Axios

Emergency room visits for young people in mental distress rose sharply over the last decade, per a report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

What they found: Between 2011 to 2020, emergency department visits among children, adolescents and young adults for mental health reasons approximately doubled, a group of researchers and physicians found.

The North Carolina state Senate on Thursday passed a 12-week abortion ban that is almost certain to become law in the state.

Why it matters: Gov. Roy Cooper (D) plans to veto the bill, but Republicans, who hold a veto-proof supermajority in the legislature, have said they plan to override him.

The Florida legislature on Thursday passed a bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and adds restrictions for adults seeking care, sending it to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Why it matters: The Florida Board of Medicine already barred health providers from offering this type of care to trans minors. If enacted, this bill would codify those restrictions into state law, and would also add criminal penalties for physicians who provide gender-affirming treatments.

Hispanics with disabilities in the U.S. have reached a record employment rate, in part thanks to remote work.

By the numbers: About 35.5% of U.S. Latinos ages 16 to 64 with a disability were employed between April 2022 and March of this year, according to the National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) project from the Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire.

The mental health crisis among Latinos is not letting up, and experts tell Axios it's time for political leaders and others to step up and promote seeking help in a more culturally relevant way.

The big picture: The pandemic exacerbated mental health needs in the U.S., especially among Latinos, whose rates of depression, anxiety and suicide grew.

Food and Drug Administration advisers have set their next meeting to decide how to make the next round of COVID-19 boosters available to the general public this fall, now that they're available for older adults and high-risk people.

Driving the news: An FDA expert panel will meet June 15 to discuss and make recommendations on what strains to include in the "periodic updated" COVID vaccines this fall.

Employers are fielding a surge of demand from their workers for obesity care benefits — specifically, for a buzzy class of weight loss drugs — and it's getting pricey.

Why it matters: The drugs — known as glucagon-like peptide agonists, or GLP-1s — have been found to effectively help people lose excess weight, which is tied to a slew of health conditions that can be costly in their own right.

Michelle Obama announced Wednesday that she's co-founded PLEZi Nutrition, a food and drink company that says it aims "to help raise a healthier generation of kids."

Driving the news: Building on Obama's "Let's Move!" health campaign that she launched at the White House in 2010 when she was first lady, the first product is a kids' drink called PLEZi , which has no added sugar and 75% less sugar than average leading 100% fruit juices.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has asked the White House for more time to finalize draft rules that proposed reinstating stricter limits requiring doctors to evaluate patients in-person before prescribing certain drugs — like Adderall and opioid use disorder treatment — via telehealth.

Driving the news: DEA administrator Anne Milgram said on Wednesday that temporarily keeping the pandemic-era flexibilities in place would allow Americans to access needed medications “while we work to find a way forward to give Americans that access with appropriate safeguards.”

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus, making it the first authorized RSV shot in the U.S.

Why it matters: GSK's vaccine is approved for adults aged 60 and older, a population that is particularly vulnerable to RSV. The disease causes up to 10,000 deaths and as many as 160,000 hospitalizations for people 65 and up per year, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. overdose death rate involving fentanyl nearly quadrupled between 2016 and 2021, according to a report published Wednesday.

The big picture: The growing fentanyl crisis has spurred state and federal lawmakers to target the trafficking of the synthetic opioid, expand access to opioid overdose antidote Narcan, and decriminalize fentanyl test strips to use as a prevention tool.

Allergy seasons are becoming more intense and lasting longer, in part due to climate change.

Why it matters: Warmer temperatures are fueling longer and more intense pollen seasons, studies find. If those trends continue, places that typically have short or less intense allergy seasons could see them extend, experts predict.

North Carolina's state Senate passed a bill this week that would exempt the UNC Health Care system from federal and state antitrust laws.

Why it matters: The bill could increase health care consolidation in the state by making it easier for the University of North Carolina-affiliated hospital system to acquire other health care organizations.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants the nation to see loneliness as one of the top health challenges, issuing an advisory warning on Tuesday about what he sees as a threat to Americans' health and well-being.

Why it matters: Studies have estimated that the impact of social isolation on mortality is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to the advisory.