Friday Shorts: Transfusions after abortion ban, measles, sperm freezing, disparities in opioid treatment and new liver drug not cost effective
July 11, 2025
A. Transfusion in pregnancy has increased in Texas since abortion ban
Propublica reports that the rate of blood transfusion in pregnancy has increased 54% in Texas since Texas effectively banned abortion, which preceded the Dobbs Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade. Women with a miscarriage are more likely to need a transfusion if they do not receive prompt medical care to remove the nonviable fetus. Similar results are likely in other states where abortion has also been banned. Many early pregnancies end in miscarriage, and abortion bans have worsened medical care for miscarriage since many clinicians are fearful that effective medical care would violate state abortion bans.
B. U.S. Measles outbreak now the largest since 1991
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), downloaded July 9, 2025. This year is “year to date.”
The United States has now reported almost 1300 cases of measles (and three deaths), the highest number of measles cases since 1991. The number of new cases is lower than in previous weeks, although more cases have been imported from abroad in addition to the cases associated with the Texas outbreak which started in 2024.
To put this into perspective, there were about 500,000 cases of measles in 1962.
Previous posts on this topic:
Declines in vaccination rate could lead to millions of cases of preventable disease (May 22)
Measles outbreaks in the US and abroad (February 12 - a post by my colleague Patricia Toro, which includes implications for employers).
Measles isn’t limited to the United States. There are over 3,000 cases in Canada and ongoing outbreaks in many other countries including Yemen, Pakistan, India and Russia.
Here’s a link to Katelyn Jetelina’s post on this in Your Local Epidemiologist.
C. Sperm freezing marketing and use increases
Bloomberg reports that sperm freezing is increasingly being marketed to men and to companies to preserve fertility. Traditionally, freezing sperm is considered medically necessary by many health plans only if a man is going to undergo a procedure that would impair future fertility (including chemotherapy or testicular removal, usually for cancer).
Elective sperm freezing is now much less expensive as there are preservative agents that allow home collection. Results of elective egg freezing in women are often disappointing, and men or women who are considering procedures to preserve future fertility should talk to medical experts.
D. Black people with opioid overdoses less likely to be referred for treatment
Researchers reported in JAMA Network Open that White people were two-thirds more likely than Black people (5.7%) to be referred for medication assisted treatment when revived from an opioid overdose. Those who are revived and not referred for MAT are much more likely to die of a subsequent overdose. This is a study of 1683 patients at 10 hospitals from December, 2022 to March, 2025.
E. MASH drug for liver disease not cost effective
Researchers in JAMA Network Open performed a simulation study to determine whether resmitirom (Rezdiffra) was cost effective in the treatment of metabolic associated steatohepatis (MASH). They found that it cost about $140,000 per quality adjusted life year (and twice that with assumptions that fewer would discontinue the medication. The drug has a list price of $48,000, but the researchers used a 67% discount rate for their study to account for rebates and discounts. It’s possible that the GLP-1 drugs, which have effective prices of around $8,000 annually, will be more cost-effective than resmitirom, which is the only drug currently approved for this indication.