Chrono list of posts

Minnesota Star Tribune State is reaching peak season for risk of West Nile, the mosquito-borne virus that so far has been confirmed in 20 people and blamed for two deaths in 2025. Risk of mosquito-borne West Nile virus is increasing amid a hot and rainy summer season, the Minnesota Department of Health warned this week.… Read more: West Nile alert issued as two fatalities confirmed in Minnesota

The Conversation Hours after savoring that perfectly grilled steak on a beautiful summer evening, your body turns traitor, declaring war on the very meal you just enjoyed. You begin to feel excruciating itchiness, pain or even swelling that can escalate to the point of requiring emergency care. The culprit isn’t food poisoning – it’s the… Read more: A red meat allergy from tick bites is spreading – and the lone star tick isn’t the only alpha-gal carrier to worry about

Hoosier Ag Today You’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about the New World Screwworm (NWS) in Mexico and in central America—and the harmful impact that the pest can have on cattle, horses and other animals. But, the CDC announced that a person from Maryland was recently found to be infected with NWS. “From what… Read more: US Human Screwworm Case ‘Surprising’, But ‘Not Shocking’

NYT The patient had traveled to Central America, where an outbreak of myiasis, an infection by screwworm larvae, has been ravaging livestock. In early August, a case of myiasis, an infestation caused by the New World screwworm, was confirmed in a Maryland resident who returned from travel in El Salvador, according to U.S. health officials.… Read more: Human Case of Flesh-Eating Screwworm Reported in Maryland

CBS A Maryland resident who traveled to El Salvador has been diagnosed with New World screwworm — the first reported U.S. case tied to travel to a country with a current outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the diagnosis on Aug. 4. Federal health officials acknowledged the infection in an emailed statement Monday. The… Read more: A Maryland resident is diagnosed with screwworm. Here’s what to know about the flesh-eating parasite.

Eighteen-year-old Ella Woodland’s pet rats have a knack for artistic expression, and by guiding them to paint mini masterpieces, she’s helping their talents flourish. Eighteen-year-old Ella Woodland’s pet rats have a knack for artistic expression, and by guiding them to paint mini masterpieces, she’s helping their talents flourish. There’s a little something in this project… Read more: Pet Rats Using Paws to Create Mini Masterpieces That Have Sold for Over $2,600 Total

KFF Dining under palm trees on a patio at Mar-a-Lago in December, President-elect Donald Trump reassured chief executives at pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Pfizer that anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wouldn’t be a radical choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services. “I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump… Read more: Kennedy’s Anti-Vaccine Strategy Risks Forcing Shots Off Market, Manufacturers Warn

Reuters Senegal authorities said they had detected a case of mpox in a foreign man who arrived in the West African country last week. The health ministry said it was the first case it had detected this year. It was not immediately clear how many cases, if any, had been reported there before January. “The… Read more: Senegal reports mpox case, patient in isolation

Mt Sinai A team from the Microbiology Department at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has discovered three powerful monoclonal antibodies from a person who had previously been infected with mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). These antibodies, which target the viral protein A35, blocked viral spread in laboratory in vitro tests and, most… Read more: Mount Sinai Breakthrough: Potent Antibodies Open Path to Mpox Therapies

Watt Poultry Since the start of August, the Cambodian medical authority has confirmed three further infections with influenza A(H5N1) virus. This brings the nation’s total so far this year to 15, according to the latest update on the health situation in the Western Pacific Region from the World Health Organization (WHO; as of August 15). The most recent cases… Read more: Cambodia records more avian flu cases in poultry, people

Forbes When a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus jumped into American dairy cows in the spring of 2024, scientists worried about the next step: spillover into humans. Sure enough, that is precisely what happened. Between March 2024 and May 2025, seventy human H5N1 infections were confirmed in the United States. Now, a new study in Nature Medicine, led… Read more: Seventy U.S. Bird Flu Cases Underscore How Much We Still Don’t Know

The Poultry Site Bulgaria reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza on three farms in the southern part of the country, Reuters reported, citing the World Organisation for Animal Health on Monday, as Europe faces a seasonal upturn in the deadly disease. The H5N1 virus was detected on three farms with a total flock of 28,000 birds… Read more: Bird flu hits three poultry farms in southern Bulgaria

