Rudest Doctor’s Office Behavior; Disease Spread by Dog Poop; Defining Sobriety

— Health news and commentary from around the Web gathered by MedPage Today staff

by
Sophie Putka, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today
February 5, 2024

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HuffPost catalogs the rudest behavior you’ll see at the doctor’s office.

The U.S. auctioned off its helium supply, sparking concerns about supply chain disruption to MRI scanners. (New York Times)

Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago went offline last week over a “cybersecurity matter.” (STAT)

California’s San Mateo County is the first to declare loneliness a public health emergency. (NBC News)

Georgia sued the Biden administration to extend the state’s Medicaid program, the only in the nation with a work requirement. (AP)

In other court news, a Virginia doctor convicted of overprescribing opioids had his 40-year sentence thrown out over a technicality, but the state plans to retry him. (Reuters)

And Abbott Labs faces a lawsuit over marketing claims it made about height and certain PediaSure drinks. (Reuters)

A patient at a Kansas City hospital shot and wounded a security officer. (AP)

A goose was found in the flight control system of a medical helicopter that crashed on its way back from dropping a patient off at an Oklahoma City hospital, killing three people on board. (AP)

Having a dog in childhood increased physical activity, especially in girls, an Australian study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity showed.

In other pooch news, abandoning dog poop isn’t just rude — it could potentially leave parasites in the soil that go on to infect other animals or humans. (Washington Post)

FDA designated Cardinal Health’s recall of its Monoject disposable syringes as a class I recall, given the risk for serious injury or death if used with syringe pumps.

Vape-maker Juul has spent large sums of money trying to get Black leaders in the U.S. to publicly support e-cigarettes. (STAT)

Doctors are concerned about a growing online trend that encourages masturbation abstinence. (NPR)

The lowly appendix may be useful after all — in helping repopulate the gut with beneficial bacteria and supporting the immune system, an anatomy professor explained. (NPR)

Low-level red light therapy for myopia may work, but it’s safety profile is still poorly understood, according to experts. (STAT)

Addiction medicine faces a reckoning as contemporary ideas of what constitutes “sobriety” shift. (New York Times)

Indian model Poonam Pandey faked her own death to bring awareness to cervical cancer, drawing online criticism. (CBS News)

Actor Anthony Anderson spent a night in the emergency room after a “movie set fight gone wrong.” (New York Post)