Pioneering Multiple Sclerosis Study Looks at How It Affects Latino Patients

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1. The Topic to Spotlight: Latinas and Mifepristone, Still Available

Advocates for the right to terminate a pregnancy are trying to improve their approach to Hispanic patients in the United States to make it clear to them that the abortion pill mifepristone is still available, despite two conflicting rulings that could lead to the drug's withdrawal from shelves in the future.

Big picture

: Last week a court in Texas and another in Washington state issued conflicting decisions on whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could approve the drug, as it did two decades ago, because of a controversy because in January the agency allowed the sale of mifepristone in pharmacies.

• The Texas court ruling agreed with a conservative group.

  Activists warn that Latinas will be greatly affected if that decision is the one that prevails.

• Approximately 25% of people seeking to terminate a pregnancy in the United States are Hispanic, who face greater barriers to accessing the service since they are less likely to have private health insurance that covers it or be able to take time off work .

• The Latino community has also been a strong target of misinformation since the right to abortion, recognized in 1973 in the Roe v.

  Wade of the Supreme Court, was struck down by magistrates of the current federal court.

  For example, false rumors have spread that mifepristone abortion pills are not safe when hundreds of clinical studies prove that they are, as well as legitimate bodies like the World Health Organization.

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

[What can happen if access to the abortion pill is interrupted?]

In her own words

: More than half of all abortions in the United States are performed with medication, which is less expensive than surgical abortion, Lupe M. Rodríguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, tells Axios. Latin.

• "This could eliminate one of the least expensive options people have for getting this care," he explains.

• Oriaku Njoku, who heads the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) adds that "like other abortion restrictions, the damage will fall most heavily on those who already face economic injustices and barriers to health care, especially Black, Indigenous, Asian or Latino people and people whose identities are intersectional."

[Mexican activists create networks to support US residents who need an abortion] 

The National Latina Institute

for Reproductive Justice is one of the groups that has been holding awareness days so that Latinas know that they still have options.

• Rodríguez says that they have made live broadcasts on the social network Instagram with relevant information and that they are working with allies throughout the country to mobilize in support of the right to abortion, for example with messages in Spanish on radio and television stations.

• Rodríguez comments that he does not want people to think that they no longer have access to mifepristone, since a final decision is still pending while the legal cases are resolved.

• "One of the things we don't want to do is scare people into thinking they don't have access. There is still access. This is just a step in the courts," he says. 

2.

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R

eviewing disparities in multiple sclerosis

An ongoing clinical trial is the first in multiple sclerosis to specifically study black and Hispanic patients with the disease.

This is a test to see how they react to a commonly used medicine for MS.

Big picture:

 Little is still known for certain about MS, a chronic disease of the central nervous system;

its cause is not known, for example.

Even less is known about how it affects or presents in non-white Americans.

• About 30% of people with multiple sclerosis in the United States are Hispanic or black, but less than 5% of participants in clinical trials related to the disease are from those demographics, according to Mitzi Joi Williams, an MS neurologist and the lead doctor leading the trial.

• This means that the efficacy of certain therapies for these groups is not fully proven.

The fact

: Previous medical studies have found that Latino populations in the United States who develop multiple sclerosis present it at an earlier age, in addition to not always being correctly diagnosed and having more severe symptoms or faster progression .

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

More details

: The clinical trial led by Williams will finish the data collection phase this May, to move on to the analyzes and eventual display of results.

Studying how black or Hispanic patients who take ocrelizumab for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis progress.

• Because the purpose of the trial from its inception in 2021 was to recruit diverse patients, all materials were carefully translated into Spanish, according to Williams.

• In addition to this clinical trial, other specialized groups in the US, such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, have been improving the information they have available in Spanish for Latinos with the disease.

  Pharmaceutical Genentech, which makes one of the MS prescription drugs, also launched a bilingual awareness campaign last year.

In his own words

: "We hope to identify more information about the unique nature of MS in these underrepresented populations so that we can ensure we provide them with the best personalized care possible," Williams told Axios Latino.

• "We need more research to better understand why we see different outcomes in these communities," he added. 

Celebrities with multiple sclerosis: Christina Applegate, Selma Blair and more

Nov 3, 202202:26

3. Examine segregation signs

The University of Texas College of Architecture is hosting an exhibit (through next week) examining racist billboards and signs that existed on campus in the 1910s. The signs were found undergoing renovations.

Current Situation

: The signs give just a glimpse of a long history of segregation in parts of Texas, which had 29 racist Jim Crow-type laws for many years.

• UT school officials decided to display the found signage as an opportunity to put the university's history into greater context, Axios reporters Nicole Cobler and Patricia Guadalupe were told.

• For example, the campus was built and built by mostly black workers, but black people were not allowed to attend classes at UT until 1956.

The exhibit at the University of Texas College of ArchitecturePhoto courtesy of Thanh Le/University of Texas

Count

: Segregationist signs were found in 2021;

At the start of renovation work, a worker located handwritten "Whites Only" signage on a wall that had been hidden for years.

• The sign was probably written between 1910 and 1911 and was to keep black workers on the college building, which for years was used as UT's central library, from using certain restrooms, according to Tara Dudley, an assistant professor of architecture who led the investigation of the sign.

Between the lines

: Segregation in Texas was also against Mexican-Americans, who were prevented from entering certain motels, public restrooms, restaurants, and movie theaters.

• For example, many restaurants in the early 20th century used the same sign: "No Dogs, Blacks, Mexicans Allowed," which was put out by the Lone Star Restaurant Association.

4. Dusting off our photographic archive

Russell Contreras, co-author of this newsletter, shares with us in this issue a photograph of his great-grandfather Florencio Contreras with the semi-professional baseball team he owned at the time.

• The team, whose name has been lost to history, was based in Houston and existed between the 1920s and 1930s, composed primarily of Mexican-American players.

The team in front of the blacksmith shop of F. ContrerasCourtesy

Curious fact

: Florencio Contreras is the man in the tailored suit in the middle.

In front of him, kneeling, is the gambler Isabel Ramos, who after Florencio's death adopted Russ's mother.

Photographs tell our story, even when parts of their stories have been lost.

Do you have family photos with a story behind that you want to share with us?

5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

1. The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro,

announced this week a plan to "vigorously intervene in prisons," which would be part of her campaign to combat gangs, after four prison riots this Saturday that left at least one person dead and seven wounded.

Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios

• According to data from the Honduran government, there are some 19,000 people incarcerated (not all of them sentenced) despite the fact that local organizations indicate that the maximum prison capacity is for 8,000 prisoners.  

2. In a Borgesian twist

,

The inheritance of the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges (both his belongings and the rights to his works) seems to have been left in limbo, since María Kodama, his widow and executor, died in March apparently without leaving a will.

• Kodama's lawyer, Fernando Soto, announced the lack of will last week, suggesting that the rights could fall into the hands of the city of Buenos Aires.

  Although in recent days four of Kodama's nephews have come forward as potential heirs, Soto said.

6. Farewell Smile: The Flight of Quetzalcoatl

A kite representing the Mesoamerican feathered serpent deity will compete this weekend in a world kite championship.

Mexicans intend to win the world kite contest with a mythical feathered serpent

March 6, 202300:31

Details

: The design measures 116 meters (approximately 380 feet) and was handcrafted in San Andrés Cholula, Puebla.

• It will be flown at the 40th edition of the International Kite Festival, which is held every April in Weifang, Shandong (China), after being put to the test in March at the Puebla Volare Festival.

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We return on Thursday.

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