​Deep Sankar Dasgupta with daughter Deepanwita Dasgupta, when she was 3 years old. Deepanwita was later diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, a rare but debilitating complication from a prior measles infection.(Anindita Dasgupta). The first sign came when Deepanwita Dasgupta was 5 and started stumbling more while playing at her home in Bangalore in southern India. The girl was always up to something, so her parents figured extra bumps and bruises were just symptoms of an active childhood. Maybe, they thought, it was ill-fitting shoes.. This story also ran on ABC News. It can be republished for free.. Relatives described the unicorn-loving child as smart, affectionate, and occasionally rascally. Before she learned the alphabet, she had figured out how to find her favorite show, Blippi, on a phone. She was known to sneak butter from the fridge to enjoy a few finger licks.. But then her limbs started jerking. A spinal tap revealed measles in her cerebrospinal fluid. The virus she probably had as an infant had secretly made its way to her brain. Now 8 years old, Deepanwita is paralyzed, unable to talk.. Measles causes complications — ranging from diarrhea to death — in 3 in 10 infected people, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Some are immediate, while others take weeks or months to appear. The one Deepanwita is experiencing, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, typically takes years to rear its head.. “People think, ‘Oh, you know, if we get measles, then we’ll be fine, because I know my neighbor had it and they’re fine,’” said Yasmin Khakoo, who leads the national Child Neurology Society but spoke to KFF Health News in her capacity as a New York City doctor with expertise in neurologic conditions.. Measles, though, can be dangerous: A 7-year-old in South Carolina will have to relearn how to walk after enduring one of the more immediate complications, brain swelling. And every so often, the virus plants a ticking time bomb in the nervous system. A person can recover from measles and continue life as usual, no longer contagious and without any identifiable symptoms — sometimes for a decade or more — before problems appear. While some patients end up severely disabled for a while, Khakoo said, the condition is almost always fatal.. Email Sign-Up. Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.. Your Email Address Sign Up. Before the advent of widespread and effective vaccines, the complication occurred enough in the U.S. that in the 1960s a doctor created a national registry of SSPE patients. Researchers now estimate about 1 in 10,000 people who get measles will develop SSPE, but the risk is significantly higher for those who contract measles before age 5. Populous nations where the virus is endemic, including India, see cases routinely.. Now, doctors and researchers fear that as vaccination rates drop and measles spreads in the U.S., cases of this debilitating complication  

​The Host. Julie Rovner. KFF Health News. @jrovner. @julierovner.bsky.social. Read Julie’s stories.. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.. It’s been a tough week for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition to Kennedy having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, personnel issues continue to plague the department: The nominee to become surgeon general, an ally of Kennedy’s, may lack the votes for Senate confirmation. The controversial head of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine center will be resigning next month. And a new survey finds Americans have less trust in HHS leaders now than they did during the pandemic.. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues its crackdown over claims of rampant health care fraud. In addition to targeting the Medicaid programs in states led by Democratic governors, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is also taking aim at previously sacrosanct Medicare Advantage plans.. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th.. Panelists. Anna Edney. Bloomberg News. @annaedney. @annaedney.bsky.social. Read Anna’s stories.. Joanne Kenen. Johns Hopkins University and Politico. @JoanneKenen. @joannekenen.bsky.social. Read Joanne’s bio.. Shefali Luthra. The 19th. @shefali.bsky.social. Read Shefali’s stories.. Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:. Americans feel more confident in career scientists at federal health agencies than in the agencies’ leaders, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Yet the survey also sheds more light on the erosion of trust in public health officials and scientific research.. The FDA’s vaccine chief, Vinay Prasad, is leaving — again. Prasad was a critic of the agency before he joined it, and his tenure has been shaped by the same attitude, affecting career officials’ morale and the agency’s interactions with outside companies.. The Trump administration has extended its fraud crackdown campaign into Medicare Advantage plans. The privately run alternative to traditional Medicare coverage has been a GOP darling from the get-go. Yet President Donald Trump is nudging the party away from its pro-business stance on private insurance, arguing the government should give money to patients rather than insurers — a justification for policies undermining the Affordable Care Act.. And Wyoming became the latest state to enact a six-week abortion ban, a move that’s being challenged in court. The development points to the fact that while federal policymaking  

​César Manuel González, 37, used to work with stone that was engineered to endure: dense, polished slabs designed to outlast the kitchens in which they were installed.. This story also ran on CBS News. It can be republished for free.. Engineered quartz countertops have surged in popularity in the home renovation market, with industry analysts estimating the global engineered stone market at around $30 billion. It’s continuing to expand as quartz surfaces replace natural stone in kitchens in the United States and worldwide.. When González was working, the dust that rose from his saw didn’t look extraordinary. It settled on his clothes, in his hair, across the shop floor. In a small countertop fabrication shop, he cut marble and granite before shifting to engineered stone after the 2008-09 recession, when demand for cheaper quartz countertops surged.. But the crystalline silica released while the engineered stone was cut and polished also settled into his lungs, scarring them beyond repair. What began as breathlessness hardened into silicosis, an irreversible disease that stiffens the lungs until even ordinary movement becomes effort.. A lung transplant was his path forward. The procedure can extend survival, but it redraws the boundaries of a life: anti-rejection drugs every day, constant monitoring, vulnerability to infection, the knowledge that breathing depends on the fragile acceptance of another person’s donated organ.. González, who was diagnosed with silicosis in 2023, is not alone in dealing with a disease that once was associated with miners at the end of long careers. It’s now prevalent among the much younger, often Hispanic men who work in this industry, physicians and public health officials say.. In the United States, cases are appearing in countertop fabrication shops from California to Texas, Florida, and the Northeast. Because silicosis is not a nationally reportable disease and surveillance varies by state, no comprehensive national count exists. But clinicians who treat occupational lung disease say the number of workers — often men in their 30s and 40s — diagnosed after cutting engineered stone has risen sharply over the past decade.. As of early March, California had identified 519 confirmed cases of engineered-stone-associated silicosis and 29 deaths since 2019. The median age at diagnosis is 46; at death, 49.. Doctors don’t debate whether working with engineered stone can scar lungs.. Manufacturers argue, though, that proper ventilation, wet cutting, and respirators can make fabrication safe. Workers, physicians, and plaintiffs’ attorneys counter that a material composed almost entirely of crystalline silica may be impossible to handle safely at scale.. “This is comparable to the tobacco industry saying cigarettes are safe,” said epidemiologist David Michaels, an assistant labor secretary under President Barack Obama who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.. A computer-operated wet saw  

​Jonah, de 8 años, se despertó una mañana de mayo con la cara hinchada y dolor de muelas. Se negó a tomar el medicamento para el dolor que su mamá, Geneva Reynolds, trató de darle. No dormía ni comía y lloraba sin parar.. Sobre Noticias En Español. Noticias en español es una sección de KFF Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos.. Use Nuestro Contenido. Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita.. Detalles. Hablemos de Salud. Forma parte del grupo de Facebook de KFF Health News en español KFF Health News-Hablemos de Salud”.. KFF Health News – Hablemos de Salud. En pocos días, Reynolds estaba tan desesperada que ella y su esposo tuvieron que sujetar físicamente a Jonah para obligarlo a tomar el remedio, echándoselo en la garganta mientras él gritaba de dolor.. “Nos rompió el corazón”, contó Reynolds, que en ese momento vivía en Georgetown, Kentucky. “Y recuerdo que pensé que no debería tener que llegar a eso”.. Reynolds no pudo encontrar un dentista con una cita disponible que pudiera atender a Jonah, que es autista y a menudo se resiste a los exámenes dentales por hipersensibilidad y ansiedad. Durante cinco días, Reynolds llevó a Jonah dos veces a una sala de emergencias cercana, mientras el niño lidiaba con un dolor persistente y fiebre por lo que probablemente fuera un diente infectado con un nervio expuesto.. En la sala de emergencias no había dentistas; las dos veces la familia regresó a casa solo con analgésicos y una bolsa de hielo.. En todo el país, cada vez más niños llegan a las salas de emergencias por problemas dentales prevenibles. Dentistas, higienistas e investigadores atribuyen esa tendencia a la falta de profesionales de odontología pediátrica en zonas rurales y a un deterioro de la higiene bucal desde la pandemia de covid-19.. Decenas de miles de niños terminan en el hospital por emergencias dentales cada año, según Melissa Burroughs, directora sénior de políticas y defensa del paciente de la organización nacional sin fines de lucro CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.. Las visitas a salas de emergencias por problemas dentales no relacionados con lesiones físicas aumentaron casi un 60% a nivel nacional en niños menores de 15 años entre 2019 y 2022, según un informe publicado a finales del año pasado por CareQuest.. Los datos locales reflejan esa tendencia nacional.. En el Hospital de Niños de Colorado, en el área de Denver, los casos dentales no traumáticos —como caries o infecciones de encías— atendidos en la sala de emergencias aumentaron un 175% entre 2010 y 2025, según Sarah Bonar, vocera del hospital.. En Kentucky, donde vive Jonah, las visitas de niños a salas de emergencia por problemas dentales aumentaron un 72 % entre 2020 y 2024, según los registros del estado.. Los cambios de política ejecutados por e  

​Eight-year-old Jonah woke up one May morning with a swollen face and a toothache. He refused the pain medication that his mom, Geneva Reynolds, tried to give him. He didn’t sleep or eat and cried constantly.. This story also ran on CBS News. It can be republished for free.. Within a few days, Reynolds became so desperate that she and her husband had to physically restrain Jonah, dumping pain medication down his throat as he screamed in pain.. “It broke our hearts,” said Reynolds, who lived in Georgetown, Kentucky, at the time. “And I remember just thinking that it shouldn’t have to come to that.”. Reynolds couldn’t find a dentist with an opening who could treat Jonah, who is autistic and often resists dental exams due to hypersensitivity and anxiety. Over the course of five days, Reynolds took Jonah twice to a nearby emergency room as he struggled with persistent pain and a fever due to a likely infected tooth with an exposed nerve. The ER had no dentists; both times, the family was sent home with only pain medication and an ice pack.. Across the nation, more children are entering ERs for preventable tooth problems. Dentists, hygienists, and researchers attributed that trend to a shortage of pediatric dental care professionals in rural areas and worsening oral hygiene since the covid-19 pandemic. Tens of thousands of kids end up in the hospital for dental emergencies each year, according to Melissa Burroughs, senior director of policy and advocacy at the national health nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.. ER visits for tooth problems unrelated to physical injuries rose almost 60% nationally for children under 15 years old from 2019 to 2022, according to a report released late last year by CareQuest. And local data reflects that national trend: At Children’s Hospital Colorado in the Denver area, nontraumatic dental cases, such as cavities or gum infections, in its ER increased 175% from 2010 to 2025, according to hospital spokesperson Sarah Bonar. In Kentucky, where Jonah lives, children’s visits to the ER for dental problems rose 72% from 2020 to 2024, according to the state.. Email Sign-Up. Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.. Your Email Address Sign Up. Policy changes under the Trump administration are poised to worsen the trend. President Donald Trump’s 2025 federal budget reconciliation law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, called for billions in cuts from Medicaid, which may force states to limit or drop dental coverage from the public insurance program for those with low incomes or disabilities. New eligibility requirements for Medicaid in some states could affect kids’ access to dental care, even though children are guaranteed dental coverage under the program. Research shows that when parents lose Medicaid, even kids with coverage are more likely to have untreated cavities and less likely to go to a dentist.. The Trump administration has also promoted skepticism about fluoride. De