Red Cross announces severe emergency blood shortage, calls on Americans to donate
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(NEW YORK) — The American Red Cross declared a severe emergency blood shortage on Monday and called on people to donate.
The humanitarian organization, which says it’s the largest supplier of blood products for hospitals and for patient need in the U.S., said the demand from hospitals has outpaced the available supply of blood.
Dr. Courtney Lawrence, divisional chief medical officer at American Red Cross, told ABC News that almost one-third of the organization’s blood stores across the country have been depleted due to hospital need.
Lawrence said inclement winter weather, which has forced more than 400 Red Cross blood drives around the U.S. to be canceled, is among the reasons that donations are down.
Additionally, the U.S. is experiencing a moderately severe flu season, with some states reporting record levels of weekly cases and hospitalizations.
“That can overwhelm our health care system, and it can also mean that donors may not be feeling well enough to come in to donate or may be busy taking care of their loved ones who are sick,” Lawrence said.
When blood supplies are low, it can affect the ability to treat patients in need including trauma patients, chemotherapy patients with underlying blood disorders, those living with sickle cell disease and others, Lawrence said. She called on Americans to donate if they’re able to.
Reihaneh Hajibeigi, 34, from Austin, Texas, was one of those patients in need, telling ABC News that blood transfusions saved her life.
Hajibeigi said she lost a lot of blood while giving birth to her first child in 2023, and that the hospital gave her some blood and sent her home with her husband and newborn daughter.
“After about a couple weeks, things started to not be so great,” she told ABC News. “What I assumed was just being new mom tired really turned into fatigue. I was losing a lot of blood. I was starting to just not feel so great”
When Hajibeigi went back to the doctor two and a half weeks after giving birth, she said medical staff discovered she had retained a roughly four-centimeter piece of placenta on her uterine wall that was becoming toxic.
Hajibeigi said she underwent a procedure the next morning and began hemorrhaging during the operation, losing about 40% of her total blood volume.
In the recovery room, Hajibeigi said she started to crash again from the loss of blood and doctors raced to give her a blood transfusion.
“Fortunately, they had the blood on hand. They were able to get it into my system and basically brought me back to life,” she said.
Hajibeigi said she hopes that by sharing her story, she can encourage people to donate if they’re able, especially knowing there’s a chance their donation can help someone in need.
“It just made it that much clearer how vital blood donations are and how much sometimes we take it for granted, just assuming that the blood supply was always going to be intact,” she said. “And in that case, I needed the blood. Wonderful.”
“It’s a scary thought to think what if the blood product that I needed wasn’t there?” Hajibeigi said. “Then what would have happened?”
Boxes and vials of the Measles, Mumps, Rubella Virus Vaccine at a vaccine clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department on March 1, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As measles continues to spread across the U.S., with outbreaks popping up around the country, public health experts have been stressing the importance of getting vaccinated to stop the spread of disease.
This has involved local doctors and health department workers going into outbreak areas to offer the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
The MMR vaccine is typically a two-dose series given first at 12-15 months old and again at 4-6 years of age. An extra dose can be given as early 6 months old in high-risk circumstances, including during a measles outbreak.
Health experts working in and near measles outbreaks told ABC News that vaccine acceptance has been mixed among these communities, with some people begging to get their kids vaccinated early, while others still refuse an immunization.
“[Measles] can spread so quickly amongst that unvaccinated population,” Dr. Christopher Lombardozzi, chief medical officer at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, told ABC News. “And if the number of people who remain unvaccinated stays large, then we could have a real problem, not just this year, but in years to come.”
Vaccine hesitancy in outbreak areas
The upstate region of South Carolina is experiencing a surge in measles cases amid the ongoing outbreak.
The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) reported 223 new cases over the last week, bringing the total number of cases in the outbreak to 434 since October, with over 400 people currently in quarantine due to exposure. Spartanburg County, which borders North Carolina, is currently the epicenter of the outbreak.
A spokesperson for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System told ABC News that, as of Jan. 9, there have been 77 confirmed measles cases across the system since the outbreak began.
Lombardozzi said the health care system has seen some increased vaccine uptake, but not as much as they hoped for.
“We certainly have had some more uptake of vaccine in the last six months or so, since the outbreak started here in South Carolina, and I’m happy for that,” Lombardozzi said. “I would love to see a higher uptake. There is still quite a bit of vaccine hesitancy around here, and I think it’s unwarranted.”
Lombardozzi added that addressing vaccine hesitancy takes time and support.
