Author: Claudinne Miller
US measles cases are undercounted, experts say, but real numbers are proving hard to pin down
CNN During a Cabinet meeting last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed what is now the second-worst measles outbreak in the US since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Kennedy has claimed repeatedly that measles cases have “plateaued,” despite contradictory data from his own agencies. On Tuesday, the […]
Apr 15, 2025
The US has three measles-related deaths and hundreds of cases. Here’s what to know
AP Texas surpassed 500 measles cases Tuesday, just days after a third person died from a measles-related illness. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024. Texas is reporting the majority of them with 505. The cases include two young elementary school-aged children who were not vaccinated and died from measles-related […]
Apr 9, 2025
The Return of the Dire Wolf
Time Romulus and Remus are doing what puppies do: chasing, tussling, nipping, nuzzling. But there’s something very un-puppylike about the snowy white 6-month olds—their size, for starters. At their young age they already measure nearly 4 ft. long, tip the scales at 80 lb., and could grow to 6 ft. and 150 lb. Then there’s […]
Apr 9, 2025
A Call for Closer Kidney Monitoring After COVID-19 Hospitalization
Physicians Weekly Patients experienced a greater annual decline in kidney function after COVID-19 infection compared with after pneumonia due to other infections, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers found that the magnitude of accelerated kidney function decline was steepest in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. “We, therefore, propose that people who were hospitalized […]
Apr 9, 2025
How will the deep cuts at the Centers for Disease Control affect global programs?
NPR As of April 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shut down its Maternal and Child Health Branch, which works with other countries to ensure that mothers and children at risk of or infected by HIV receive treatment. All 22 staff were terminated. That’s one of the ways that global health will […]
Apr 9, 2025
Once-rare fungal diseases are killing millions in an unprepared world
Dallas Morning News An estimated 6.5 million people develop invasive fungal infections each year. When most people think of dangerous infections, they picture bacteria or viruses. But for infectious disease specialists like Peter Chin-Hong, one of the most insidious threats lurking in hospitals and clinics today is fungal. Chin-Hong’s case list is long: a healthy 29-year-old marathon […]
Apr 9, 2025
Avian flu in raw milk found to be broadly sensitive to heat
Cornell Chronicle In March 2024, when the first cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza were identified in dairy cows in Texas, Cornell researchers – led by Diego Diel, associate professor of virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) – immediately began assessing how long the virus survived in the raw milk of infected cows. At the same […]
Apr 9, 2025
USDA to lose bird flu response employees, source says
Reuters Several U.S. Department of Agriculture employees who worked on the agency’s bird flu response will leave at the end of April, straining the federal capacity to monitor the spread of the virus, according to a source familiar with the situation. The USDA on April 1 gave employees seven days to decide whether to take financial incentives […]
Apr 9, 2025
New ‘surprising’ case of mpox variant clade lb detected in England
Retuers Britain’s health security agency said on Monday another case of the mpox variant clade lb had been detected in England in a person who had no reported travel history or link with previously confirmed cases in the country. The case was diagnosed in March and all contacts have been followed up and no further […]
Apr 9, 2025
CDC has no Acting Director, sources confirm.
Inside Medicine The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not have an Acting Director, Inside Medicine has learned—a seemingly unprecedented and legally significant lapse in leadership. Multiple sources in the agency provided details about the development, and three legal scholars independently confirmed the accuracy of the assessment that Dr. Susan Monarez—who served as Acting […]
Apr 9, 2025