Chicagoans with confirmed and probable cases of mpox have a high rate of co-infections with other sexually transmitted infections, according to an analysis by the Chicago Department of Public Health. [Health News Illinois]

The analysis also found racial disparities, with Black individuals being twice as likely than white individuals to have mpox and HIV co-infections. Latinx individuals had a 34 percent increase and Asian individuals had a 90 percent increase in HIV co-infection compared to white people.

Kara Herrera, an epidemiologist at the department, said the analysis highlights their ability to leverage surveillance and case management data to identify vulnerable populations that may need additional care. 

She said that at the time of mpox diagnoses, “we strongly encourage HIV-negative individuals to get on PreP for HIV and encourage healthcare providers to utilize the syndemic approaches by offering testing and prevention (for) STIs, HIV and infections such as mpox.”

Additionally, the agency suggested further investigation into the association between positive syphilis serology and HIV co-infection among people with mpox.

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As the Biden administration makes billions of dollars available to remove millions of dangerous lead pipes that can contaminate drinking water and damage brain development in children, some states are turning down funds. [PBS News Hour and the Chicago Tribune]. A cut pipe is pulled from a dig site for lead testing in Royal Oak, Michigan. Lead can lower IQ and create behavioral problems in children. 

Picture: Carlos Osorio AP2021

Washington, Oregon, Maine and Alaska declined all or most of their federal funds in the first of five years that the mix of grants and loans is available, The Associated Press found. Some states are less prepared to pay for lead removal projects because, in many cases, the lead must first be found, experts said. And communities are hesitant to take out loans to search for their lead pipes.

States shouldn’t “shrug their shoulders” and pass up funds, said Erik Olson, a health and food expert at the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.

“It’s troubling that a state would decide to take a complete pass on the funding because part of the reason for the funding is to figure out whether you even have lead,” Olson said.

The Biden administration wants to remove all 9.2 million lead pipes carrying water to U.S. homes. Lead can lower IQ and create behavioral problems in children. The 2021 infrastructure law provides $15 billion to find and replace them. That money will help a lot, but it isn’t enough to get all the toxic pipes out of the ground. State programs distribute the federal funds to utilities.

READ MORE: Officials test Yellowstone River water where train carrying hazardous materials fell in

The Environmental Protection Agency said it is reviewing state requests to decline funds but did not provide a full list of states that have said no so far. That information will be available in October, officials said. States that declined first-year funds can still accept them during the remaining four years.

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The number of people experiencing homelessness in Chicago increased between 2020 and 2021, according to a new estimate from Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. [Chicago Tribune-Lizzie Kane; Photo -Brian Cassella -Chicago Tribune]

The group finds that 68,440 people experienced homelessness in 2021, a 2,829 increase from the previous year, according to the coalition’s report published Thursday. The research shows shifts in the way people experienced homelessness, citing that 7,985 more people were staying on the street or in shelters as opposed to those temporarily staying with others compared with 2020 data.

The majority of people experiencing homelessness are people of color, with African American Chicagoans ending up homeless more because of racist economic, educational and housing practices, according to the coalition. The coalition finds that Latino Chicagoans are more likely to experience homelessness by doubling up with others. Most families who are experiencing homelessness, as well as many unaccompanied youth — those ages 24 and younger — are temporarily staying with others too.

The new estimate comes as Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is steering its Bring Chicago Home plan — a proposal to raise the real estate transfer tax on properties worth $1 million or more to pool additional funds to fight homelessness — through a City Council meeting and discussions with Mayor Brandon Johnson.

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 Tonjanic Hill was overjoyed in 2017 when she learned she was 14 weeks pregnant. Despite a history of uterine fibroids, she never lost faith that she would someday have a child. [KFF Health News]

But, just five weeks after confirming her pregnancy, and the day after a gender-reveal party where she announced she was having a girl, she seemed unable to stop urinating. She didn’t realize her amniotic fluid was leaking. Then came the excruciating pain. 

“I ended up going to the emergency room,” said Hill, now 35. “That’s where I had the most traumatic, horrible experience ever.”

An ultrasound showed she had lost 90% of her amniotic fluid. Yet, over the angry protestations of her nurse, Hill said, the attending doctor insisted Hill be discharged and see her own OB-GYN the next day. The doctor brushed off her concerns, she said. The next morning, her OB-GYN’s office rushed her back to the hospital. But she lost her baby, Tabitha Winnie Denkins.

Black women are less likely than women from other racial groups to carry a pregnancy to term — and in Harris County, where Houston is located, when they do, their infants are about twice as likely to die before their 1st birthday as those from other racial groups. Black fetal and infant deaths are part of a continuum of systemic failures that contribute to disproportionately high Black maternal mortality rates.

“This is a public health crisis as it relates to Black moms and babies that is completely preventable,” said Barbie Robinson, who took over as executive director of Harris County Public Health in March 2021. “When you look at the breakdown demographically — who’s disproportionately impacted by the lack of access — we have a situation where we can expect these horrible outcomes.”

In fact, Harris County ranks third, behind only Chicago’s Cook County and Detroit’s Wayne County, in what are known as excess Black infant deaths, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Those three counties, which also are among the nation’s most populated counties, account for 7% of all Black births in the country and 9% of excess Black infant deaths, said Ashley Hirai, a senior scientist at HRSA. The counties have the largest number of Black births but also more deaths that would not occur if Black babies had the same chance of reaching their 1st birthdays as white infants.

