Colorado public health officials investigating hantavirus death not linked to cruise ship cluster
In this photo illustration, a laboratory test tubes containing blood to be analyzed for the Hantavirus “Orthohantavirus” outbreak, held by a nurse. (Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo.) — Colorado public health officials are investigating the death of an adult resident as a result of hantavirus.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Douglas County Health Department said the death is not linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which led to 11 confirmed and probable cases, including two confirmed deaths and one suspected death.
The individual lived in Douglas County — located just south of Denver — but information about the patient’s name, age and sex were not immediately available.
Health officials said the individual was infected by the Sin Nombre hantavirus, which is the most common cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in North America.
HPS symptoms typically appear from one to eight weeks after contact with the virus, with early signs including fever, fatigue and muscle aches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of HPS patients will experience headaches, chills, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.’
Between four and 10 days after the initial phase of illness, symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest can emerge, the CDC said, adding that a patient’s lungs can fill with fluid.
“Hantavirus infections caused by the Sin Nombre hantavirus occur regularly in Colorado, usually in the spring and summer, and can cause a severe and sometimes deadly respiratory disease,” according to public health officials. “In Colorado, the deer mouse is the rodent species that most commonly exposes people to the virus. Avoiding exposure to rodents and their urine, feces, saliva, and nesting materials is the best way to prevent infection.”
According to the CDC, there were six cases of Hantavirus in Colorado from 2020 to 2023.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon testifies during the House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill into law on Monday banning abortion in the state after a “fetal heartbeat” has been detected.
HB 126, or the Human Heartbeat Act, prohibits abortion once cardiac activity is identified, which is around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant.
If cardiac activity is detected, an abortion can only be performed in the case of a medical emergency, meaning if the life of the mother is in danger or if continuing the pregnancy would cause serious or irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, according to the bill.
The bill does not include exceptions for pregnancies as a result of rape or incest.
Any person who intentionally or knowingly violates the act will be charged with a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both, according to the bill.
“Today I signed the Human Heartbeat Act into law, reaffirming my view that life is sacred. I resoundingly share the determination to defend the lives of unborn children and support the intentions behind the Human Heartbeat Act,” Gordon wrote in a post on X on Monday.
Previously, abortion was allowed in Wyoming until fetal viability, which occurs between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation.
Wyoming is now the fifth state at least to have a “heartbeat ban” following bans enacted in Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina.
“This ban is an attack on Wyomingites’ constitutional freedom to make their own health care decisions, and it puts the health and well-being of our communities at risk,” Julie Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access, Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, said in a statement.
“Every day that this law is in effect means people in our state will face even greater barriers to abortion care — and some may be denied this care altogether,” the statement continued. “With so many across Wyoming already struggling to access reproductive health care, restrictive policies like these take us further in the wrong direction.”
Burkhart said Wellspring Health Access is prepared to challenge the ban in court and will continue to work with regional and national partners to help patients access the care they need.
Gordon wrote in the post on X that he was concerned the bill was “well-intentioned” but would lead to a “fragile legal effort with significant risk of ending in the courts rather than in lasting, durable policy.”
Gordon suggested that voters should decide on the issue and that a question be placed on a ballot asking if an abortion ban should be cemented in the state constitution.
Robert Kennedy Jr. appears before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heads to Capitol Hill Thursday after restoring staffing at the World Trade Center Health Program, a move that could ease one of the most persistent points of bipartisan criticism he has faced for months.
Program advocates and lawmakers said they received an email from the secretary on Wednesday approving hiring for 37 long-vacant positions. This will raise staffing from its current 83 employees to the federally authorized level of 120.
The move comes after nearly a year of bipartisan criticism that staffing shortages were slowing care for the 140,000 responders and survivors the program serves, many of whom have been diagnosed with cancer, respiratory disease and other conditions tied to exposure to toxins after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, Shanksville, Penn., and Washington, D.C.
The World Trade Center Health Program was created as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide long-term medical monitoring and treatment to those affected by the attacks. For more than a year, the program has operated far below capacity with about 83 staff members, following a period of upheaval that included firings, rehires and shifting leadership, even as the participant population grew by nearly 30,000 new enrollees.
Advocates say the reduced staffing has had real consequences, including slower approval of survivors into the program, delays in managing contractors, and longer wait times for care.
“This is progress,” Benjamin Chevat, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, told ABC News. He credited the progress to sustained pressure from lawmakers in both parties and their consistent support of the program.
Lawmakers also have welcomed the end of the hiring freeze.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., told ABC News that the approval for the additional staff would “directly support the responders and survivors who rely on this care every day,” and that “more staff means better access to care, shorter wait times, and stronger support for those still living with the health impacts” of the attacks.
He called the move “real progress for the 9/11 community” and said it is “about making sure those who answered the call on September 11th get the care they have earned.”
