US is on track to have the worst measles outbreak of this century, former Covid response coordinator warns
As the deadly Texas outbreak at the heart of America's alarming measles resurgence continues to grow, a former Biden-era official is sounding the alarm about the upsurge.
'We are on track to have the worst measles outbreak of this century, of the last 25 years,' Dr. Ashish Jha, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator and dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, told ABC News Monday.
He noted that measles infections are preventable with immunization. Two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are 97 percent effective against measles, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
'We should not be at this point in our country,' he noted, 'And yet, here we are because of bad information being spread by Secretary [Robert] Kennedy and others.'
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has promoted the measles vaccine as a way to broadly protect communities, but his support for individual vaccination against measles has been lukewarm.
Concerns about continued spread – and potentially worse outbreaks among unvaccinated communities – come as West Texas has seen hundreds of cases. There were 400 reported across the Lone Star State on Friday, and more than 40 hospitalizations.
The majority of those who were affected were unvaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
More than 20 states and communities have reported cases this year. Health authorities in Colorado – which is not yet on the CDC list of affected areas – confirmed a case in an unvaccinated Pueblo resident. The patient had recently traveled to an area of Mexico experiencing an ongoing measles outbreak.
According to federal data, there have been five outbreaks reported this year, and the majority of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated.
While there are nearly 500 cases reported across the country, there were only 285 in total reported across the country last year.
The CDC says that the risk to the American public remains low due to 'robust U.S. immunization and surveillance programs and outbreak response capacity.'
Its response to measles also occurs as the agency and others within the Department of Health and Human Services are the current subjects of Department of Government Efficiency layoffs.
However, the agency issued a health advisory ahead of warmer weather and the summer travel season.
'With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,' the CDC advised. 'They should be vigilant for cases of febrile rash illness that meet the measles case definition and share effective measles prevention strategies, including vaccination guidance for international travelers.'
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Medscape
8 minutes ago
- Medscape
AI and Home Dialysis: From Prediction to Personalization
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These models can process data from up to half a million patients and uncover variables that clinicians might overlook. And AI, he reported, has outperformed traditional models like the Kidney Failure Risk Equation in predicting when dialysis should begin and in forecasting mortality. In a head-to-head study, only 2 of 10 experienced nephrologists outperformed an AI model in predicting survival at 30 and 90 days. And 'only one was better than AI at 1 year,' said Covic. Beyond survival, AI models are also accurately predicting major adverse cardiac event and gastrointestinal bleeding hospitalization risks with hemodialysis. Diagnostic capabilities are also improving, Covic added. He described how natural language processing applied to clinical notes identified symptoms with far greater sensitivity than International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, coding. In simulated clinical cases, the large language model-based AI system AMIE, which has been optimized for diagnostic dialogue, outperformed physicians in diagnostic accuracy. 'AMIE was far better than the doctors in picking the right symptoms,' he said. On the treatment side, AI models are helping clinicians anticipate intradialytic hypotension 15-75 minutes in advance, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.89, and manage vascular access by classifying aneurysms and predicting stenosis. In one example, a model achieved 86% classification accuracy. Another AI-enabled device, the DeepVAQ system, used photoplethysmography data to detect stenosis with an AUC of 0.86. Covic also presented evidence that AI improved anemia control. A model trained on 170,000 clinical records achieved a mean absolute prediction error in hemoglobin concentration of 0.59 g/dL and led to improved hemoglobin levels during implementation. 