diagnosed with whooping cough earlier this month.
Public health professionals and doctors have linked such outbreaks to "vaccine hesitancy," in which parents decline to vaccinate their children because of safety, religious or other concerns.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, wrote in a statement Monday that the World Health Organization had named vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to global health.
"We cannot state strongly enough -- the overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect public health," he wrote.
"Vaccinating against measles, mumps and rubella not only protects us and our children, it protects people who can't be vaccinated, including children with compromised immune systems due to illness and its treatment, such as cancer."
He said complications from those diseases, for which a vaccine has been approved in the U.S. for almost 50 years, can lead to serious illness and death.
In a public statement two days later, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar emphasized the importance of vaccinations, writing that "the suffering we are seeing [related to measles infections] is avoidable. ... We have the ability to safely protect our children and our communities.
"The measles vaccines are among the most extensively studied medical products we have, and their safety has been firmly established over many years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken," he wrote.
The current national measles outbreak, with almost 700 reported cases across more than 20 states, is the worst since 2000, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No measles cases had been reported in Arkansas as of April 19, which was the most recent information available from that agency.
Study paints bleak health costs future
By 2029, more than half of middle-income senior citizens will have insufficient resources to pay for housing and health care, a study published this week in the journal Health Affairs says.
The population of middle-income senior citizens (people over age 75 who likely wouldn't qualify for long-term care through Medicaid) is expected to nearly double by that year, the authors wrote.
The report said that because of chronic conditions and declines in health and mobility, many in that group won't be able to remain in their homes without assistance from care providers or family members.
Among those elderly individuals, 54% are projected to lack the resources to pay the costs associated with assisted living and senior health care, the group that conducted the study wrote.
Researchers largely with NORC at the University of Chicago relied on demographic projections and the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study from the National Institute on Aging to compile the report.
Arkansas is among states with the highest percentages of senior citizens in the U.S.
The Natural State currently has the highest percentage of senior citizens compared with its six surrounding neighbors, with 16.6% of the state's population identified as age 65 or older by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2017.
That's also higher than the national average of 15.6%.
Hygiene products collected for poor
The Arkansas State Student Nurses Association is collecting hygiene products for homeless people.
Unopened boxes of tampons and pads, as well as supplies such as soap and deodorant, can be placed in collection areas on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro.
Collections will be taken in Kays Hall at the College of Nursing and Health Professions and near the campus store.
The items will be donated to HUB Homeless Resource Center, a Jonesboro nonprofit, according to a social media post.
Farmers market to open May 16
CHI St. Vincent Infirmary begins hosting a summer farmers market in Little Rock next month.
Produce from Arkansas farms, grass-fed beef, bread, soap, candles, jewelry and lotion will be available from vendors at the weekly market at the hospital, which is at North University Avenue and West Markham Street.
Beginning May 16, the market will be open on Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Arkansan chosen for national post
Dr. Omar Atiq, a central Arkansas physician who has been affiliated with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Jefferson Regional Medical Center and Arkansas Cancer Institute in Pine Bluff, will be chairman of the board of governors of the American College of Physicians beginning this month.
The internists' group is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest doctors' group after the American Medical Association, according to its website.
Atiq is the first Arkansas doctor to hold the role, an announcement from Jefferson Regional Medical Center said.
Metro on 04/28/2019