Category: Featured Headlines
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
What will it take to get measles under control?
NPR It’s been 25 years since measles was officially “eliminated” from the United States. That’s a technical term. In public health, it means measles has not had a steady twelve month spread. Right now there are measles cases in several states The biggest number of cases are in West Texas where two kids have died. […]
Apr 9, 2025
2nd child with measles dies in Texas, according to state health officials
ABC News 2nd child dies of measles in TexasThere are 607 confirmed measles cases across 21 states nationwide, according to data from the CDC. A second child in Texas has died of measles, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, in a growing outbreak that has infected hundreds of people, the vast majority […]
Apr 8, 2025
Mexico confirms country’s first human death from H5N1 bird flu
CBS News A 3-year-old girl in western Mexico has died after contracting bird flu in the country’s first confirmed human case of the virus, Mexican health authorities said Tuesday. Mexico’s Health Ministry said in a statement that the girl died at 1:35 a.m. local time due to respiratory complications resulting from the infection. Type A H5N1 influenza […]
Apr 8, 2025
Texas measles outbreak tops 500 cases, including multiple at a day care in Lubbock
AP A day care facility in a Texas county that’s part of the measles outbreak has multiple cases, including children too young to be fully vaccinated, public health officials say. West Texas is in the middle of a still-growing measles outbreak with 505 cases reported on Tuesday. The state expanded the number of counties in the outbreak area this week […]
Apr 8, 2025