Tylenol during pregnancy has no link to autism, large study finds
In this stock image, an open bottle of Tylenol Extra Strength pain reliever is shown. (STOCK IMAGE/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Taking acetaminophen, also known by the brand name Tylenol, during pregnancy had no effect on children developing autism, according to a study of over 1.5 million children in Denmark published this week.
The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers analyzed 1.5 million children born between 1997 and 2022. About 1.8% of those who were exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy developed autism compared to 3.0% of those who were not exposed to Tylenol.
A prior study out of Sweden looked at siblings, finding no causal link between autism and Tylenol exposure during pregnancy. There are genetic associations and environmental triggers that are likely involved, but neither Tylenol nor vaccines has been shown to be the cause of autism.
The new study out this week comes after President Donald Trump and his administration had previously urged pregnant mothers to avoid Tylenol, without substantive evidence for the claims.
“With Tylenol, don’t take it. Don’t take it,” Trump said during a press event at the White House in September. “If you can’t live, if your fever is so bad, you have to take one, because there’s no alternative to that.”
The FDA then initiated a process to update the safety label on acetaminophen to suggest that its use during pregnancy and autism were linked.
At the time, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, wrote in part of a statement, “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
At the time, medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetrician & Gynecologists, immediately pushed back, noting that Tylenol was one of the few options for pregnant women to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful when left untreated.
It is generally not recommended for pregnant women to take ibuprofen, Advil, during pregnancy due to the risk of complications.
Nevertheless, the claims made by the administration have led to confusion. A prior study found that Tylenol use in emergency departments dipped 16% immediately following the announcement by the administration.
ABC News reached out to Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, for a statement but did not immediately hear back.
(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.
Pigs are raised by farmers in a rural area of Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China, July 11, 2022. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Over the weekend, health officials in Spain reportedly informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a possible human case of swine flu that may have been caused by person-to-person transmission.
The WHO’s reference laboratory for influenza in Britain is conducting additional tests to confirm the diagnosis, according to Reuters. The patient in Spain did not have direct contact with pigs, according to the wire agency.
Even though health officials reported that the risk to the general public is low, public health experts noted that some people may be concerned about spread after the U.S. experienced dozens of human bird flu cases in 2024 and 2025.
They told ABC News that, while the Spain case may put those who work in public health or who live in the area where it was detected on alert, widespread concern is not necessary yet.
“When we’re in any flu season, we see these sporadic swine flu cases globally,” Dr. Meghan Davis, an associate professor in the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News. “If you’re in the immediate area, certainly pay really close attention to any directives from public health authorities, local health departments, et cetera.”
Davis emphasized the importance of staying informed when it comes to potential public health dangers.
“But someone who’s living at a distance, who is not working directly with animals, just having the awareness to pay attention to any health messaging around this for further guidance, that’s what I recommend,” she said.
What is swine flu?
Swine flu is a respiratory disease commonly found in pigs, which is caused by influenza type A viruses. Just like influenza viruses found in humans, there are different subtypes and strains of swine influenza viruses.
Humans are not typically infected with swine flu viruses, but there have been reports of human infections with influenza viruses that normally circulate in swine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Notably, in 2009, the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic — sometimes referred to as the swine flu pandemic and caused by bird, swine and human flu viruses — led to an estimated 60.8 million cases, 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the U.S., CDC data shows.
Occasionally, these virus strains “spill over and can infect humans, but the origin is in swine, and so the majority of these non-human influenza variants are infecting humans because they are in very close contact with swine, so they’re in the pig or pork industry,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at University of California, Davis Health, told ABC News.
“Those are the majority of cases, and most cases are transmitted directly to humans and there’s very few cases that are human-to-human transmission,” he added.
Should we be concerned?
Davis said she considers the Spain case to be of high concern for public health but not a major concern for the public currently.
“What that means is, those of us whose job it is to think about and worry about these always worry a bit more when there’s the potential for human-to-human transmission because that may also be a signal that the virus itself is showing characteristics of adaptation,” Davis said.
This is because the more adapted to human-to-human transmission a swine flu virus is, the greater the potential it has to go from person to person without weakening.
