Flu-like illness activity now at highest rate on record, new CDC data shows
Stock photo of a sick woman. Guido Mieth/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — 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 percent of outpatient visits for respiratory illnesses are now at the highest rate on record.
About 8% of visits to a health care provider were labeled as flu-like illness, surpassing any levels seen since 1997, the earliest for which data is available. Flu-like illness accounts for patients that have a fever as well as a cough and/or sore throat.
These visits are largely among children and young adults. About 35% of outpatient visits for a respiratory illness were among people unde. 24 years old and children under age 5 made up about 20% of those.
The CDC estimates there have been 120,000 hospitalizations so far this season, a 48.1% 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, including at least nine pediatric deaths.
In New York, health officials recently reported the highest number of flu hospitalizations recorded in a single week.
“This is really quite a severe flu season right now,” Dr. James McDonald, health commissioner for New York state, told “Good Morning America” on Saturday.
Recently, New York also reported a record-breaking number of flu cases in a single week with 72,133 infections for the week ending Dec. 20, according to health department.
Data shows that the majority of this season’s cases are linked to a new flu strain called subclade K — a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is itself a subtype of influenza A.
Subclade K has been circulating since the summer in other countries and was a main driver of a spike in flu cases in Canada, Japan and the U.K.
Of the 994 flu samples tested since Sept. 30, nearly all were influenza A. Of those samples that underwent further testing roughly 90% were H3N2, CDC data shows.
Experts expect flu-like illnesses to continue to climb in the coming weeks and warn that this season’s peak has likely not been reached yet.
In addition to influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are also circulating this time of year and are contributing to respiratory illness activity.
Currently, the CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older, with rare exceptions, get an annual flu vaccine.
The federal health agency states on its website that getting an annual flu shot prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctors’ visits every year and is especially important for those at higher risk of serious complications.
Amid surging cases and hospitalizations, the number of adults and kids who have received a flu shot remains relatively unchanged. As of Dec. 13, around 42.2% of adults and 42.3% of kids have received the flu vaccine despite the flu shot being widely available across the country.
Last season, 289 children died from flu and nearly all were unvaccinated. This was the highest number of deaths ever recorded since tracking pediatric deaths became mandatory in 2004. One additional pediatric death was reported this week from the 2024-2025 flu season to reach the record.
Bottles of children’s ibuprofen, made for Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., are being recalled due to the potential presence of a foreign substance. (NIH)
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 90,000 bottles of children’s ibuprofen are being voluntarily recalled due to the potential presence of a foreign substance.
According to a notice from the Food and Drug Administration, Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. received complaints from customers who reported “a gel-like mass and black particles” in the drug products.
Four-ounce (120 ml) bottles of Children’s Ibuprofen Oral Suspension are impacted by the recall. The FDA said the children’s medications, intended for pain relief from the common cold, flu, sore throat, headache and toothache and a fever reducer, were manufactured in India for Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.
Recalled children’s ibuprofen products have lot codes of: 7261973A and 7261974A and bear an expiration date of 01/31/2027, according to the federal agency.
The FDA is classifying the recall as a Class II, which the agency defines as anything where the “use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”
ABC News has reached out to Taro Pharmaceuticals and its parent company Sun Pharma for comment.
(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.”
Jayanta Bhattacharya, director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Last week, the Trump administration announced it was banning the use of human fetal tissue from some abortions in federally funded medical research.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the policy would go into effect immediately and advance “science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease,” NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.
Scientists told ABC News that research using human fetal tissue has contributed to understanding diseases better, such as HIV and Ebola, and helped in the development of some vaccines and drugs.
Some scientists worry the ban could prevent groundbreaking discoveries about the behaviors of certain diseases and stop the development of life-saving therapies.
“It’s not a scientific decision,” Dr. Lawrence Goldstein, a professor emeritus of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego, told ABC News. “It’s a moral decision that places the rights of fetal tissue that would be discarded above the rights of sick people who will benefit from that research.”
How human fetal tissue has been used
Human fetal tissue has been used to study serious diseases and disorders, including AIDS, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, dengue, Ebola, hepatitis C, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
Cell lines have been created from human fetal tissue that have led to the development of vaccines for rubella, rabies, chickenpox, shingles and hepatitis A. Research has also led to the development of drugs to treat HIV, hemophilia and sepsis.
