Birth Control Apps Find A Big Market In ‘Contraception Deserts’
Claire Hammons lives 90 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, in what some call a “contraception desert” -- a place without publicly funded women’s health clinics.
It can be tough there to get prescription birth control affordably, she says, especially if you lack health insurance.
Six months ago, Hammons found another option: A few startup firms, including NURX in San Francisco, now sell several types of hormonal birth control cheaply, via an app.
NURX delivers pills or patches to the home in just a day or two, after an online consultation with a health provider.
Hammons relies on the pills to treat her endometriosis, and says the cost savings are "really amazing, and ... saved me a lot."
The apps fill an important need, doctors tell Ashley Lopez, a health reporter from Austin's KUT, and Lesley McClurg, who covers science and health at KQED in San Francisco.
But women in rural areas still need better access to medical clinics for preventive care, the physicians add.
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| Arlington, Mass., Police Chief Fred Ryan (right) and Inspector Gina Bassett review toxicology reports on cocaine evidence looking for the possibility of fentanyl... Jesse Costa/WBUR |
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Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine Is Behind A New Wave Of Opioid Deaths
America’s opioid crisis has taken another deadly turn: Cocaine laced with fentanyl, an opioid roughly 50 times more potent than heroin, is killing some drug users who often don’t realize what they’re getting.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 7 percent of cocaine seized in New England in 2017 included fentanyl -- up from 4 percent in 2016.
In Connecticut alone, the number of overdose cases in which fentanyl and cocaine are jointly implicated has increased 420 percent in the past three years.
Martha Bebinger, a WBUR science reporter in Boston who has been closely tracking the problem, tells us that drug agents and health officials don’t yet know whether fentanyl is creeping in as a contaminant, or is being added intentionally.
“But a growing number of law enforcement agents, doctors, recovery providers and drug users argue for malicious intent,” Bebinger says. “They speculate that cartel leaders are using cocaine to expand the market of people addicted to opioids.”
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| Ausberto Maldonado picked corn and asparagus for years on the U.S. mainland before returning home to Puerto Rico. Now, as the island continues to reel from hurricane damage and economic storms, Maldonado is struggling to buy clean water and fresh food. Sarah Varney/Kaiser Health News |
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NPR Listeners Reach Out To Puerto Rico's Frail Elderly
Sarah Varney’s story about the plight of Ausberto Maldonado touched a nerve with NPR listeners. He's a 65-year-old man with diabetes in Puerto Rico, and he is struggling to get by as the island’s safety net wears thin.
As Varney, a reporter for Kaiser Health News, explains, “The emergency government support that helped pay for some health care and medically related transportation needs of Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria is running out."
Private donations of water and food have slowed, she says. "And it's not clear who, if anyone, will carry on with that work.”
Some listeners immediately wrote to Varney and NPR with offers of help.
A group of medical students from Puerto Rico offered to help arrange rides to the doctor for Maldonado.
Another listener bought him a refrigerator to help preserve fresh produce and his insulin.
Still another NPR listener is now working with a relief group to get a huge fallen tree, brought low by Hurricane Maria, out of Maldonado’s yard.
And the offers keep coming.
“There’s a waiting list for donated refrigerators,” Varney tells Shots, “so any additional offers are being directed to help those on the list.”
She called Maldonado Friday, to let him know how much his story has touched people. He, too, was moved -- by the response.
“Maybe they won’t forget us,” he told Varney. “There are so many people who have less than me.”
-- Your Shots editor, Deborah Franklin
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