NYT To understand the virus’s re-emergence in America in 2025, some experts are looking to a past epidemic that had a high death rate in Philadelphia. Few expected a major return of measles to the United States this year, a quarter-century after it was declared eliminated here. But return it has, with more than 1,300 confirmed cases this… Read more: A 1990 Measles Outbreak Shows How the Disease Can Roar Back

Time Texas health officials on Aug. 18 declared the end of a measles outbreak that had sickened more than 760 people across the state and killed two children. Doctors and public-health officials involved in the outbreak, most of whom had previously never encountered a measles patient, are now taking stock of what they’ve learned about the virus… Read more: What We’ve Learned from the Texas Measles Outbreak

KFF As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows. The outbreak soon became the worst the United States has… Read more: As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under Trump, No One Answered.

Nature In a rare move for a US public official, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr called for a Danish paper finding no link between aluminium in vaccines and disease to be retracted. US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr has called for the retraction of a Danish study that found no… Read more: RFK Jr demanded a vaccine study be retracted — the journal said no

NYT It is not just a scourge of the Middle Ages. Plague still exists, though it is rare. Here’s what to look for and how to protect yourself. Health officials in the Sierra Nevada region of California announced this week that a local resident tested positive for plague, an extremely rare bacterial infection usually transmitted… Read more: What to Know About Plague After a New Case in California

Guardian After a gunman reportedly deceived by anti-vaccine disinformation opened fire on the CDC and fatally shot David Rose, a community grieves as Trump officials remain silent. A lie murdered David Rose. Five hundred cops packed the pews of an Atlanta megachurch on Friday to bear witness in person, to have a memory of the slain DeKalb… Read more: Vaccine misinformation led to an officer’s murder at the CDC – politicians’ silence is deafening

NBC As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight. A federal-state partnership that monitors for foodborne illnesses quietly scaled back its operations nearly two months ago. As of July 1, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) program has reduced surveillance to just two pathogens: salmonella… Read more: The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses

STAT  The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved updated Covid boosters, but removed emergency use authorizations for the vaccines, in a set of moves that could make the shots more difficult to obtain for children under 5, in particular. The moves were announced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human… Read more: FDA issues narrower approvals for Covid boosters, revokes emergency authorizations

ABC The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for some Americans. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in adults aged 65 and older and for those between ages 5 and 64 with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe COVID. In a press release, the… Read more: FDA approves updated COVID vaccines with restrictions on who can receive them

Med Page Today “We need to stop trusting the experts,” Kennedy recently said. Erin McCanlies, MPH, PhD, was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin… Read more: RFK Jr. Vowed to Find Environmental Causes of Autism, but Axed That Type of Research

Los Angeles Times The summer season continues to see spikes in COVID-19 activity. The latest jump is being fueled by the subvariant XFG, nicknamed ‘Stratus.’ Masks have been stored away. Social distancing is just a vague memory. Interest in vaccines is waning. COVID, for many, feels like an inevitable annoyance, like the flu. Then, each… Read more: Why COVID keeps roaring back every summer, even as pandemic fades

Bloomberg Covid confusion Between conflicting opinions, leadership upheavals and a lot of misinformation, you can be forgiven for not knowing what’s going on with Covid vaccines this year in the US. Here’s the need-to-know ahead of the impending fall season. Covid confusion Between conflicting opinions, leadership upheavals and a lot of misinformation, you can be forgiven for not knowing what’s going on with Covid vaccines… Read more: What Americans Need to Know About Covid Shots This Season

NYT Six people in New York City have died this summer from Legionnaires’ disease, and more than 100 others have been sickened. The hunt was on. An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease had erupted in Harlem, killing six people and sickening more than 100 others. Officials said the bacteria that cause the illness had been spread… Read more: In a Lab, the Hunt for a Killer: The Legionella Germ Causing an Outbreak

Local 12 The patient, a 43-year-old man from Valencia County — located just southwest of Albuquerque — was hospitalized with the condition but has since been discharged, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) said on Monday. Recently, the patient had been camping in Rio Arriba County, which borders Colorado, where health officials believe he… Read more: A New Mexico man has been diagnosed with plague, marking the state’s first human case this year, according to local health officials.

