Nurse Tortured, Prosecutors Say; Hantavirus Case Critically Ill; Skin Cream Recall

Note that some links may require registration or subscription.

Katherine Torbick, RN, of Illinois, was allegedly tortured before being murdered by her boyfriend, according to prosecutors. (People)

Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player who became an advocate for inclusion and a league ambassador, died at age 47 after an 8-month battle with aggressive brain cancer. (AP)

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung. The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, 9 of which have been confirmed. (AP)

A symptomatic American cruise ship passenger who was thought to be exposed to hantavirus tested negative at Emory University Hospital. (CBS News)

Health officials in Minnesota are monitoring a resident for hantavirus after the person may have come in contact with a cruise ship passenger. (MPR News)

Meanwhile, Illinois has a suspected case of hantavirus that’s not related to the cruise ship. (Journal Star)

Top health officials in the Trump administration criticized the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now they’re leading the hantavirus response. (Washington Post)

The Trump administration is moving to appoint two skeptics of antidepressant drugs to the advisory board of the National Institute of Mental Health, Science reported.

Reuters is reporting that CMS will temporarily stop Medicare enrollment for new home health and hospice providers over fraud concerns.

Six takeaways from STAT‘s investigation on heavy drinking in the U.S.

An estimated 6.7 million U.S. children live in a household with an unlocked and loaded firearm, according to research in JAMA Network Open.

In an updated position paper, the American College of Physicians said telemedicine could offer safe and equitable access to clinical care, but policymakers, regulators, and health systems need to make improvements. (Annals of Internal Medicine)

The Washington Post looked at security gaps in medical records.

An analysis by Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that works with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, examined why men who talked about suicide were less likely than women to seek help. (STAT)

An investigation and postmortem exam indicated that a man who was struck and killed by a plane on a runway at the Denver airport intended to die by suicide. (AP)

The FDA cleared the first continuous artificial intelligence (AI) sepsis monitoring system, Bayesian Health said.

The agency also finalized its postmarket food chemical safety assessment program and began reassessing butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and azodicarbonamide (ADA), additives used in a range of food products.

Mothers who worked in jobs with high exposure to toxic chemicals or psychosocial stress were more likely to have a child with autism spectrum disorder, a case-control study in Denmark suggested. (Occupational & Environmental Medicine)

Data from an ongoing cohort study of 1,100 first-year medical students at U.S. schools reported that 27% had research career intentions. (JAMA Network Open)

Pharmacal issued a nationwide recall of one lot of its MG217 eczema cream over Staphylococcus aureus contamination, according to an FDA notice.

Fewer nurses used AI than physicians, and many nurses said they felt left out of decision-making about the technology, survey data from Elsevier showed.

Leading AI systems struggled when mental health risks emerged subtly or unfolded during long conversations, new research from Mpathic showed. (Axios)

A Boston physician wants more young doctors and medical students to train in forest therapy, a form of nature-based medicine. (NPR)