Flu activity continues to climb across the US with at least 11 million cases: CDC
An Influenza Vaccine is prepared for a patient on September 12, 2025, in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — Flu activity is continuing to climb across the U.S. as hospitalizations rise, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC estimates there have been 120,000 hospitalizations so far this season, a 38.8% increase from the prior week.
Additionally, the CDC says there have been at least 11 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths due to flu so far this season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
In this photo illustration a girl looks at the screen of her smartphone on April 16, 2021 in Bonn, Germany. (Ute Grabowsky/Photothek via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — So-called “night owls” may face a higher risk for heart attack and stroke, a new study published Wednesday finds.
Researchers found that “evening type” people had poorer cardiovascular health scores than those who were neither “morning type” or “evening type” people and had an associated 16% higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed survey and biometric data from more than 320,000 British adults aged 39 to 74.
Participants were asked whether they considered themselves a “definite morning” person, a “definite evening” person or somewhere in between, termed “intermediate.”
Researchers then calculated each person’s heart health using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score. These factors include four health behaviors — diet quality, physical activity, sleep duration and nicotine exposure — and four health factors, including blood pressure, body mass index, blood sugar and blood fat levels.
“These are the factors the American Heart Association has identified as cardiovascular disease risk factors,” Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology and peventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine specializing in sleep and circadian rhythm research and fellow at the American Heart Association, told ABC News.
“Different people will have them in different combinations, but they are all correlated with one another,” she added.
Evening people were 79% more likely to have poor overall heart health compared with those in the intermediate group, the study found. Morning people did slightly better than the intermediate group, with a 5% lower risk of having a poor LE8 score.
Researchers found the evening people had a 16% higher risk of both heart attack and stroke. Researchers estimated that about 75% of this higher risk was explained by other LE8 factors, rather than sleep timing alone.
“It isn’t being a night owl that’s a problem,” Knutson said. “I think being a night owl who’s trying to live in a morning lark’s world is a conflict between one’s internal clock and their social clock.”
The higher risk appeared to be due to certain lifestyle behaviors and other health factors, the study found.
Nicotine use had the strongest impact on heart health, explaining 34% of the link between late bedtime and heart disease. Shorter sleep duration accounted for 14% of the extra risk, high blood sugar for 12% and body weight and diet each accounted for about 11% of the increased risk.
Behavioral effects of being a night owl were stronger in women than in men — women were 96% more likely to have lower LE8 scores compared to 67% in men, though they did not have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
“Women are further stressed by that lifestyle because they’re having to still get up and be the primary caregiver for family members,” Dr. Sonia Tolani, preventative cardiologist, Associate Professor of Medicine, and co-director of the Columbia University Women’s Heart Center, told ABC News.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers concluded prevention efforts should focus on improving lifestyle habits when spending more time awake at night.
“The most obvious way is to quit smoking and that’s not new advice,” Knutson says. “But sleep regularity, meaning trying to go to bed at about the same time every day and not jumping around the clock — particularly on days off — can really help lead to regular timing of other behaviors like light exposure, meals, exercise activity.”
“Prioritize the low-hanging fruit” recommended Tolani. If an hour at the gym is not doable, “maybe you can find a way to do a 10-minute walk or cut a little bit of salt from your diet. Just try to make small changes,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — At least 177 new measles cases have been reported in the U.S., according to newly updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of 910 infections have been confirmed in 24 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Stock photo of people commuting on e-bikes and scooters. (Maskot/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — E-bikes and e-scooters led to a growing number of trauma injuries at one New York City hospital, according to a new study published Wednesday.
About 7% of all trauma visits between 2018 and 2023 at Bellevue Hospital Center were due to micromobility injuries. Micromobility is the use of small, lightweight and low-speed modes of transportation such as bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters.
The study showed a growing share of patients who sustained these injuries had accidents linked to e-bikes or e-scooters.
Hospital data showed that, by 2023, over half of all trauma cases related to bikes or scooters involved an e-bike or e-scooter, an increase from just 8% in 2018, according to the study, published in the journal Neurosurgery.
The most common type of mechanism involved a collision with a motor vehicle followed by falls from the bike or scooter.
Bellevue is a Level 1 Trauma center in a large metropolitan city, designed to treat the worst kinds of injuries. Over the study period, about 30% of patients suffered a traumatic brain injury, 26% had injury to the skull or face and 50% required surgery.
“Our study shows that micromobility injuries are producing serious brain and spinal trauma that demands neurosurgical care at a scale we haven’t seen before,” corresponding study author Dr. Hannah Weiss, a resident in the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said in a press release. “In a busy urban setting, we are seeing more and more of these injuries firsthand.”
Most patients seen for these injuries, nearly 69%, needed to be admitted to the hospital and nearly a third needed intensive care.
The majority of patients stayed at least three days in the hospital. Pedestrians who were struck had higher rates of traumatic brain injuries and were more likely to be admitted for intensive care.
“The data point to actionable solutions — helmet use, safer bike lane design and enforcement — that could prevent many of these injuries and better protect both riders and pedestrians, who in our study often sustained even more severe brain injuries than the riders themselves,” Weiss said.
About 20% of patients were intoxicated with alcohol, only 31% were using a helmet and injuries were more likely to occur in the evening hours, according to the study.
“Our findings make clear that urban infrastructure must continue to improve to keep pace with the rapid rise of electric bikes and scooters,” Dr. Paul P. Huang, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and chief of neurosurgery at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, said in a press release.
“Future studies should track these injuries across multiple cities and measure whether protected bike lanes, helmet programs, and speed enforcement actually reduce the number of brain and spine surgeries we perform,” Huang added,
Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