President Donald Trump himself benefited from the research: the experimental antibody treatment he took to treat COVID-19 was developed using cells derived from human fetal tissue. At the time, Trump praised the treatment as a “cure.”
The tissue has been also used in reproductive medicine research to study fertility issues, pregnancy issues, and pregnancy conditions such as pre-eclampsia.
Goldstein said that human fetal tissue research also helps create humanized mouse models to study human immune systems.
“Using fetal tissue, you can make mice that have human blood-forming and immune systems,” Goldstein said. “And that’s valuable because a lot of the viruses that trouble human health don’t grow properly in mice. But if you can make mice with human blood and immune systems, those viruses will frequently grow, and you can learn how to make therapies to block them.”
There are very strict guidelines that researchers have to follow when using human fetal tissue, ensuring they are in compliance with federal and sometimes state requirements.
Additionally, the research must be reviewed and approved by the NIH’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), which specifically assesses federally funded research that uses human subjects.
The IRB assures that donation and reception of human fetal tissue were done with consent and not coercion and that there were no enticements provided to the participant, the clinic or the research team.
A researcher with knowledge of the matter, who asked that their name not be used due to fears of retribution, told ABC News that federal law states that donation cannot be even brought up to a pregnant individual deciding to terminate their pregnancy before the decision to terminate.
“These are extremely important guardrails that are in place to ensure that everything is handled properly,” the researcher with knowledge of the matter said.
Impacts of ending NIH funding
The Trump administration first instituted a ban ending all human fetal tissue research at NIH in 2019, but it was reversed by the Biden administration in 2021.
The current ban stops NIH funds from supporting all “grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction awards and research and development contracts,” the agency said in a statement.
Some groups praised the Trump administration’s new policy, including the Independent Medical Alliance, a group that promoted unproven treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no ethical justification for performing experiments on tissue derived from aborted human beings,” Dr. Joseph Varon, president and chief medical officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, said in a statement. “The fact this practice continued for years within federally funded research institutions shows just how far removed parts of HHS had become from foundational medical ethics. This correction is long overdue.”
However, some scientists say the ban will affect ongoing and future work.
Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya, an associate professor of cell and regenerative biology in the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she was hoping to apply for a future NIH grant to study human fetal tissue research and will now not be able to do so.
Bhattacharyya explained she currently uses human-induced pluripotent stem cells, which are reprogrammed cells that are similar to embryonic stem cells, in her work. However, the loss of NIH funding for human fetal tissue research could affect future work.
“My reaction was, ‘How are we going to do some of our research if we can no longer use human fetal tissue?'” she recalled to ABC News. “In particular, my lab studies Down syndrome and so we know that in Down syndrome, the brain develops differently to lead to the intellectual disability that people with Down syndrome have.”
Bhattacharyya said human fetal tissue is valuable when studying Down syndrome or neuropsychiatric disorders because it can recapitulate what’s happening in brain development.
“And so that’s where the human fetal tissue really provides us with a benchmark or the ground truth so that we can validate our models,” she said.
Finding alternative methods of funding is another issue, scientists told ABC News. The NIH was the largest funder of research involving human fetal tissue, and no longer financially supporting such research may leave scientists scrambling to find other donors.
Goldstein said there are private disease foundations that will sometimes fund human fetal tissue research, such as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which funds stem-cell-related research in California.
However, experts say the hole left behind by the lack of NIH funding cannot be made up through private donations.
“There’s really nothing adequate to substitute for the federal effort,” Goldstein said. “It is the largest funder of medical research in the United States. It has systems in place to regulate quality and ensure that ethics and scientific principles are being adhered to. We really can’t move ahead as efficiently as we would like with the absence of the NIH.”
Although the NIH said tissue from spontaneous abortions will still be available, the researcher with knowledge of the matter said this tissue is very often not suitable for research purposes.
“The reason is because, most often, spontaneous abortion happens as a result of some sort of genetic abnormality or some injury, infection, some kind of damage to the fetus itself, that renders that tissue completely unusable for scientific research,” they said.
“Additionally, because spontaneous abortions are just that, they’re spontaneous and therefore completely unpredictable,” the researcher continued. “We have to be very careful in the way that we handle that tissue. It makes those studies intractable. And so, for that reason, spontaneous abortions are not a suitable replacement for fetal tissue research that we would normally obtain.”