ABC A New Mexico man has been diagnosed with plague, marking the state’s first human case this year, according to local health officials. The patient, a 43-year-old man from Valencia County — located just southwest of Albuquerque — was hospitalized with the condition but has since been discharged, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) said… Read more: New Mexico man diagnosed with plague

Reuters The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has chosen Retsef Levi, a member of its key vaccine panel, to lead its COVID-19 immunization workgroup, a spokesperson for the health department told Reuters on Monday. Levi had critiqued mRNA vaccines in the past, saying they can cause serious harm and death, especially among children, and called… Read more: US CDC taps vaccine skeptic to lead COVID committee

Medical News In a recent rapid communication in the journal Eurosurveillance, researchers from France’s public health agency detail the current scenario of the chikungunya disease within the country. Specifically, the aftermath of a large 2025 chikungunya outbreak on Réunion Island led to a surge of imported cases in mainland France, triggering an unusually early and widespread… Read more: How a Réunion Island outbreak sparked France’s record chikungunya season

NYT Chikungunya, which can disable victims for years, is spreading rapidly, including in China, France and other places that have not seen major outbreaks before. A mosquito-borne virus that can leave infected people debilitated for years is spreading to more regions of the world, as climate change creates new habitats for the insects that carry… Read more: A Debilitating Virus Surges Globally as Mosquitoes Move With Warming Climate

Science Tests of a needle-free flu vaccine delivered through the gums required some creative thinking. Bioengineer Rohan Ingrole needed to floss a mouse’s teeth. The intent wasn’t to help mice get a clean bill of health at the dentist. Each bit of store-bought floss was coated with dead influenza viruses, or lab-made bits and pieces… Read more: How flossing a mouse’s teeth could lead to a new kind of vaccine

University of Guelph, Canada Encounters with ticks are no longer just a problem for someone trudging through the woods – they can happen right in your own backyard. That is one of the findings from ongoing research studying tick bites from the G. Magnotta Research Lab at the University of Guelph. Launched in 2022, the study is… Read more: How Tick Data is Busting Myths, Raising New Concerns of Lyme Disease

CBC Potentially deadly disease already found in Ontario and Quebec this year. Quebec has reported a case of the potentially deadly tick-borne disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever that was likely acquired in Ontario or Quebec. The disease was reported in dogs in Ontario earlier this year. Here’s what you need to know about preventing, identifying and treating the… Read more: Tick-borne Rocky Mountain spotted fever spreading in Canada

NBC News Before President Donald Trump cut most foreign assistance earlier this year, the United States was the leading humanitarian donor to Somalia, whose health budget is almost entirely funded by donors. Diphtheria cases and deaths have risen sharply this year in Somalia, where the response has been curtailed by vaccine shortages and U.S. aid cuts,… Read more: Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts

LA Times COVID-19 rates in the Southwestern United States reached 12.5% — the highest in the nation — according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County recorded the highest COVID levels in its wastewater since February. The spike, thanks to the new highly… Read more: COVID surges nationwide with highest rates in Southwest as students return to school

NYT A Morris County resident may have contracted the illness locally, which would be the first known instance in decades of someone being exposed while in the state. New Jersey scientists are testing mosquitoes after a Morris County resident may have contracted malaria locally, which health officials said would be the first known instance in… Read more: New Malaria Case Prompts Testing of Mosquitoes in New Jersey

NYT To understand the virus’s re-emergence in America in 2025, some experts are looking to a past epidemic that had a high death rate in Philadelphia. Few expected a major return of measles to the United States this year, a quarter-century after it was declared eliminated here. But return it has, with more than 1,300 confirmed cases this… Read more: A 1990 Measles Outbreak Shows How the Disease Can Roar Back

USA Today Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has responded to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ decision to release its own vaccine recommendations that contradict federal guidance. The AAP, a professional organization of over 65,000 board-certified pediatricians, said in June that it would publish its own vaccine schedule. The move came after Kennedy Jr. announced that the COVID-19… Read more: RFK Jr. responds to vaccine guidance that goes against CDC: ‘AAP is angry’