“But the public, there are some criteria that I think about in terms of public concern,” Davis added. “If you start hearing about something, for example, like the early days of COVID when it was clear that there were clusters that were circulating in people and that was going person to person, when you start to see a lot of that, that’s when you started to get much more concern.”
Blumberg agrees that there’s no need for major concern yet and that the Spain case points to the need for more surveillance because of the virus’ potential to mutate.
Additionally, researchers will need to characterize the current strain to see if it is more easily transmitted from human to human, he said.
“There’s additional studies that can be done locally to see if there’s been asymptomatic infection of the population that hasn’t been detected yet,” Blumberg said. “And that will help determine whether there’s been more widespread circulation. … I think it does point to the importance of supporting public health so that they can get a handle on this to see if this is something that requires additional attention.”
A hantavirus is a virus found in the urine, saliva or excrement of deer mice and certain other infected wild rodents (Icy Macload/Getty Images)
(LONDON and BELGRADE, Serbia) — The total number of suspected hantavirus cases aboard a cruise ship has risen to five as global health authorities work to contain a potentially deadly cluster of the disease.
More than 100 passengers remain on the ship and the World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring their health. Officials said that the “overall public health risk remains low” but that there may be some person-to-person spread.
The ship, the MV Hondius, which was off the coast of Africa in Cape Verde, is now en route to the Canary Islands after officials medically evacuated three people, including two in “serious condition.”
Some passengers disembarked the ship before knowledge of the cluster and are back in their home countries. In some cases, authorities are advising those passengers to self-isolate.
In addition to the two patients who were evacuated, a third person, who is asymptomatic but a close contact of a German national who died on May 2, was also removed from the ship, WHO officials in Cape Verde told ABC News.
“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said in a post on X on Wednesday, in which he confirmed the evacuations.
“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” he continued.
Tedros added that “the overall public health risk remains low.”
Health officials confirmed two additional cases of hantavirus among crewmembers, bringing the total confirmed cases to five.
The three previously confirmed hantavirus cases include a woman who disembarked and was on her way home from the Netherlands, a British national who is in critical but stable condition in a hospital in Johannesburg, and a passenger who traveled on the first leg of the voyage and is currently being treated at the University Hospital Zurich, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the ship. So far, three deaths have been recorded.
“Swiss authorities have confirmed a case of hantavirus identified in a passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship,” the WHO said on X on Wednesday. “He had responded to an email from the ship’s operator informing the passengers of the health event, and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, and is receiving care.”
The type of virus in this outbreak has been confirmed as Andes hantavirus by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland, the WHO said Wednesday. The Andes hantavirus historically has been shown to potentially transmit between people, according to the WHO.
Oceanwide Expeditions said of the three passengers who were evacuated from the ship, two are symptomatic and in serious condition and the third is asymptomatic but a close contact of a German national who died on May 2.
“In partnership with the RIVM (Dutch Institute for Public Health and Environment), Oceanwide Expeditions is expanding medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians, arriving today by plane from the Netherlands. This ensures that optimal medical care can be provided if necessary, during the next stage of this evolving situation,” the company said in a statement.
Cape Verde officials said on Tuesday that the vessel was expected to sail to the Spanish island of Tenerife, but the president of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa, said on Wednesday that the regional government was opposed to allowing the luxury cruise ship to dock in Tenerife.
“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” President Fernando Clavijo told radio station COPE, according to Reuters.
Clavijo said on social media that he had requested a meeting with the Spanish prime minister to discuss the ship. He added that the Canary Islands “always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population.”
Mónica García, Spain’s minister of health, said once the ship arrives at the port of Granadilla de Abona in the Canary Islands, there will be a “joint screening and evacuation mechanism will be launched to repatriate all passengers,” according to RTVE, a Spanish national public broadcaster.
“Unless their medical condition prevents it, all foreign passengers will be repatriated through the European civil protection mechanism, about which the Interior Minister will provide further details later,” Garcia said in Spanish.
WHO officials earlier on Wednesday said the three evacuated people were to be transferred to planes bound for both the Netherlands and Tenerife, but later updated the plan so that all would be sent to the Netherlands, officials told ABC News.
