The quantity and risk of fungal infections continues to grow worldwide, particularly as global temperatures warm, creating new environments for fungus to thrive, but drugs to treat these new and emerging infections haven’t kept the same pace.
Category: Public Health
Rhinovirus spurs more children's hospitalizations
Respiratory syncytial virus is the leading pathogen for infant hospitalizations, but a second contender is close behind in prevalence: human rhinovirus.
Michigan man dies from rare fungal infection
A 29-year-old Michigan man died Feb. 3 after a severe blastomycosis infection, according to CBS News. The infections are caused by the fungus called Blastomyces.
Deadly meningitis outbreak linked to aggressive fungus
After 12 patients died from a meningitis outbreak in 2023, researchers discovered the cause was an epidural contaminated with the fungus Fusarium solani, according to findings published Feb. 8 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?
Recently, thousands of older Americans have been dying weekly of covid. But most Americans aren’t wearing masks in public, a move that could prevent infections. Many at-risk seniors aren’t getting antiviral therapies, and older adults in nursing homes aren’t getting vaccines. Why?
CDC releases syphilis testing recommendations
Amid a yearslong increase in syphilis cases, the CDC published new recommendations for syphilis testing in labs Feb. 8.
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: To End School Shootings, Activists Consider a New Culprit: Parents
For the first time, a jury has convicted a parent of a school shooter of charges related to the child’s crime, finding a mother in Michigan guilty of involuntary manslaughter and possibly opening a new legal avenue for gun control advocates. Meanwhile, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case challenging the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, a medical publisher has retracted some of the journal studies that lower-court judges relied on in their decisions. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachana Pradhan of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Cities Know the Way Police Respond to Mental Crisis Calls Needs to Change. But How?
Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.
4 blinded from contaminated eye drops: 5 updates
On Feb. 5, the CDC, FDA and local health officials released their findings on a recent outbreak of bacteria and fungi stemming from contaminated eye drops.
The two-arm strategy for vaccinations
Delivering multiple vaccines in both arms, rather than just one, substantially increases antibody responses, new research suggests.