'We are close, for the very first time, to a meta-analysis for anemia management in dialysis through AI,' he said. Even device integration is advancing, with AI-enabled tools like phonangiography and robotic tomographic ultrasound improving vascular assessments. You won't need a technician — the device itself will standardize the analysis, he said. Despite his optimism, Covic issued a strong caveat: AI models are increasingly opaque, and 'we are not going to learn the algorithms,' he said. 'This process is close to beliefs in divinity.' Expanding Access Through Policy Shifting the focus to access, Rajnish Mehrotra, MD, MS, argued for policy solutions that leverage home dialysis with peritoneal dialysis (PD) to close the global dialysis gap. 'Nearly 2 million people die with kidney failure every year because they have limited access to kidney replacement therapy care,' said Mehrotra, Belding H. Scribner Endowed Chair in and professor of medicine and head of the Division of Nephrology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. PD is ideal for low-resource settings, he said. 'Hemodialysis is personnel-intensive. PD is personnel-efficient.' PD also has a markedly lower carbon footprint, less than a quarter that of in-center hemodialysis. 'It substantially reduces the transportation burden on patients,' he added. Mehrotra cited Thailand's 2008 PD-first mandate, which rapidly expanded access. 'People who previously would have died because they did not get dialysis lived,' he said. Even though the policy was later relaxed, PD rates in Thailand remain high. In the US, financial reform drove a doubling of PD use after 2011. Reimbursement parity and bundled payments neutralized the incentives that had favored hemodialysis. 'This public policy has safely grown the use of PD and has been a spectacular success,' said Mehrotra. Telemedicine in Daily Practice Finally, Sabrina Milan Manani, MD, Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplant, San Bortolo Hospital, Vicenza, Italy, turned to practical innovations that bring AI into patients' homes. 'Home dialysis is a corner[stone] of patient-centered care in nephrology,' she said. Her team uses a hybrid model of home visits and telemonitoring for home dialysis. With cloud-connected cyclers, clinicians review overnight dialysis sessions each morning and make remote prescription changes. 'It's a two-way communication system,' she noted. Manani presented outcomes from her center: Patients with remote monitoring had fewer urgent visits and fewer hospitalizations for disease-specific events. 'We observed that the patients felt more confidence with the care team and with the treatment,' she said. She also described a real-world protocol for integrating telemedicine, with frequent reviews of new patients' data during the first 15 days of treatment, tapering to weekly reviews for stable patients. We only invite the patient to come to the hospital if there is a clinical problem, she added. However, she acknowledged that not all patients benefit equally. Older individuals may struggle with connectivity or tech literacy, and the evidence for complication reduction remains mixed. 'The significant results were about disease-specific hospitalization and technical failure, but the evidence was low or very low,' said Manani. Still, she sees future promise in wearable devices and AI-enhanced alerts. 'Flexibility and innovation are essential for promoting home therapies,' she concluded. 'Remote monitoring could integrate the traditional follow-up, allowing safe, high-quality care.' The Road Ahead Key challenges in the integration of AI into kidney care remain. As Covic put it, 'Prediction is currently the most widely used application of AI and machine learning in dialysis,' but rigorous studies are needed. 'We should now move to this sort of randomized control trials,' he urged. The issues of trust and interpretability loom large with AI. 'It is really difficult, or even impossible, to know how they produce results,' Covic said of AI models. But the results, increasingly, are hard to ignore. 'Optimized machine learning models could enhance risk identification and drive preemptive interventions,' he concluded. No funding or relevant financial relationships were declared.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Goodbye, dad bod: Weight loss medications are changing fathers' physiques — and their relationships with their kids.
