HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

East County News Service

August 29, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• More and more women are now dying in childbirth, but only in America (Vox)
• FDA: All blood donations should be tested for Zika (The Hill)
• San Diego scientists find Zika may infect adult brains, too (KPBS)
• Zika remains in sperm for record six months (BBC)
• Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers in Pulling Back From Obamacare (NPR)
• People Are Happier Later in Life, Study Finds (KPBS)
• Here's what you need to know about the CEO behind the big EpiPen price hikes (CNBC)

SCIENCE

• Monsanto just made a massive mistake (Mother Jones)
• NASA just found a spacecraft that’s been missing for two years (Washington Post)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

More and more women are now dying in childbirth, but only in America (Vox)

Thirty years ago, women died in the delivery room because of hemorrhages and pregnancy-induced blood pressure spikes. Now they are much more likely to die because of preexisting chronic conditions like heart disease or diabetes.

FDA: All blood donations should be tested for Zika(The Hill)

The Food and Drug Administration is now recommending that all blood donations in the U.S. undergo testing for the Zika virus amid mounting concerns about how the disease is spread.

San Diego scientists find Zika may infect adult brains, too (KPBS)

… A study published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell shows that the Zika virus can damage brain cells in a specific strain of adult lab mice…The scientists emphasize that more research is needed, and that the long-term effects of Zika infection in adult humans are currently unknown. But they say damage to the brain's stem cells could feasibly result in problems like early onset Alzheimer's disease, depression and learning difficulties.

Zika remains in sperm for record six months(BBC)

The Zika virus has been found in the sperm of an Italian man six months after his first symptoms, twice as long as in previously reported cases.

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers in Pulling Back from Obamacare (NPR)

The exit of insurers from exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act represents a fresh challenge to the viability of the president's signature health care law.

People Are Happier Later in Life, Study Finds (KPBS)

UC San Diego researchers found that while adults in their 20s and 30s have high levels of perceived stress, people later in life have an improved sense of psychological well-being.

Here's what you need to know about the CEO behind the big EpiPen price hikes (CNBC)

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch is coming under new scrutiny for her company's decision to raise the price of lifesaving EpiPens more than fourfold over the past eight years.

SCIENCE

Monsanto just made a massive mistake (Mother Jones)

One of its weed killers seems to be wiping out valuable crops, too.  Oops.

NASA just found a spacecraft that’s been missing for two years (Washington Post)

NASA is reporting that one of the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories, known as the STEREO-B spacecraft, has made contact after two years of silence.