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., also welcomed the news but criticized the delays. “I am encouraged that, after repeated demands from me and from other members of Congress, Secretary Kennedy is finally increasing staffing at the World Trade Center Health Program so that our brave survivors and first responders can receive the quality health care they deserve,” Goldman told ABC News.
“The ongoing staffing shortages under this administration are unacceptable and have been undermining the program’s ability to provide timely and quality care to the enrollees,” Goldman added. “I will be watching closely to ensure that new staffers are hired as quickly as possible and that our heroes receive the quality healthcare they were promised and deserve.”
At a senate hearing last May, Kennedy acknowledged that “we made a couple of mistakes” in firing program staff and promised to address them.
“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the World Trade Center Health Program continues to move forward and deliver for responders and survivors,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News in response to a request for comment. “The approval of these positions reflects HHS’ commitment to strengthening the program. The petition reviews are proceeding through established processes, and work is actively underway to advance pending petitions. Protecting the health and well-being of those affected by 9/11 remains a top priority.”
Chevat pointed out the timing of the decision, which comes as Kennedy prepared to face lawmakers at Thursday’s public hearing: “Now a year later he is finally letting the program fill the staff vacancies that the program was blocked from filling.”
In a previous statement to ABC News, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said decisions about the program, including staffing and whether to add new health conditions to be covered under the program, rest with the World Trade Center Health Program administrator, not Secretary Kennedy.
Even with the staffing issue moving toward resolution, significant concerns for the program remain, Chevat said. They include key decisions about expanding coverage for additional conditions including autoimmune, cardiac, and cognitive disorders are still pending – for years, in some cases.
Those decisions ultimately require sign-off within HHS, under Kennedy’s direction, according to Chevat. Until that happens, patients with those conditions don’t qualify for full coverage through the program.
Research funding for the program also remains stalled, according to Chevat. Its annual grant cycle, which typically distributes about $20 million for studies on 9/11-related illnesses, is still waiting for approval, despite the understanding that it would begin this past February, he said.
Additionally, communication between the program and the 9/11 community has been sparse under HHS oversight, with fewer updates and less clarity about decision-making, according to Chevat and other 9/11 survivor advocates.
Lawmakers are still likely to ask Kennedy questions about the World Trade Center Health Program during today’s hearings, Chevat said. The research funding budget is also expected to come up during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing next week.
For now, however, the decision to restore program staffing removes one of the most visible and widely criticized problems, Chevat said.
(NEW YORK) — New guidelines from the American Cancer Society are expanding colon cancer screening options beyond colonoscopies and established stool-based tests.
The recommendations still call for colorectal cancer screening in people at average risk starting at age 45 and continuing through age 75 for those with a life expectancy of 10 more years.
And colonoscopy is still considered the gold standard test.
But for the first time, the updated guidelines now include a blood-based screening test done in a doctor’s office. They also add new stool sample kits and a recently FDA-approved at-home test that looks for blood and different molecular markers in stool samples.
Experts note that offering more choices is critical to address gaps in screening for this highly preventable disease, which is most treatable when caught early.
“Individuals who decline or do not complete [testing] are probably a greater number than are actually appreciated,” Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, told ABC News. “And I think a lot of our data on colorectal screening probably overstates the number of people actually up to date on their screening guidelines.”
As the new guidelines point out, the most effective colorectal cancer screening test is the one people are willing to get. More than 20 million eligible Americans remain unscreened, according to the ACS.
While stool-based tests are reasonable options for most people, the new guidelines stress that the blood tests should be considered a last resort for people unable or unwilling to get any other form of testing because they are less likely to catch issues compared to other types of screening.
People who choose colonoscopy should be tested every 10 years. Other screening tests should be done every one, three, or five years, depending on the specific method selected.
These new guidelines come as colon cancer rates rise in younger adults across the US. ASC statistics show that 1 in 5 new colorectal cancer cases now occur in people younger than 55, up from about 1 in 10 in the mid-1990s.
“This is a disease that historically, we saw in older individuals, so people 50 and over or maybe even 60 and over. And now we are starting to see an inching up of incidents in people who are less than age 50,” Dr. Fola May, associate professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told ABC News.
She said she hoped that having a range of choices would push more people to get tested.
The ACS likely wants to “make sure that patients understand that these tests can be done at home. So you don’t need to take a day off of work. You don’t need an escort, you don’t need to have an invasive procedure,” May said.
The ACS advised people to work with a trusted healthcare provider to decide which test is best for them.
Dahut stressed that the recommendations apply only to people of average risk without symptoms and with no family or personal history of colorectal cancer. Consumers should check with their insurance provider to see which options their plan covers.
It’s important to be aware of the symptoms and take them seriously, he added.
“So if one has symptoms, blood in their stool, symptoms of obstruction, abdominal pain that’s persistent or change in stool patterns, then they need to have a workup for those symptoms and not have a blood-based test like this or a stool-based test,” he said.
Ari Goldstein, MD, MPH, is a board-certified family physician and preventive medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