Neal Bland has done Ironman competitions and marathons. He's given countless personal training sessions over the course of his life and has always prided himself on staying in shape, especially given that obesity runs in his family. But by age 52, time and genetics had begun to catch up with Bland (who asked that we not use his real last name for privacy reasons). His blood pressure and blood sugar were climbing, his body mass index was hovering in the low 30s, and his joints were aching. Then, during a photo shoot with his wife last year, the photographer told Bland he 'looked good for a dad bod.' Bland knew the photographer had 'meant it as a compliment,' he tells Yahoo Life, 'but it really stuck.' He was still maintaining a rigorous diet and exercise regimen at the time, but it wasn't working for him. So, in March of 2024, he started on the GLP-1 medication tirzepatide. He's lost 45 pounds in a phase of his life he's dubbed his 'dad bod reboot.' Let's be clear: There's nothing wrong with a dad bod. In fact, the expectation for men to have chiseled abs — at any point, but especially in middle and older age — can be harmful. But for the 38% of American dads who are obese, their bodies may be putting them at risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other potentially life-threatening medical conditions. Some of these fathers have started taking GLP-1 weight loss medications, a decision that can bring about not just changes to their 'bods' and health indicators, but also to their lives as parents. We spoke to some of them about what it's like to be a dad, minus their former bods. Thirty-seven-year-old father of two Noah Wiggins is taking his nursing board exams and looking forward to beginning his new career in health care. 'But I looked in the mirror and thought, I can't expect patients to be healthy and maintain a healthy weight if I can't,' he tells Yahoo Life. Plus, Wiggins loves coaching his children's sports teams, but he found himself getting winded and sore when he tried to demonstrate athletic skills for the kids. While he could shed pounds for a time with the help of various diets, he couldn't maintain a healthy weight long-term. So Wiggins talked to his own health care provider, who agreed that GLP-1 medication could be a good option for him. He started taking Zepbound in January 2024. The medication, along with the support of his two children, has helped him lose more than 80 pounds since then. 'As I started to lose weight and get more active, they started making comments and encouraging me to make healthy food choices … without judgment,' says Wiggins. His daughter, who is about to turn 16, has been especially vocal, keeping Wiggins accountable when he picks up an unhealthy snack or tries to flake on going to the gym. 'I've had to fight the urge to say, 'I'm the parent, I'll go when I want to,'' says Wiggins. 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That's when Wiggins realized that it wasn't about losing more weight. He needed to make a conscious effort to improve his mental health and confidence to help him feel content in his own skin. It's an important lesson that he wants his children to learn: how to 'be comfortable in your body, but balance that with good health,' Wiggins says. He's pushed himself to talk more openly with his kids about his own journey toward striking that balance. 'The best thing to do was just have more conversations with them about all of that, and they'll actually take the lead on those conversations once you start them.' Twenty years ago, when Ryan Rasmussen and his wife, AnnaLyn, were young newlyweds, they wanted desperately to start a family. After three years of trying, AnnaLyn got pregnant with quadruplets. But tragedy struck: None of the four babies survived more than about an hour after birth. 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Impressed with their progress, Rasmussen tried the new class of weight loss drugs too. Within a year, he dropped 80 pounds. 'Being there for my family was the goal,' he says. Not only can Rasmussen now join the family ski trips, but hiking and spending time outdoors are day-to-day ways he bonds with his kids. His weight loss 'has definitely allowed us as a family to do more healthy activities,' Rasmussen says. Plus, his good habits have rubbed off on his children. Desserts, once a staple, are reserved for special occasions, and the household's midnight snacking has all but disappeared. Rasmussen's new body has also allowed him to get back in touch with his fashion sense. 'I like to look good and dress well, but when you're big, [that's] difficult,' he says. Now that he's lost weight, 'being able to dress with purpose in the morning has probably been one of the best things for me and my mental health,' says Rasmussen. And he's not the only one who's noticed his new look. One of his daughter's friends used the viral 'hear me out' cake trend on TikTok as an excuse to show some appreciation for Rasmussen. 'She said, 'hear me out, but Charlie's dad is attractive,'' Rasmussen explains. 'But [Charlie] was a good sport, she laughed about it.' Bland's now adult children grew up knowing him as the ultra-fit dad, who was always on the go for his job as a pharmaceutical researcher, or hitting the gym to train for his next big event. But he was always fighting against his genetics. 'I come from a long line of fluffy people,' Bland says. He spent his own childhood watching his mother constantly watch her weight. Despite avoiding smoking and drinking and maintaining a reasonably healthy diet, she eventually had to have both of her knees and one hip replaced and also suffered a stroke, 'all of which can be attributed to [extra] weight on your frame,' says Bland. Recognizing his family's propensity to obesity was part of what drove Bland to be so disciplined. 