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Axios
a day ago
- Health
- Axios
New docs get schooled in old diseases as vax rates fall
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is adding a new twist to its curriculum for medical students and residents, using AI tools and learning modules to teach how to more quickly identify measles rashes on different skin tones. Why it matters: It's another reminder that diseases once thought to have been eradicated are showing up with increased frequency in clinics and ERs, posing challenges for younger physicians and health workers who thought they were relegated to history. Lingering vaccine hesitancy and distrust of the medical establishment stoked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are leading some health systems to add training on old scourges that were practically wiped out by immunization campaigns and increased surveillance. "You're taught these things in medical school, and you're taught from a very academic perspective with the sense of measles was eradicated in 2000," said Nicholas Cozzi, EMS medical director at Rush. "Now we're having a resurgence, the highest in 25 years, and you might have not reviewed that since the first year of medical school," he added. "It's a new paradigm and a new normal that we have to adapt to." The big picture: The focus is particularly acute on childhood illnesses such as measles, chicken pox, invasive strep pneumoniae and pertussis, experts told Axios. Polio and diphtheria, covered by the DTap vaccine, are also a concern. An unvaccinated 10-year-old boy died in Germany after contracting diphtheria, once the leading cause of premature death of children. Rubella — a less easily transmitted infection covered by the MMR vaccine — can also be a threat, because of the way it can infect a fetus during pregnancy, said Catherine Troisi, professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and chair-elect of the International Network of Epidemiology in Policy. Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergartners were down slightly in 2023-24 for the DTap, polio, chickenpox and MMR shots, according to CDC data. Zoom in: Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said rotavirus is another old disease that's being introduced to younger doctors. "That virus dominated my residency [in the 1970s]. We had 400 kids admitted every winter," Offit said. That was before a vaccine was licensed in 2006 and virtually eliminated 70,000 hospitalizations with severe diarrhea annually, he added. "Now it's the rare child who ever gets admitted. Most pediatric residents have never seen a case of rotavirus-induced dehydration in the hospital," he said. Between the lines: Incidents such as the measles outbreak in Texas and Kennedy's recent changes to federal vaccine policy are heightening vigilance and forcing updates to physician training. It will likely take time for medical schools and residency programs to formally change their training, Troisi pointed out. Medical professionals are being advised to stay current on public health advisories, ask patients about travel histories and be on guard for less likely conditions that may present as more common ailments. They may also have to brush up on best practices for spinal taps in infants and toddlers, an invasive diagnostic tool that is seldom used today but can quickly turn up telltale signs such as inflamed membranes, said Adrianna Cadilla, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Nemours Children's Health in Orlando. "When I trained, I would hear my attendings tell us about how often they had to do lumbar punctures because that was when Hemophilus influenza type B was running rampant," Cadilla said. "I only got to do probably one every ER shift, but that was a lot in comparison to now." The hospital is using simulations to get medical students and residents more experienced in doing spinal tap on infants and wriggling older children, she said. What to watch: New outbreaks could force more on-the-fly adjustments, especially in areas with low vaccination rates and the prospect of fewer recommended childhood immunizations.
The National
20-06-2025
- The National
UAE foils major drug trafficking attempt linked to international network
The UAE's Ministry of Interior has arrested two men accused of smuggling thousands of narcotic pills into the country. Police were monitoring the two suspects before raiding two key locations during the operation. The first raid caught the accused at a site used to store narcotic pills while they were unloading and preparing for distribution within the country. Mechanical construction equipment including an excavator machine, in which another quantity was hidden, was seized at a second site. 'The two Arab nationals have connections to an international drug trafficking network,' the ministry said in a statement on Friday. 'The suspects were caught in one location that was used to store the narcotic pills. The pills were extracted from the excavator and they were packing them to be distributed inside the UAE.' A global network During interrogation, the suspects admitted to having other partners who prepared and smuggled the shipment from Hamburg, Germany, to one of the UAE's ports. 'One of the suspects had entered the country on a visit visa to oversee the operation.' The ministry didn't disclose details of the suspects or the type of narcotics. According to the ministry, the suspects confessed that the ringleader resides outside the UAE and is responsible for financing and coordinating the entire operation. A senior official at the ministry emphasised the importance of international co-operation in the fight against drug trafficking, to stop overseas criminal networks. While the investigation is still continuing, the ministry said that it will chase the other suspects who are outside the country in collaboration with international agencies through the appropriate legal channels. Earlier this week, Sharjah Police announced that an attempt to distribute 3.5 million Captagon pills had been successfully thwarted. The illegal stimulant pills, totalling about 585 kilograms, were believed to have a street value of Dh19 million. Their seizure came at the culmination of an operation known as Bottom of Darkness, the anti-narcotics department at Sharjah Police General Command said.