“We try to support people, meet them where they are, and hopefully they will change their mind if they’ve been vaccine hesitant for a while,” he said.
Lombardozzi worries that without increasing immunizations, the negative effects could ripple for years.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist and health program branch director for the South Carolina DPH, said the lack of vaccine acceptance amid the growing outbreak has been “disappointing.”
Bell said vaccines could have helped prevent a majority of cases, adding, “We have an opportunity to prevent further cases, if people can adopt these available tools and help us stop this outbreak sooner rather than later.”
As of Tuesday, another ongoing outbreak in Utah surpassed 200 measles cases since it began in June of last year. The southwest region of Utah has reported 147 of those cases, which equates to a rate of 25.8 cases per 100,000 people in that region.
David Heaton, public information officer at the Southwest Utah Department of Public Health, told ABC News that cases in southwest Utah and further north have been linked to the same measles virus that spread in Texas and New Mexico last year.
Heaton worries that measles will soon be declared endemic again, ending the decades-long elimination status in the U.S.
“That’s kind of a discouraging threshold that we’re getting closer to. I think [the loss of elimination status] could be recovered, but it could take a couple of years at least,” Heaton said.
In the Southwest region, vaccine acceptance has been highest among people who were on the fence or those who accidentally missed vaccines, but those with strong beliefs against vaccines have been “fairly immovable,” Heaton added.
“We’re just seeing the attitude of, ‘I choose not to get vaccinated. I don’t agree with vaccinations, and I’m not going to do it. I don’t feel the risk is high enough to get the vaccine,'” he said.
Some success in vaccine uptake
But there have been examples of success. Last year, during a large outbreak from February to September, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) reported that MMR doses administered were nearly 50% higher than the year prior by October.
The largest gains were due to adult vaccination that increased by about 230% in October 2025 compared to October 2024. Children receiving the MMR shot only increased by about 10% compared to that time the previous year.
Andrea Romero, immunization program section manager at NMDOH, told ABC News communication was key during the outbreak. Romero said most of the adults who got vaccinated did so because they were unsure of their vaccination status and felt a strong sense of duty to get the shot, not just to protect themselves but to protect their community.
“When they know that they’re making a difference, it matters,” Romero said. “Every time I take that opportunity [to say], ‘Thank you for being a great community and your response, caring about yourself, your family, your neighbor,’ but it means a lot because it’s their efforts. It was their response that made the difference.”
NMDOH data shared with ABC News shows that 384 children with a vaccine exemption on file received at least one MMR shot between Jan. 13, 2025 and Jan. 13, 2026. This suggests parents of these children changed their minds about the vaccine around the time of New Mexico’s measles outbreak, according to health department officials.
During that same timeframe, at least one MMR dose was the only immunization on record for 189 children in the state, the data shows.
Fears of further measles spread
Doctors near outbreak regions are also experiencing the effects of fears and questions about measles and vaccination from their community.
Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and pediatrician in South Carolina, told ABC News that her community hasn’t had a measles case yet, but parents and healthcare providers are increasingly concerned.
“As we all know, and as my patients know, measles virus does not respect county borders, so, as the numbers continue to rise, the likelihood that we start seeing cases here in the midlands of South Carolina increases dramatically,” Greenhouse said.
On Tuesday, health officials announced there was a measles exposure on Jan. 2 in the midlands region at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.
“If more families decline the vaccines, our vaccination rates drop and we become an open target, essentially a sitting duck for an outbreak, much like the Spartanburg area,” Greenhouse said.
In her experience, building a foundation of trust has been essential for vaccine acceptance.
“They know me, they trust me,” Greenhouse said. “They know that as a pediatrician, I have no interest here other than protecting the best interests of their children and their family.”
She went on, “Families that I’ve known for years, who I have a very strong relationship with, are coming in and asking for every vaccine that they can get, and asking to get the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine early, because they’re very concerned about their children being exposed to measles and not being protected.”
Greenhouse said trying to build trust among families has been particularly challenging amid changing guidance from federal health agencies and widespread misinformation.
“Unfortunately, some of the awful sources right now are people that you used to think you could trust and, as a new parent, I totally understand why it would be incredibly difficult to be able to figure out right now,” Greenhouse said.
Despite changing guidance and misinformation, doctors say the science hasn’t changed, and vaccines remain safe and effective.
“Amongst the medical community, you’re not going to get much disagreement that the vaccines are safe and that they’re effective,” Lombardozzi said. “The message is, go get your kids their shots if it’s time to get their shots. We certainly encourage folks to go talk to your pediatrician, go talk to your doctor.”
Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a medical fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Colorectal cancer was once viewed as being mostly diagnosed among middle-age and older adults, but that’s changing.
Research shows more adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, with incidence increasing over the last three decades.
Deaths are on the rise too, with a recent study finding colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men — and second in women, under age 50.
“It’s definitely incredibly concerning that these rates continue to rise and that we really don’t know why this is happening,” Dr. Andrea Cercek, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, told ABC News.
Oncologists told ABC News that it’s important to get the word out about how colorectal cancer is affecting younger adults in an effort to try and reverse the trends.
Colorectal cancer rising among younger adults According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), incidence of colorectal cancer in adults between ages 20 and 39 has been rising about 2% every year since the mid-1990s.
What’s more, about one in five people currently being diagnosed with colorectal cancer are under age 55, ACS states.
“Two-thirds of the young patients present already as stage three and four, which is a sad fact,” Dr. Y. Nancy You, a professor of surgery in the department of colon & rectal surgery and medical director of the young-onset colorectal cancer program at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told ABC News.
Research shows it’s not only colorectal cancer cases that are on the rise among younger adults but deaths as well.
A study published earlier this month from ACS in the medical journal JAMA found that as of 2023, colorectal cancer has surpassed all other cancers as the leading cause of cancer deaths among Americans under age 50.
Since 2005, deaths from colon and rectal cancers in those under age 50 have risen by 1.1% every year, the study found.
“Whenever we see rates increasing for cancers in younger individuals, it does lead to concern as to why this is happening and also how these individuals may know that they could start screening at younger ages,” Dr. Veda Giri, a professor of internal medicine (medical oncology) and director of the early onset cancer program at at Yale School of Medicine, told ABC News.
“So, the concern comes up not only about why, but what can we do now based on our available ways of screening, detecting and treating cancers that we can now implement in this space of early onset colorectal cancer,” she added.
Why are cases, deaths related to colorectal cancer rising? Oncologists told ABC News they’re not sure why there’s an increase in colorectal cancer among younger adults, but research is ongoing.
Giri said some the rise could be tied to a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and processed meats along with a lower intake of fiber or other food substances.
She said a great deal of research is being focused on the gut microbiome and whether disruptions from external exposures, such as diet or environment, may play a role.
“There’s been some work going on trying to characterize obesity patterns and rise in colorectal cancer,” Giri said. “Obesity might be a proxy for things like sedentary lifestyle, eating of these ultra-processed foods, and we certainly see a spectrum of patients where some with early onset colorectal cancer may have obesity, but they’re also individuals that are not obese.”
Risk factors including smoking and heavy alcohol use and have been linked with a higher likelihood of developing colorectal cancer.
A family history of colorectal cancer or colon polyps can also raise the risk of colorectal cancer as can genetic conditions such as Lynch syndrome.
Additionally, inflammatory bowel diseases, including chronic ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, can lead to long-term colon inflammation and raise the risk of colorectal cancer.
Experts believe that whatever is behind the rise, it’s likely to be caused by multiple factors rather than one factor.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a single smoking gun,” You said. “I think cancer is a complex disease. It’s heterogeneous. What makes a cell turn cancerous is probably a lot of factors.”
How to reverse the trend In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age at which people at average risk should start screening from age 50 to age 45.
For those with a family history of colon cancer, doctors say people should start screening at either age 40 or 10 years before the age a family member was diagnosed, whichever comes first.
“If we can identify individuals at risk, then we could screen those individuals earlier,” Cercek said. “The problem is that we’ve lowered already screening age to 45, which captured a lot of the population, but the steepest rise is actually the 20 to 30 year olds.”
Doctors said they hope highlighting the risk younger Americans face will raise awareness and help them pay attention to any symptoms they develop.
The most common symptoms of colorectal cancer include persistent changes in bowel habits, unfinished bowel habits, rectal bleeding or blood in stool, abdominal pain or discomfort, unexplained weight loss and fatigue.
“We definitely don’t want to create like a reign of terror where any little thing will trigger a cancer worry or cancer workup,” You said. “But at the same time, I think there’s room to improve in terms of whenever somebody does present with symptoms to get them to a cancer workup faster than what is happening today.”
(NEW YORK) — As many as 724,000 service members, their families and veterans may rely on health care at hospitals that face financial vulnerability, partly due to cuts in President Donald Trump’s megabill, according to a new analysis.
