CDC Probes Brain Abscess Cluster; Murthy’s Cure for Loneliness; Dental Care Deserts

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The CDC is investigating a curious rise in brain abscesses among kids in Nevada. (CNN)

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he has a “pretty good idea” of who leaked the draft of the Dobbs abortion ruling last year and suggested the leaker was likely trying to prevent the final decision. (The Hill)

The CDC will soon stop tracking COVID-19 community levels and only track hospitalizations in some areas. (CNN)

Omicron’s XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.9.1 subvariants are gaining ground in the U.S., accounting for more than a fifth of all new cases combined, according to CDC’s Nowcast tracker.

Boston Children’s Hospital will pay $15 million to the parents of a child who died during a sleep study. (WCVB)

Eating disorders in teens have become more severe, according to new CDC data. (NBC News)

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, outlined a plan to reduce American loneliness in a New York Times op-ed, proposing stronger social infrastructure, reevaluating relationships with technology, and building personal connection.

In states that limit care, transgender people are turning to ordering hormones from foreign websites. (AP)

The archives of Polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk, MD, have returned to the University of Pittsburgh. (WESA)

Pennsylvania is likely to effectively ban supervised injection sites, worrying harm-reduction advocates in the state. (STAT)

The grieving brother of an artist who died from an overdose experienced firsthand the effects of a drug market awash in heroin laced with fentanyl and xylazine, a dangerous animal tranquilizer. (Washington Post)

Delays in distribution of settlement money from Purdue Pharma over its role in the opioid crisis are causing problems for victims who want to begin repairing lives upended by addiction. (AP)

The FDA approved a long-acting injection of risperidone (Uzedy) for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, Teva and MedinCell announced.

LeRoy Carhart, MD, a vocal provider of late-term abortions in Maryland and Nebraska, died at age 81. (AP)

Many people in Florida are living in “dental deserts.” (KFF Health News)

The New York City Fire Department hiked the cost of an ambulance ride from $900 to $1,385 starting Monday, citing inflation and emergency worker salaries. (Spectrum News NY 1)

Teva is recalling some of its fentanyl tablets used for cancer-related pain due to the omission of certain safety information on their labels, the FDA announced.

And General Mills announced a recall of certain Gold Medal all-purpose flour bags after finding Salmonella infantis in some samples.