'But my genetics eventually outran my lifestyle,' he says. Even with the same routines in place, Bland gained weight in his early 50s, saw his A1C and blood pressure rise, and had inflammation in his hips and knees. And Bland admits that vanity was also a factor. The shirtless man in his vacation photos no longer looked like the version of himself he expected to see. 'I gained about 35 pounds in 10 years; it was the classic 'man-o-pause,'' he says. Though he didn't meet the clinical qualifications for brand-name GLP-1 medications, Bland tried compounded tirzepatide, suspecting that it would not only help him keep weight off but also reduce the inflammation in his joints. Once he started the medication, 'it was literally like somebody flipped a switch,' says Bland. The food noise (constant, intrusive thoughts about food) disappeared. He no longer ate just because he was bored. The joint pain was barely noticeable, and his workout recovery time improved. He also started to look more like himself in gym selfies. Bland didn't initially tell his children that he was taking GLP-1 medications. But one of his adult sons noticed that Bland was looking pretty shredded in some of his photos; in fact, he was a bit concerned. He told his father, 'You've lost so much weight and went from really fluffy to really not. Are you sure you're not ... taking PEDs,' meaning performance-enhancing drugs, recalls Bland. Though Bland, now 53, has been taking testosterone replacement therapy for years, that and the GLP-1 have allowed him to return to the weight and energy levels of his younger years. And he's now switched to a very low maintenance dose of tirzepatide to make sure he doesn't lose too much weight. 'It's been a little bit of a return to what they were used to when they were kids,' he says of his new — or, maybe more accurately, restored — bod. 'And I feel like I'm back to the person that my wife married,' Bland adds.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Editorial: Ax to the vax — RFK Jr. continues on his anti-vaccine warpath
It's time for President Donald Trump, despite his own casual relationship with the truth, to stop putting American lives at risk and get rid of his dangerous quack in chief, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In his latest broadside against science, Kennedy is removing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, the CDC's main advisory body, to ostensibly restore 'public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.' God protect us, as RFK won't. This is how a society becomes undone. Science and reason get stepped on by half-truths and conspiracy theories. Next comes preventable death and disease. The problem is that there is no anti-vaccine side in the legitimate practice of science and medicine. The department's accompanying press release denigrated 'public health ideology' as if the practice of public health wasn't the CDC's only function. Researchers and doctors should be biased in favor of evidence-based therapeutics that save lives. Railing against bias towards vaccines is like a politician condemning researchers biased in favor of seatbelts in cars or keeping lead out of household paint. It's idiotic. We understand that the Make America Healthy Again movement Kennedy leads is all about questioning medical and nutritional practice. On a really abstract level, we are in agreement that no scientific truisms should be entirely above questioning — such a perspective would be anti-science. But there is a specific and long-standing methodology for actually answering those questions, and it is not debate club or who can most incite crowds of followers. It is the scientific method, under which hypotheses can be rigorously tested in ways that are replicable and based on clear and clearly laid out evidence. In that arena — really the only arena that actually matters when it comes to public health — the safety and efficacy of vaccines has been conclusively established. There is no additional discussion necessary or appropriate, particularly when it comes to immunizations that have now been standard-issue for decades and have by all measures radically decreased illness and mortality where they've been successfully deployed. The measles vaccine will always be better for individuals and public health than getting the measles. The same is true for polio, tetanus, COVID and all else. Preying on public skepticism of the pharmaceutical and health industries to hawk alternative approaches that are often unregulated and don't work is damaging it enough. Yet a true believer like RFK is more dangerous, especially now that he stands at the pinnacle of our nation's public health bureaucracy, a position that allows him to substantively impose his own anti-science view on an unsuspecting public and take the choice away from the American people. If RFK's new picks for ACIP — which the secretary falsely promised Sen. Bill Cassidy he wouldn't touch during his confirmation process — step back from recommending various crucial vaccines, this could substantially prevent even those who want to make the informed decision to receive inoculations or have their children vaccinated from being able to do so. As much as Kennedy and his followers emphasize the need for people to be able to make individual choices about their health, they seem hell-bent on taking that choice away entirely, especially given that insurance is not required to cover vaccines that are not CDC-recommended. We wonder what RFK will have to say for himself as once-eradicated diseases begin cutting through the U.S. population again. Is there anything that will get him to veer off this disastrous course? If the answer is no, and we suspect it is, then he must be removed before he can further damage public health. _____
