Category: Featured Headlines
Measles Surge in Southwest Is Now the Largest Single Outbreak Since 2000
NYT Growing case numbers suggest that the national total will surpass that seen during the last large outbreak in 2019. The spread of measles in the Southwest now constitutes the largest single outbreak since the United States declared the disease eliminated in 2000, federal scientists told state officials in a meeting on Monday. The New […]
Apr 23, 2025
US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts
Reuters The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters. The suspension is another disruption to the nation’s food safety programs after the termination and […]
Apr 23, 2025
CDC says measles cases are most likely underreported as outbreak swells in Texas
NBC News The leader of the CDC’s measles team said the agency was “scraping” to find resources to address an outbreak in the Southwest. Measles cases are most likely being underreported in the United States as public health officials scramble to find resources to address a ballooning outbreak in the Southwest, according to a senior […]
Apr 16, 2025
Texas says measles cases rise further, CDC sends more help
Reuters The Texas health department reported 561 cases of measles in the state on Tuesday, an increase of 20 from April 11, as the U.S. government said it was sending seven people to the state to help battle the outbreak of the childhood disease. Cases in Gaines County, the center of the outbreak, rose to […]
Apr 15, 2025
Measles is spreading. Here’s how to stay safe.
Washington Post As measles spreads in the United States, we unpack how to stay safe – and why public health experts are so concerned by the confusing, contradictory federal response. The United States is experiencing a rise in measles, the most contagious virus in the world. Many of us have questions: Is my child protected? […]
Apr 15, 2025
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
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
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
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