Public health extras: News on cholera, abortion and Alzheimer’s
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* Kim Krisberg

## State abortion restrictions putting health at risk

Politics and ideology are putting women’s health at risk in states across the nation, according to a new report from the National Partnership for Women and Families.

The report found that abortion restrictions that are in effect in 29 states and on the books in 33 states contradict evidence-based health care practices and undermine high quality care for women. In examining four types of abortion restrictions — ultrasound requirements, biased counseling, mandatory delays and restrictions on medication-based abortions — the report found that 33 states have at least one of the restrictions and 16 states have all four.

“Health care treatment decisions are best made between a patient and her physician, not a politician,” said John Jennings, MD, president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in a partnership news release. “American women need unimpeded access to the care that is appropriate for them, when they need it, period. We must stop treating reproductive care of women differently than other, equally important parts of health care.”

Among the report’s findings: 19 states require health care providers to give or offer patients seeking an abortion medically inaccurate information, 30 states impose a mandatory delay before receiving an abortion and 13 states mandate an ultrasound.

For a copy of “Bad Medicine: How a Political Agenda is Undermining Women’s Health Care,” visit [www.nationalpartnership.org](http://www.nationalpartnership.org).

## Oral vaccine can help stop cholera outbreak

An oral cholera vaccine was highly effective in protecting residents in Guinea during a 2012 disease outbreak, a recent study found.

The study examined the effectiveness of two complete doses of Shanchol, one of two oral cholera vaccines currently available and pre-qualified by the World Health Organization. In April 2012, health workers began administering more than 316,000 doses of the vaccine in two rounds in two coastal districts over a six-week period. Vaccination coverage reached more than 75 percent in both districts. The study, which was published in May in the *New England Journal of Medicine*, found that two complete vaccine doses were associated with 86 percent protection against cholera, an often deadly disease.

“The results, on both the effectiveness and feasibility of oral cholera vaccines during an actual emergency, will hopefully bolster efforts to integrate vaccines in the global response to cholera outbreaks,” said lead study author Rebecca Grais, PhD, of Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders.

For a copy of the study, visit [www.nejm.org](http://www.nejm.org).

## Lifestyle changes could prevent millions of Alzheimer’s cases

A third of Alzheimer’s cases worldwide can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity and lack of education and may be preventable, found a study published in the August issue of *The Lancet Neurology*.

The study is a follow-up to a 2011 study that suggested that as many as one in two Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented through changing certain lifestyles factors. That study treated the risk factors as being independent of each other, while the new study considers that many of the risk factors are related. The seven key risk factors are diabetes, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, physical inactivity, depression, smoking and low educational attainment.

The new study estimates that by reducing the risk of each risk factor by 10 percent, it may be possible to reduce Alzheimer’s prevalence by 8.5 percent by 2050. Such a reduction would prevent 9 million cases of the disease.

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association