Healthcare Roundup—Ninth child dies in New Jersey respiratory illness outbreak

Ninth child dies in New Jersey respiratory illness outbreak

A ninth child has died in an adenovirus outbreak at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in New Jersey, according to the state’s health department. 

The child was confirmed to have the virus before Oct. 22, officials said. Twenty-five children have been sickened in the outbreak, as has one staff member at the facility. 

The first report was made Sept. 26, and health officials began to survey the facility on Oct. 10. The strain of adenovirus in the outbreak is linked to “communal living arrangements” and can be especially dangerous to people with weakened immune systems. (USA Today

Pittsburgh primary care physician among victims in synagogue shooting

Jerry Rabinowitz, M.D., a primary care physician affiliated with UPMC, was among the 11 victims in a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday morning. 

Rabinowitz, 66, had been in practice in Pittsburgh since the 1980s. His patients say he was compassionate and welcoming, and is being remembered in particular by LGBT patients with AIDS he treated at the height of the epidemic. 

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation said in a 2014 report that Rabinowitz was one of few Pittsburgh doctors who “openly welcomed and accepted patients with AIDS.” 

“There were no treatment protocols yet, so these doctors and their patients used whatever information they could gather to develop treatment plans,” according to the report. “They learned together.” (Buzzfeed News

AP: Hospitals detain patients who can’t pay in more than 30 countries 

Hospitals in more than 30 countries around the world are detaining patients who can’t pay their bills, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. 

Records and interviews with dozens of clinicians, administrators and patients revealed evidence of detainment in countries such as the Philippines, Lithuania, Bolivia, Thailand and Iran. 

Though public health experts warn that this is a human rights violation, the United Nations, U.S. government and international health agencies haven’t done much to intervene, the AP found. 

“People know patients are being held prisoner, but they probably think they have bigger battles in public health to fight, so they just have to let this go,” Sophie Harman, a global health expert at Queen Mary University of London, said. (The Associated Press