CDC requires Ebola travel attestation; Illinois man pleads guilty in $227M COVID-19 test kit scheme; aspirin alone holds up after appendage closure — Morning Medical Update

CDC requires Ebola travel attestation for U.S.-bound flights

Every passenger on an international flight to the U.S. now has to sign a travel statement.

All passengers boarding international flights to the United States must now sign a statement that they have not been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the 21 days before departure, under a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order that took effect at 11:59 p.m. EST Nov. 3.

The requirement applies no matter where a traveler boards. Travelers who were in the DRC within that window, including U.S. citizens, already cannot board commercial flights to the United States, and U.S. citizens returning from Uganda or South Sudan must enter through designated airports for enhanced screening.

The outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo virus, had reached 10,498 confirmed cases and 5,107 confirmed deaths as of Oct. 31, according to the CDC, which calls it the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record. The agency links clinical guidance for screening and diagnosing viral hemorrhagic fevers from its outbreak page.

Illinois man pleads guilty in $227M Medicare COVID-19 test kit scheme

Prosecutors said he paid about $11 million for the personal data of hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries.

Syed Murtuza Kablazada, 36, of Des Plaines, Illinois, pleaded guilty Oct. 30 to two counts of health care fraud in a scheme that billed Medicare about $227 million for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits that beneficiaries never requested or received, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Prosecutors said Kablazada and others acquired three Chicago-area laboratories and paid about $11 million to a purported telemarketing company based in Pakistan for the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare paid about $136 million on claims submitted over roughly six months beginning in January 2023.

He agreed to forfeit more than $46 million seized from 10 bank accounts. Prosecutors said the group moved proceeds through overseas transfers and unlicensed money transmitters and spent some on luxury vehicles. Kablazada faces up to 20 years in prison at a sentencing that has not been scheduled.

Aspirin alone holds up after left atrial appendage closure

A simpler regimen did at least as well as two antiplatelet drugs through six months.

In patients with atrial fibrillation whose left atrial appendage was successfully closed, aspirin alone or a short course of a reduced-dose anticoagulant was noninferior to dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) at six months, according to the SIMPLAAFY trial published Nov. 2 in JAMA.

Among 1,857 patients randomized after implantation of Boston Scientific's Watchman FLX Pro device, the combined rate of death, stroke, systemic embolism or major bleeding was 3.3% with aspirin alone, 5.1% with a reduced-dose non-vitamin K oral anticoagulant for three months followed by aspirin and 6.9% with DAPT.

Boston Scientific sponsored the trial, and five authors are company employees. The researchers, led by Vivek Y. Reddy, M.D., of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, noted the results cover only uncomplicated implants and six months of follow-up, and the trial did not compare either regimen with full-dose anticoagulation.