No known genetic reasons exist for Black infants to die at higher rates than white infants. Such deaths are often called “deaths of disparity” because they are likely attributable to systemic racial disparities. Regardless of economic status or educational attainment, the stress from experiencing persistent systemic racism leads to adverse health consequences for Black women and their babies, according to a study published in the journal Women’s Health Issues.

These miscarriages and deaths can occur even in communities that otherwise appear to have vast health resources. In Harris County, for example, home to two public hospitals and the Texas Medical Center — the largest medical complex in the world, with more than 54 medical-related institutions and 21 hospitals — mortality rates were 11.1 per 1,000 births for Black infants from 2014 through 2019, according to the March of Dimes, compared with 4.7 for white infants.

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Illinois’ two Democratic senators joined nine colleagues last week urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to take further steps to address lead poisoning in federally assisted housing.[Health News Illinois]

The 11 senators, including Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, said in a letter sent last week to department Secretary Marcia Fudge that they wanted an update on its implementation of a demonstration program to assess better ways to handle its housing choice vouchers.

Current statute requires that children in the voucher program develop lead poisoning before a risk assessment is conducted, which the senators said leads to many children — specifically low-income and minority populations — being exposed to lead.

“We have previously alerted HUD of our great concern and the urgency of addressing childhood lead poisoning in both federally assisted and private market housing, especially because the health and safety of so many vulnerable children are at stake,” the senators said.

Lawmakers noted the National Housing Law Project estimates 90,000 children in the housing choice voucher program have lead poisoning, and an additional 340,000 children living in federally assisted housing are at risk.

The agency did not return a request for comment.

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At age 30, Jeanine Valrie-Logan was having a miscarriage.

The room was sterile, cold. Guarded only by a curtain to maintain a semblance of privacy and a thin hospital gown, she sat waiting for the procedure that would remove the remaining pregnancy tissue. [Chicago Tribune]

As she stood to sit atop the bed that would wheel her to the operating room, the physician asked her, “Do you want me to give you an IUD, so you don’t have any more unplanned pregnancies?”

The question stopped her in her tracks, and the fear and loneliness she’d been feeling suddenly replaced with profound anger.

“Who said this was an unwanted pregnancy?” she recalled thinking at the time. “I remember grabbing the nurse and being like, ‘Please do not let him put an IUD in.’”

Upon waking from the operation, she was told by a supervising nurse that throughout her sleep, she continuously repeated the phrase “Don’t let him take my uterus. Don’t let him take my uterus.”

The urgent pleas for control over one’s body have been echoed by Black women across Chicago and the country over the course of the nation’s history. Following the death this spring of U.S. Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie from complications related to childbirth, a national conversation has been sparked once again over America’s Black maternal mortality rate, the Black community’s mistrust of the medical field and the disproportionate effect on Black women.

In Chicago, where recent hospital closings have rendered entire swathes of the city “birth deserts,” the issue is laid plain: Black maternal health-care conditions remain dismal despite years of criticism, Black health-care officials say.

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The summertime rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations is making some Americans rethink if the pandemic is over, but it isn't persuading them to start wearing masks again or test for the virus, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. [Axios]

The big picture: Economic and political turmoil, along with unease about developments like AI, have left many Americans numb to public health threats, though issues like the opioid crisis and shortage of cancer drugs are still registering.

• Gun violence, which ranked as the top threat to public health when we asked the question in May, has dropped to No. 3 behind opioids and obesity, with noticeably fewer Democrats listing it as their top concern.

What they found: On COVID, 50% somewhat or strongly agree the pandemic is over, compared to 62% in May.

• The percentage of people who wear a mask some or all of the time has dropped by half over the past six months, to 15%.
• 69% say contracting COVID poses small or no risk to their health and well-being.
• 95% say they've taken one or fewer COVID tests at home in the past week.

What they're saying: "The concern about rising COVID cases is mixed, but what's more clear is that there's really no behavioral change," said Mallory Newall, vice president at Ipsos. "Moreover, the perceived level of risk of contracting COVID remains low — on par with getting a tick or mosquito bite."

The public's awareness of other health issues is comparatively low. Fewer than half say they're somewhat or very familiar with record-high drug overdose deaths, the ongoing shortages of some cancer drugs or the Food and Drug Administration's approval of over-the-counter birth control. Still, they said they cared about those issues when asked about them.

• In sizing up what most concerns them, the perceived threat of gun violence appears to be more acutely tied to specific events like widely covered mass shootings while opioid misuse or obesity is more of a constant worry.
• "It's still definitely a top-tier concern, but lacks the consistent focus we see with opioids," Newall said.
• Where a person lives is a big factor: Substantially more people in rural areas rank opioids and fentanyl as a top concern than those in urban and suburban areas, who are likelier to rank firearms high on their list.

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Seven Illinois groups receive $1.4 million to increase health screenings for children | Several Illinois groups will receive nearly $1.4 million in federal funds to increase screenings and follow-up services for children 5 and under. [Health News Illinois]
 
The seven health centers will each receive $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
 
The funds are part of $30 million awarded by the agency to 151 centers across 39 states and Puerto Rico.
 
“Health centers provide many kinds of support, including screening of young children and connecting them to appropriate services,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. "We urge Congress to fund health centers in a sustainable way, so more Americans benefit from this support."
 
See the full list of recipients here.

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