New Scientist Women’s arteries seem to be stiffer if they have had covid-19, with the same effect not being found among men.Covid-19 seems to accelerate the ageing of blood vessels, but perhaps only among women. The infection has previously been linked to cardiovascular complications, like heart disease, but how it has this effect isn’t entirely clear. To… Read more: Covid-19 seems to age blood vessels – but only among women

The Hill mergency room visits have spiked across the Midwest this summer as millions of Americans grapple with tick bites, but a lesser-known tick-borne illness is causing particular alarm in some communities. Alpha-gal syndrome, transmitted by the lone star tick, creates severe allergies to meat and dairy products that can last for years. The condition essentially forces people to adopt vegan diets, with… Read more: Tick-borne disease spreads, causing meat, dairy allergies

SF Gate They’re not going to live normally’: A devastating disease has surged in Calif. This month, the California Department of Public Health reported that Valley fever cases are on track to surpass last year’s record number of over 12,500 cases.The infection, caused when people inhale spores of the naturally occurring Coccidioides fungus, made up fewer than 1,000 cases back in… Read more: They’re not going to live normally: A devastating disease has surged in California

NYT Chikungunya, which can disable victims for years, is spreading rapidly, including in China, France and other places that have not seen major outbreaks before. A mosquito-borne virus that can leave infected people debilitated for years is spreading to more regions of the world, as climate change creates new habitats for the insects that carry… Read more: A Debilitating Virus Surges Globally as Mosquitoes Move With Warming Climate

NYT The larger outbreak, which spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma, is still ongoing. The measles outbreak in West Texas, which hospitalized nearly a hundred and killed two young children, is officially over, state health officials announced in a news release Monday. Officials declare an outbreak over after no new cases have been reported for… Read more: The Texas Measles Outbreak Is Over, Officials Say

Medical Express Researchers at Texas Biomedical Research Institute have developed a new, proof-of-concept vaccine to protect people from the bird flu strain currently circulating in the United States. The team, led by Professor Luis Martinez-Sobrido, Ph.D. and Staff Scientist Ahmed M. Elsayed, Ph.D., recently published initial results in npj Vaccines. The live attenuated vaccine contains a weakened (attenuated)… Read more: Promising bird flu vaccine advances as organoids reveal how H5N1 scars airways

NOLA The Louisiana Department of Health has confirmed a second human case of neuroinvasive West Nile virus in New Orleans, with a third presumptive case under investigation. In response, the city will conduct mosquito spraying Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, officials announced. While most infections are asymptomatic, West Nile can cause serious complications, particularly in… Read more: New neuroinvasive cases of West Nile detected in New Orleans.

ABC News The rates of West Nile Virus are increasing throughout the Philadelphia region. This is placing people at significant risk for the mosquito-borne illness. No one has tested positive for West Nile in Pennsylvania this year. However, officials say it has been detected in mosquitoes in nearly every Pennsylvania county. State statistics show 12… Read more: Rates of West Nile Virus increasing throughout Philadelphia region

The person is believed to have been bitten by an infected flea while camping, officials said. In a separate incident last month, a person in Arizona died from plague. Plague is a disease caused by a type of bacteria that usually results in about seven cases nationally each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and… Read more: A resident in South Lake Tahoe, California, has tested positive for plague, according to local health officials.

NYT The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism. The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says he wants to understand what causes autism. It’s a perfectly laudable goal and one that scientists have been pursuing for decades. But after announcing a large new federal study on the topic, he made a shocking choice by bringing in… Read more: The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism

Fox Infections like influenza and COVID-19 may do more than cause temporary illness. A new study suggests they can also “wake up” dormant cancer cells, potentially increasing the risk of recurrence and metastasis years after treatment. The research, led by Dr. James DeGregori at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, was published July 30… Read more: Dormant cancers can be reawakened by flu, COVID: Study

