Category: Featured Headlines
Sneaky viruses can hide in your body and bounce back even if you’re cured
NPR Viruses are tiny — and sneaky. So sneaky that some play a deadly game of hide and seek. The “seek” part is all too familiar: They’re always looking for ways to infect humans. Their ability to hide is far less well-known and can have devastating implications. The human body holds several effective hiding spots […]
Oct 29, 2025
Global Disease Outbreaks: A 2025 Snapshot and Implications for the U.S.
KFF Each year, there are multiple infectious disease outbreaks (defined as the occurrence of cases of disease in excess of what is expected) throughout the world. Some of these become severe and have global and domestic implications, including, most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak in China and eventually 28 other countries and the […]
Oct 29, 2025
Behind the Dismantling of the C.D.C.: Reform or ‘Humiliation’?
NYT The agency has lost a third of its work force this year. The Trump administration maintains that the losses are necessary, but critics say that there is no real plan, only animosity. Months before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began preparing for his […]
Oct 29, 2025
Global health is facing major cuts. We still scored some surprising wins.
Vox From Maldives to the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has been stunning progress in tackling diseases. It’s not an exaggeration to say that hope is in short supply these days in global health. The steep cuts to lifesaving global health programs, the burning of emergency food supplies, the renewed politicization of vaccines are just a few of the […]
Oct 22, 2025
Congo’s last Ebola patient discharged, raising hopes outbreak is over
PBS The World Health Organization announced that the last Ebola patient in Congo’s latest outbreak was discharged over the weekend and no new cases have been reported since Sept. 25. Sunday’s announcement started a 42-day countdown to declare the outbreak over if no further cases are confirmed. The outbreak, first declared in Congo’s remote Bulape […]
Oct 22, 2025
Shutdown leaves gaps in states’ health data, possibly endangering lives
Seattle Times As the federal shutdown continues, states have been forced to fall back on their own resources to spot disease outbreaks — just as respiratory illness season begins. The shutdown has halted dashboards and expert analysis from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors indicators such as wastewater to provide early […]
Oct 22, 2025
Ebola – Operation Update #1
IFRC The 16th outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has occurred in the province of Kasai. It was declared on September 4, 2025, by the Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention. As of October 6th, the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the […]
Oct 15, 2025
Ebola virus in Kasai revives 50-year-old questions on viral latency
The Lancet On Sept 4, 2025, DR Congo declared its 16th Ebola virus outbreak. The epicentre of this outbreak occurred in the Kasai province—the first resurgence in this region since 2008.1 Genomic analysis identified an Ebola virus with more than 99·5% identity to the lineage that was responsible for the first outbreak in Yambuku in 1976.2 Instead […]
Oct 15, 2025
Republic of Congo reinforces measures to curb potential Ebola outbreak
WHO Africa The Republic of Congo has stepped up measures to rapidly detect and respond to potential Ebola outbreak as neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo faces a new outbreak of the virus in Kasai Province in the central region of the country. A rapid scale up of outbreak control measures in the Democratic Republic […]
Oct 15, 2025
Want to Call CDC to Report a Possible Disease Outbreak? Fuhgeddaboutit
MedPage Today Thinking of calling CDC to report a potential disease outbreak? Don’t bother; no one will answer, a former CDC employee said Tuesday. “If it’s an infection that is being seen in the hospital in four different patients, and the infection control nurse calls [the CDC] … You are working with the physicians, the […]
Oct 15, 2025