The bill, known as HR.1, was signed into law in last summer and included sweeping changes to health care including Medicaid. Strict work requirements, reduced federal funding and tightening provider tax rules impacts hospitals that are dependent on Medicaid, increasing their risk of uncompensated care and reducing revenue.
Service members and their families — many of whom are covered by the military health insurance program TRICARE — rely heavily on civilian hospitals for health care, particularly in areas without military treatment facilities.
The analysis, conducted by researchers the Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Lab at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) and first viewed by ABC News, looked at how many TRICARE beneficiaries may be reliant on hospitals considered at risk of financial distress under these new changes.
The researchers said many hospitals rely so heavily on Medicaid reimbursements that cuts to the program under HR.1 will affect care the hospitals provide to other patients, including those in the military community.
“We wanted to get a sense of how many hospitals are potentially at risk for becoming potentially financially unstable with the upcoming looming HR.1 Medicaid cuts,” Dr. Jose Figueroa, co-author of the analysis and associate professor of Health Policy and Management at HPSH told ABC News. “There’s a big focus on rural hospitals, but it is not just rural hospitals at risk, that we were finding that across the country, many urban hospitals are at risk.”
Figueroa said medical services that many TRICARE beneficiaries need are often only offered in civilian hospitals or in civilian health care systems. These beneficiaries are then exposed to hospitals that are potentially at financial risk, he noted.
“Military active duty service members on TRICARE and their families also on TRICARE are increasingly relying on civilian hospitals for their care, even when they’re living within a military base,” Figueroa said. “If we’re finding evidence that there are many hospitals across the country that are at risk, to what extent will that affect military personnel and their families?”
TRICARE is run by the U.S. Department of Defense for those connected to the military, including active duty members, National Guard and reserve members, military retirees and their families. It is not the same as Medicaid, although some may qualify for both.
For their analysis, the team used three different criteria to identify a hospital that might be at risk.
If more than one in four of patients being treated at the hospital are on Medicaid, given that the HR.1. cuts are disproportionally affecting those on the federal health insurance program. If the hospital is a safety net hospital, which serves a large number of patients with no insurance or with Medicaid, or a critical access hospital, which is a rural facility that provides essential health care services to underserved communities. The Altman Z-score, which is an aggregate measure of the financial health of a hospital, combining liquidity, profitability, financial efficiency and solvency measures to categorize a hospital as being at risk for bankruptcy. About 4% of hospitals were considered at higher risk of financial distress — meeting three of the criteria and about 19% were at moderate risk of financial distress — meeting two — according to the analysis.
The team then used a dataset to help to identify 8.9 million TRICARE beneficiaries and their ZIP codes.
The analysis estimated that more than 117,000 TRICARE beneficiaries are currently living on or near military installations potentially exposed to a hospital at higher risk of financial distress. Additionally, more than 607,000 are living near a hospital with a moderate risk of financial distress.
This means that more than 724,000 TRICARE beneficiaries are living in military installation ZIP codes — including bases, camps, posts, depots and stations — where at least one hospital has multiple risk factors for financial distress.
Additionally, more than 3.5 million TRICARE beneficiaries living in ZIP codes without a military installation are potentially exposed to a higher-risk or moderate-risk hospital, the analysis found.
“As a country, we should do our best to take care of the people protecting us,” Figueroa said. “Military personnel and their family members should be protected, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves that drastic cuts to our health care that affect our health delivery system also affects our active military personnel and their families as well.”
Last month, during a Senate hearing, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe said troops were struggling to get health care appointments and made reference to issues with TRICARE’s reimbursement rate for providers.
“What we’ve all seen over the length of our careers is a gradual erosion in the availability of that health care for our service members and their families,” Wolfe said, according to the Military Times.
Based on the results of the Harvard analysis, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D- Mass., is launching an investigation into how the Pentagon is guiding military families through health care cuts and whether Republicans and the Trump administration consulted the Pentagon before the cuts were made, her office told ABC News first.
Warren is also pressing the Pentagon to explain how these cuts are affecting military readiness.
“Donald Trump is putting troops’ lives on the line in the Middle East while ripping away health care from their families at home,” Warren said in a statement to ABC News. “Republicans swore the Medicaid cuts in their Big Beautiful Bill were about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse — is that what they think of our military families’ health care?”
In a statement sent to ABC News, the Pentagon didn’t address Warren’s comments.
“As with all congressional correspondences, the Department will respond directly to the authors as appropriate,” a spokesperson said.
A Pentagon official also said it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on the methodology of studies not conducted by the department.
The White House didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