NYT Researchers are seeing an uptick in cases, as they have every summer since the pandemic began. Here’s why. Covid cases are climbing again this summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s forecasting model estimates that infections are growing, or likely growing, in most states. While the agency is reporting low levels of the virus in… Read more: Why Covid Is Spreading Again This Summer

MedPageToday We know what Legionella is thanks to an intense CDC investigation 50 years ago. Summer brings regular outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease — including an ongoing one in New York City that has killed five peopleopens in a new tab or window — but nearly 50 years ago, the bacterium that causes the disease was unknown to mankind. It… Read more: Under Pressure, CDC Unraveled This Mysterious Outbreak

NYT Opinion In early 2020, when the first genetic sequence of the new coronavirus was posted online, scientists were ready. Within hours, they began designing a vaccine. Within weeks, clinical trials were underway. That unprecedented speed, which saved millions of lives, was possible only because years earlier, the United States invested in a vaccine technology… Read more: America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs

Fox Newborn baby fights for life after contracting Powassan virus. A 5-week-old baby in Boston is fighting for her life after a tick bite. The baby, Lily Sisco, was bitten while on a walk with her family on Martha’s Vineyard, her mother, Tiffany Sisco, told local news outlets. After returning from the walk, Sisco told… Read more: Dangerous tick-borne virus causes brain damage in vulnerable young patient

Yale Ticks likely hitchhiked across continents on human travelers, experts say. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) reports that it has identified four nonnative exotic tick species in Connecticut in recent years, with the blood-feeding parasites and disease vectors hitching a ride on unknowing travelers returning to the state. Although the exotic ticks found on… Read more: Rare exotic tick species identified in Connecticut

NYT Doctors recommend that eligible people get vaccinated in late summer or early fall so antibodies can kick in before cases spread. Respiratory syncytial virus, known as R.S.V., is one of the world’s most common respiratory illnesses and the leading reason infants go to the hospital in the United States. It infects roughly 64 million people around… Read more: R.S.V. Season Is Approaching. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.

NYT The American and Mexican governments are exploring “all options” to battle a deadly parasite threatening cattle and wildlife. Judy McCullough, a rancher in Wyoming, still remembers the blood sprayed on the barn walls, the smell of burning tar and the fear of finding a maggot nestled in the broken hide of a cow. More… Read more: Gene Editing and Fly Factories: The Fight Against a Flesh-Eating Pest

Scientific American Infectious bird flu virus was found in milk, on equipment, within wastewater and aerosolized in the air on California dairy farms. The H5N1 avian influenza virus can now be found not only in milk and on milking equipment but also in farm wastewater and in the air, say researchers who have been trying… Read more: Bird Flu on Dairy Farms May Be Airborne After All

Nature An extensive survey for the detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus (HPAIV) H5 in seabird species is reported here. It was conducted between December 2023 and January 2024, in thirteen breeding sites spanning from the northeastern sector of the Antarctic Peninsula to the Ross Sea, including the coasts of the Bellingshausen Sea and… Read more: Tracking HPAIV H5 through a geographic survey of Antarctic seabird populations

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine LSHTM expert Dr Doris Kemunto Nyamwaya discusses chikungunya virus, and the factors driving a rise in cases in several countries, including China Doris Kemunto Nyamwaya is an Assistant Professor and a Peter Piot Fellow for Global Health Innovation: Epidemic Preparedness and Response at the LSHTM Centre for Epidemic Preparedness… Read more: Chikungunya – what you need to know

NYT In a citywide campaign to curb a mosquito-borne virus, residents of Foshan face inspections and warnings for failure to comply. In the southern Chinese city of Foshan, officials are engaged in an all-out battle against chikungunya, a painful, mosquito-borne viral disease that could spread across the country. Soldiers wearing masks are fogging parks and… Read more: With Drones and ‘Elephant Mosquitoes,’ China Wages All-Out War on a Virus

South China Morning Post Phase Scientific’s CEO says his team is working on rapid test that can yield results in 10 to 15 minutes by finger pricking. Hong Kong researchers are developing a rapid test for chikungunya fever that they hope will detect the mosquito-borne disease at an earlier stage, as part of the city’s… Read more: Hong Kong biotech firm races to develop chikungunya fever test for early detection