ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Outbreaks of COVID-19 in Minnesota are showing no signs of ending soon.
The situation comes as rural health-care systems in the U.S. struggle to survive. Minnesota recently topped one-thousand new coronavirus cases for seven consecutive days, with a lot of that case growth coming outside the Twin Cities.
Brock Slabach, senior vice president of the National Rural Health Association, said a big concern in the U.S. right now is rural areas, where community spread has been hard to control. Making matters worse, it's been difficult for residents in these areas to access care.
"When someone is experiencing anxiety due to physical conditions that are very troubling, these delays can be very, very impactful and create lots of problems in their well-being," Slabach cautioned.
He said rural providers are seeing "fractures" being widened in these communities. He cites staffing, supplies, and lack of reimbursements as critical problems for hospitals.
Over the past 15 years, six rural hospitals and related clinics have closed in Minnesota. Nationally, 15 rural hospitals have closed in the U.S. this year.
Slabach said many systems in smaller communities face a severe cash crunch, leaving room for doubt about their future.
He pointed to a pause in elective surgeries at the start of the pandemic and slow reimbursement payments, while adding it will be hard for them to improve their outlook in the near future.
"This will exacerbate, I think, some of the problems that have already existed for a long time in rural communities," Slabach asserted.
He said part of the problem is treating COVID patients can be very expensive, placing an even greater financial burden on facilities struggling to stay afloat.
To get a handle on the immediate problem, he said increased testing and contact tracing in rural areas can help with case management, and potentially reduce demand for hospitalizations.
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Illinois is the first state to block the federal government from accessing state data on autism.
The order, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last week, is in response to federal efforts to create a mass data collection on autism.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to use Medicare and Medicaid data to create an autism registry with the goal of finding the cause of what he called an "autism epidemic." Pritzker's order prohibits the collection in Illinois without consent from an individual or guardian.
Jeff Chan, associate professor of special education at Northern Illinois University, said along with concerns about accidental disclosure of protected health information, right now there is no single cause or cure for autism and he is skeptical a database could change it
"I don't even know if we will ever find that one, single cause," Chan acknowledged. "There's a variety of factors in play on the genetic side and the environmental side that are all affecting parents and mothers and children, which eventually lead to the expression of those symptoms."
Federal agencies said they would protect sensitive health information. More than a dozen autism organizations and advocates are pushing back against the planned database and any rhetoric claiming autism is "curable" or is caused by vaccines.
One in 31 children in the U.S. is diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Chan noted in Illinois the rate increased from one in 333 children in 2002 to one in 51 children in 2023. He added while cases are rising, the numbers are also influenced by earlier diagnosis and improved data collection.
Chan emphasized the importance of oversight of data and interpretation and cautioned about the potential for drawing conclusions from incomplete information or cherry-picking evidence.
"Anyone could collect data and they can interpret it differently, and they can spin it differently," Chan stressed. "That happens all the time. And that's happened in the past, especially about the causes of autism."
Chan advised caution regarding individuals with extreme theories. He acknowledged the difficulty parents and caregivers face in evaluating information and the importance of institutions to help navigate the evidence.
"There's people out there that, for whatever reason, are true believers about a particular narrative about autism," Chan explained. "You have to be a very careful consumer about what you take in and what evidence you choose to believe."
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By Tim Spears for WISH-TV.
Broadcast version by Terri Dee for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration
The intensity on the track during the Indianapolis 500 just might be matched inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Infield Medical Center.
"I think there's lots of jokes about emergency physicians out there," IMS Medical Director Julia Vaizer said. "[Being] adrenaline junkies is one of them that floats around."
When the IMS draws more than 350,000 people for the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," Vaizer says this the Infield Medical Center becomes the busiest emergency department in Indiana.
Vaizer says the most common issues for fans in the stands are cuts, bruises, and dehydration. While the race crews can need attention for anything from a common cold to a multi-car crash.
"A lot of times on race day, people think 'Oh, you just have intoxicated people there,' but we see patients with any kind of medical emergency," said Laura Stasila, assistant clinical operations manager at Infield Care Center.
The 18-bed clinic is split, separating the fans from the drivers and race teams receiving treatment. The driver's side is also equipped with a x-ray machine, ultrasound, and stocked with blood reserves.
IU Health, which operates the center, also has a helicopter on standby.
First built in the 1940s, Vaizer considers the Infield Medical Center at IMS to be one of the top motorsports medical facilities in the country.
The 200-plus member medical team working the Indianapolis 500 are also deployed in key areas across the track, staff first aid centers, and follow IndyCar to keep teams healthy on the road. It includes a mix of professionals: Nurses, residents, emergency medicine physicians, and specialists, such as a trauma surgeon and a neurosurgeon.
On race day, Stasila says the medical team often arrives in the morning, with some staying at the track already waiting for care. While the end of the race usually brings a rush of race team members who waited until the event ended to get something checked out.
But no matter how quiet or intense it gets, the goal remains the same: Safety.
"When you get this many people in one place, there's bound to be any kind of emergency that would happen," Stasila said.
Tim Spears wrote this article for WISH-TV.
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May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month and the latest state data show Wisconsin recently recorded the highest number of Lyme disease cases in state history.
Experts are urging residents to be mindful of the ticks carrying it as they become more active across the state. There are 16 confirmed tick species in Wisconsin and experts are focused on the "black-legged tick," or "deer tick," in the transmission of Lyme disease. Experts recommended taking preventive measures when spending time outdoors like wearing protective clothing and using insect repellent. They added you should perform tick checks and shower after any outdoor activity.
Dr. Xia Lee, public health entomologist at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said some ticks, especially younger ones, may be harder to spot.
"Those are usually the ones that we associate with a lot of the cases of Lyme disease or tick-borne diseases, most active in June and July," Lee explained. "This is also reflected in the number of people who go into the emergency department or go into the physician for tick bite-related illness."
The number of reported Lyme disease cases has tripled over the past 15 years, according to state data. Lee noted the Wisconsin Department of Health Services conducts surveillance and tracking of ticks for the public, including a tick identification service and a dashboard reporting ER visits for tick bites.
Deer ticks have spread from northwestern Wisconsin to every county in the state over the past 30 years. Experts said changes in land use, wildlife management and the environment have helped spread the disease.
PJ Liesch, entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the deer tick is a generalist feeder and can be found on many small mammals, in addition to deer. He added the increasing prevalence of the species has led to an emerging health threat.
"They are still spreading outwards," Liesch pointed out. "They seem to be moving into newer areas, in some cases that can be more like suburban backyards, areas where we haven't seen them historically. And they're still potentially expanding and we don't know when they are going to stop."
Liesch stressed if you are bitten by a tick in Wisconsin, there's about a 50-50 chance it is carrying Lyme disease. He emphasized the risk of Lyme disease transmission increases with the duration of tick attachment, which is why prevention and detection are so important.
"That's a pretty high rate of infectivity, kind of a scary number," Liesch acknowledged. "Even if you have a deer tick that is Lyme-positive, if you are checking yourself and making sure they are not attached to you for very long, that's going to greatly reduce the chances of transmission."
Some early symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, headache, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, joint and muscle pain and a rash. If left untreated, more complicated conditions can develop.
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