Weekly Health Digest: Gonorrhea, Vaping, and Bottled Water to Flint

Super gonorrhea threat – it’s a public health crisis that is on the horizon

David C. Harvey

There have been reports of cases of gonorrhea in the United Kingdom where the strain is resistant to all the antibiotics normally used to treat the disease. These cases speaks to the reality of untreatable gonorrhea being on a rise at a time when STIs are at an all time high. The question is when will we begin seeing cases of untreatable gonorrhea in the United States.

Vaping now an epidemic among US high schoolers

Roni Selig, David Cannaviccio and Charlotte Hawks

The drastic increase in vaping and using e-cigarettes has the US Food and Drug Administration keeping a close eye on this new smoking fad. A 2016 report from the US Surgeon general found a 900% increase in e-cigarette use in high schoolers from 2011 to 2015. Another national youth tobacco study by the FDA, in 2016, found that 1.7 million high school students, and 500,000 middle school students, reported having used e-cigarettes in the past 30-days. FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb states “No kid should be using any tobacco product”.

Michigan Will No Longer Provide Free Bottled Water to Flint

Jacey Fortin

Governor Rick Snyder announced that the state of Michigan will no longer be providing free bottled water to the resident’s of Flint, where a crisis of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water was exposed in 2014. It is estimated that lead pipes that have caused the contamination will not be fully replaced until 2020. Gov. Snyder said residents can still access free water filters.