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Mississippi Health Officials Declare Emergency Over Infant Mortality Rate
The Mississippi State Department of Health on Thursday declared a public health emergency in response to a rising infant mortality rate in the state — most of which is occurring among Black babies.
In 2024, Mississippi saw its highest rate of infant deaths in over a decade.
Data shows the death rate for white infants in 2024 was one of the lowest of the last decade, while the rate for Black infants is the highest it’s been. Nearly twice as many Black infants as white ones died last year.
Mississippi is one of the poorest states and has long led the nation in infant mortality, but the worsening numbers and the growing racial disparities call for extraordinary measures, said State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney.
County Finds Unvaccinated Homeschool Children Pose No Public Health Threat
A presumably unvaccinated fraction of homeschooled children dispersed throughout Santa Barbara County does not pose a threat to public health, and the Public Health Department will not ferret out the data despite a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury recommendation to do so.
“This will not be implemented because there is no feasible method that will reliably study and estimate or count those vaccines in homeschooled children,” Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Dr. Mouhanad Hammami told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
The county also will not follow a similar Grand Jury recommendation to study and estimate childhood vaccination levels among the county’s adult population, or a recommendation to isolate unvaccinated individuals while being held in County Jail. The announcements came in response to the May 29 Grand Jury report “Do Vaccination Rates in Santa Barbara County Create a Public Health Risk?”
‘Kicking the Can’: Advocates Say Delaware Isn’t Doing Enough to Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning in Schools
Lead poisoning is dangerous, and advocates say too many kids in Delaware have elevated levels of lead in their bodies. Advocates for children’s health faulted the state for its response in addressing alarmingly high lead levels in schools, and also in housing, during a panel discussion Wednesday night at the Wilmington Public Library.
Hosted by the Newark branch of the NAACP, participants included representatives from the state’s largest teacher’s union, the City of Wilmington, the Christina School District and community advocates. “There is no safe level of lead in your blood without cognitive or health impacts. So this is a very serious issue,” said Amy Roe of Lead-Free Delaware.
Some who attended the panel event said they were frustrated by the state’s lack of urgency in addressing the problem. Elevated levels of lead in a child’s blood can lead to cognitive and behavioral delays, lower intelligence scores and an increased risk of criminal behavior. Kids are required to be tested at 12 months and again at 24 months of age.
“This has been going on forever in Delaware, and they’re not trying to do anything about it,” said Newark NAACP Vice President Richard Williams. “They just keep kicking the can down the road.”
New Data Examines Health Spending Among Children With Autism
Families with a child receiving treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) incur almost 10 times more in health care costs than those of other children, including those diagnosed but not receiving any ASD treatment.
That’s among the key takeaways from a new report that provides insight into the health care costs and treatment patterns for kids diagnosed with, and treated for, ASD.
The findings are from a nationally representative survey co-sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
It looked at health care expenses from 2018 to 2022 for families with children ages 3 to 17 years of age and helps pinpoint differences in spending among them. On average, families with a child in treatment for ASD spent $20,122 in total health care expenditures compared to $2,201 for children without treated ASD, the survey revealed.
Poor Sleep Tied to Self-Harm Among Teens
Teenagers who get poor sleep are more likely to harm themselves on purpose, a new study says. Shorter sleep, going to sleep later and frequent waking during the night all were significantly associated with a 14-year-old’s risk of self-harm, researchers report in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
This risk remained elevated even as teens turned 17, researchers noted. “While this is clearly an unfavorable relationship, one positive from this research is that sleep is a modifiable risk factor — we can actually do something about it,” lead researcher Michaela Pawley, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Warwick in the U.K., said in a news release.
As many as 70% of teenagers get inadequate sleep, researchers said in background notes. Meanwhile, rates of self-harm among young people are increasing, researchers said.
Baby Food Firms Told to Make Products Healthier or Face Action
Baby food manufacturers must cut levels of salt and sugar in their products and stop promoting snacks for babies under the age of one, the government has said. The new guidance would also restrict the use of marketing claims that suggest health benefits without scientific evidence. Firms that do not make their products healthier within 18 months may face action.
It comes four months after a BBC Panorama investigation found top-brand baby food pouches lacked key nutrients and parents were often being misled by marketing.
Manufacturers told the BBC they were committed to providing high quality and nutritious foods, and marketing and labelling them in a responsible way. There has been significant growth in the baby food and drink market in recent years.
Food in pouches makes up more than a third of this market and there’s been a rise in sales of snacks like fruit and vegetable-based straws, puffs and wafers. “Companies are dressing these products up as being healthy, when actually they’re much like a crisp or a sweetie. They’re putting profit before health,” says former chief nutritionist to the government, Dr Alison Tedstone. “I hope an ethical business will stand back and think about the health of our children.”
