Michigan resident dies of rabies after undergoing organ transplant in Ohio: Officials
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(LANSING, Mich.) — A Michigan resident has died of rabies after apparently undergoing an organ transplant, health officials said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) told ABC News that the patient underwent an organ transplant at an Ohio hospital in December 2024.
The resident died in January 2025 and “a public health investigation determined they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ,” MDHHS said.
The organ donor was not a Michigan or Ohio resident, according to MDHHS. The department said it is not providing any additional information about the resident or the donor.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Governors in several states have recently announced plans to eliminate some unhealthy foods from their food stamps programs, creating momentum for a key component of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
The governors of Arkansas, Idaho and Indiana on Tuesday all said they would submit a waiver to the United States Department of Agriculture requesting permission to prevent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients from using the money to buy candy and soft drinks.
The move follows a similar announcement from the governor of West Virginia last month.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, whose department oversees SNAP, has said she would approve such waivers. She appeared at a press conference Tuesday alongside Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as Sanders announced her submission of a waiver.
The same morning, Kennedy appeared with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun for a similar announcement.
“You’re setting the stage at the federal level,” Braun told Kennedy.
“This isn’t a usual top-down one-size-fits-all public health agenda,” he said. “We’re focused on root causes, transparent information and real results. We’re taking on big issues like diet-related chronic illness.”
Eating too much added sugar can contribute to health problems such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Guidance from the USDA suggests that added sugar should not represent more than 10 percent of the daily caloric intake for children or adults. Based on a 2,000-calorie intake, that would be 200 calories or approximately 12 teaspoons. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children are eating 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day on average as of 2017-2018.
Kennedy and Rollins have promoted changes to SNAP and have publicly encouraged governors to submit waivers.
Kennedy appeared last month with West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey as he announced he would submit a waiver to ban soda from SNAP.
“The message that I want to give to the country today and to all the other governors is, get in line behind Governor Morrisey and apply for a waiver to my agency, and we’re going to give it to you. That’s the way we’re going to win this,” Kennedy said that day.
As it stands, according to the USDA website, SNAP recipients can use the money to buy fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry and fish; dairy products; breads and cereals; “other foods such as snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages”; and seeds and plants.
SNAP money may not be used to purchase alcohol or tobacco, among other things.
Experts say the state efforts to add soda and candy to the prohibited list is likely to be effective in shifting SNAP recipients away from junk food.
“If they have to spend their own money on junk food, they’re not going to buy as much junk food,” Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of public health at New York University, told ABC News.
But Nestle indicated it could be difficult for states to define what should be excluded from SNAP benefits.
“Candy can have nuts, it can have raisins, it can have other kinds of things in it that are real foods and are healthier,” she said.
An Idaho bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Brad Little defined candy as “a preparation of sugar, honey, or other natural or artificial sweeteners combined with chocolate, fruits, nuts, or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of confections, bars, drops, or pieces.”
The bill’s definition of candy does not include “any item that contains more than ten percent flour by weight or requires refrigeration.”
Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, told ABC News, “We need to try a lot of different things” to make Americans healthier, and expressed optimism about the state-level efforts to overhaul SNAP.
“If we make the program meet all its goals, including nutrition, which is in its name, then that strengthens the program,” he said.
Vani Hari — a healthy food activist also known as the Food Babe, the founder of Truvani and a front-facing leader of the MAHA movement — called this “a do-or-die moment” for American health.
“We need to question any legislator that doesn’t sign these bills, there is no legitimate reason to allow high fructose corn syrup water in government funded nutritional dollars. Governors who stand with Secretary Kennedy’s vision of MAHA will change the course of history of American health – it’s a do or die moment and we’ve never had momentum like this before,” Hari told ABC News in a statement.
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(MORGANTOWN, WV) — The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reversed the firings of more than 100 federal employees with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the federal institute that helps protect coal miners from black lung, according to Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
Roughly 200 employees of the NIOSH office in Morgantown, West Virginia, were put on administrative leave in April and informed they would be formally fired in June. Some were temporarily brought back roughly two weeks ago, but until Tuesday they were told they would still be terminated next month.
In a letter sent Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, HHS said, “You previously received a notice regarding the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) upcoming reduction in force (RIF). That notice is hereby revoked. You will not be affected by the upcoming RIF.”
The move comes after public pressure from Capito, and follows a series of ABC News reports detailing the impact the firings would have on black lung health care programs for coal miners.
Capito, announcing the reversals on X, said, “The heath and safety of our WV workers, including our miners, is of the utmost important and I will always advocate for their wellbeing.”
Critics said the initial firings, part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the size of the federal government, belied his vow to reinvigorate America’s coal industry.
NIOSH has offices in several other states covering a range of issues from vehicle safety to firefighter health care. It’s unclear if any employees in those offices were also rehired.
ABC News reached out to HHS for comment.
The announcement came just hours before a federal judge ordered HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to temporarily halt its dismissal of NIOSH officials who oversee the black lung surveillance program.
“Losing the services of these experienced and dedicated employees is an aspect of the irreparable harm to the miners and the public that cannot and should not be ignored,” U.S. District Judge Irene Berger wrote in her order Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling had anything to do with the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the workers earlier Tuesday.
Judge Berger’s ruling came after a veteran coal miner named Henry Wiley, in April, challenged the Trump administration’s removal of the NIOSH employees, arguing that terminations endangered him and other miners.
The judge wrote Tuesday that Wiley and a handful of NIOSH officials who testified in a hearing last week persuaded her of the importance of NIOSH’s health screening program and a waiver called Part 90, which allows miners with early-stage black lung disease to transfer to roles out of the mines.
If the NIOSH dismissals were allowed to go forward, Berger wrote, “thousands of miners will go without screening for black lung, and those with black lung will be deprived of access to the Part 90 transfer option.”
Berger referenced Kennedy directly, writing, “Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible? This court does not share such a belief.”
Berger ordered the Trump administration to grant “full restoration of the NIOSH Respiratory Health Division, rescission of the [reduction in force letters], and compelling continued health surveillance” through the health surveillance program and Part 90.
She gave Kennedy three weeks to report in writing when the court’s orders have been satisfied.
In a statement to ABC News, plaintiffs attorney Sam Petsonk said, “This opinion gives life to our foundational principles of judicial review, empowering ordinary citizens like these coal miners to defend their rights.”
“We’re glad to see the Administration already taking some initial steps in the direction of complying with the order. America’s coal miners deserve nothing less, and in fact they deserve a heck of a lot more,” Petsonk said.
An HHS spokesperson told ABC News that Kennedy has been working hard to maintain NIOSH’s critical functions as HHS streamlines its operations, and that the Trump administration is committed to supporting coal miners and firefighters.
(NEW YORK) — The number of measles cases in the U.S. has risen to 884, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Friday.
Cases have been confirmed in 29 states including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
At least six states including Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas are reporting outbreaks, meaning three or more related cases.
In Texas, where an outbreak has been spreading in the western part of the state, at least 624 cases have been confirmed as of Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Dr. Marschall Runge, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and CEO of Michigan Medicine, said the number of cases — at the national level and in Texas — is likely an undercount.
“I think it’s likely that there are a lot of unreported cases in children who weren’t particularly sick or didn’t come to medical attention,” he told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
