Wyoming confirms 1st case of measles in 15 years as infections near 30-year high in US
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(NEW YORK) — Wyoming is reporting its first measles case in 15 years as the infectious disease continues to spread across the United States.
The state’s Department of Health said on Tuesday that it had confirmed a case in an unvaccinated child in Natrona County, which is located in the central part of the state and includes the town of Casper.
The pediatric case is the first reported in Wyoming since 2010, according to the WDH.
It’s unclear how the child became sick, and no other identifying details were provided including name, age or sex.
A release from the WDH said the child was infectious while in the emergency department waiting room at Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper on Thursday, June 24, from 11 a.m. MT to 1 p.m. MT and on Friday, June 25, from 12:55 p.m. MT to 2:55 p.m. MT.
The WDH said it is working with Banner Wyoming Medical Center to notify individuals who may have been exposed to measles during those times.
“We are asking individuals who were potentially exposed to self-monitor for measles symptoms for 21 days past the exposure date and consider avoiding crowded public places or high-risk settings such as daycare centers,” Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer with the WDH, said in the release.
Wyoming is the 37th state to confirm a case of measles this year as infections near a 30-year high in the U.S.
As of Wednesday morning, a total of 1,227 cases have been confirmed, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The U.S. is currently on track to surpass the 1,274 cases seen in 2019 and is expected to see the highest number of cases since 1992.
There have been three confirmed deaths so far this year, two among unvaccinated children in Texas and one among an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico.
Among the nationally confirmed cases, the CDC says 95% are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Meanwhile, 2% of cases are among those who have received one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and 3% of cases are among those who received the recommended two doses, according to the CDC.
“Measles is one of the most contagious diseases we know, but it is preventable,” Harrist said in the release. “The MMR vaccine is safe and highly effective, providing long-lasting protection. Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective in preventing measles, and we recommend that all Wyoming residents ensure they and their children are up to date on MMR vaccinations.”
As of 2023, the latest year for which data is available, at least 93% of kindergartners in Wyoming had received at least one MMR dose, including 96% of kindergartners in Natrona County, where the new case was confirmed, according to the WDH.
(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — A case of active tuberculosis has been confirmed at a Florida high school, according to state health officials.
The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) identified the infected individual, who was recently on campus at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, John J. Sullivan, chief of communications and legislative affairs for Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), told ABC News in a statement.
“In collaboration with DOH-Broward, Broward County Public Schools has identified and notified individuals who may have been in close contact. With parental consent, DOH-Broward will be on-site to provide testing. Impacted students and staff have been directly contacted,” the statement read.
Additionally, the school principal sent a letter to the community on Tuesday, making them aware of the case, BCPS told ABC News.
“No further action is needed unless you are contacted directly. Once again, if you have not been contacted directly or your child has received a letter to present to you, there is no action required at this time,” the letter read, in part. “We certainly thank you for your understanding as we continue to navigate through this.”
It’s unclear if the individual is a student, faculty member or staff member.
It comes after Kansas health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the state experienced one of the largest recorded tuberculosis outbreaks in U.S. history earlier this year.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the CDC. It is one of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, the federal health agency says.
TB is spread in the air from one person to another. When a person with TB coughs, speaks or sings, germs are expelled into the air — where they can linger for several hours — before another person breathes in the air and becomes infected.
Signs and symptoms include a cough that lasts for three weeks or longer, coughing up blood or phlegm, chest pain, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, chills and night sweats, according to the CDC.
Some people become infected with TB germs that live in the body for years without causing illness. This is known as inactive TB or latent TB.
People with inactive TB do not feel ill, do not have symptoms and cannot spread germs to other people, the CDC says. However, without receiving treatment, people with inactive TB can develop an active infection.
Last year, the U.S. saw more than 8,700 cases of TB, according to CDC data. Although TB cases have been steadily declining since the mid 1990s, rates increased in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with 2023 matching pre-pandemic levels.
There are several treatment regimens for TB disease that may last anywhere from four months to nine months depending on the course of treatment. Health care providers may consider specific regimens for patients with co-existing medical conditions such as diabetes or HIV.
A vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is commonly given to children in countries where TB is common, although it is generally not recommended in the U.S. due to the low risk of infection with the bacteria, variable vaccine effectiveness among adults, and the vaccine’s potential interference with TB tests, the CDC notes. The BCG vaccine often leaves a scar where the recipient was given the shot.
(WASHINGTON) — Bird flu is continuing to spread in animals across the United States more than a year after the first human case was detected.
Since then, at least 70 people have fallen ill and at least one death was recorded in Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of confirmed cases in humans has held steady for almost two months, but hundreds of dairy cows continue to be infected and raw milk samples in several states have tested positive for bird flu, according to federal health officials.
There is currently no evidence the virus is spreading between people, and the CDC has said the risk to the general public is low. However, some experts told ABC News fear the virus could still mutate or adapt to become more severe or transmissible.
Here’s the latest to know about the virus and current situation.
Bird flu in the U.S.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, is an infectious viral disease that primarily spreads among birds and is caused by infection with Avian Influenza A viruses
In March 2024, bird flu was reported in U.S. dairy cows for the first time. As of Friday, the virus has infected more than 1,000 herds across 17 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The CDC confirmed the first human case in April 2024 in a Texas dairy worker who was exposed to cows presumed to be infected. This is believed to be the first instance of mammal to human spread of the H5N1 strain.
Bird flu has also been causing outbreaks in poultry, leading to human cases among U.S. poultry farm workers and culling operations workers.
Three human cases have had no known or identifiable exposure to the virus.
Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and in immunology at Duke University School of Medicine, said there has been so much transmission of bird flu in animals that he wonders if mass immunity is far off.
“In terms of the cattle population and other animal reservoirs, I’m starting to wonder exactly how many more cases we’ll see because, at this point, we’re probably heading toward — and pun is intended here — herd immunity,” he told ABC News.
Moody said there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, which he says raises the question of whether or not H5N1 is likely to make that jump.
What is the U.S. doing to fight bird flu?
According to the USDA, the agency is investing $1 billion to fight bird flu, including $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for vaccine research.
Between March 2024 and now, the CDC said it — along with state and local health departments — have monitored at least 16,600 people exposed to infected animals and tested at least 880. Meanwhile, USDA is responsible for testing livestock herds.
Moody said ramping up testing on both sides would give public health workers better situational awareness.
“I think the real question comes down to: how much do we want to test animals and people in order to be able to nail down transmission events and really understand how frequently this is happening?” Moody said, “I would personally like to see better surveillance and more coordinated surveillance.”
He said he understands this might not be possible due to the allocation of limited resources, but it would provide a better national picture.
“I think that the problem we have right now is that we have an incomplete view because testing of animals falls under one department, testing of people falls under a different department,” Moody said. “They don’t necessarily communicate in real time with accurate information and, the two agencies in question here, they’ve got very different purposes.”
Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis Health, said he is worried that there has been a curtailing of testing and surveillance.
“If we don’t have the data then we don’t know what next steps to take,” he told ABC News. “There is increased likelihood that there will be increased spread among animals and humans and, by the time we become aware of increased transmission, then it may be too late for successful mitigation.”Under the USDA’s National Milk Testing Strategy to test raw milk samples for bird flu, the agency has identified at least seven affected states.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration announced last year it was beginning to sample aged raw cheese to test bird flu, with early results showing most samples were negative.
On the vaccine front, the U.S. has licensed three bird flu vaccines, targeting the H5N1 strain, which are being held in a national stockpile. They are not available to the public and would only be distributed in case of an emergency.
Last year, the World Health Organization it launched an initiative to help accelerate the development of a human bird flu vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
Earlier this year, Moderna was awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines.
What we don’t know
Although there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet, or that the virus has mutated to become more infectious, Moody said he still worried about mutations and adaptations.
Earlier this year, a dairy cow was found to be infected with another type of bird flu for the first time, which experts have previously said is evidence that the virus is adapting.
“The thing about this virus is that it mutates every time somebody gets infected, right?” Moody said. “We know that there is an intrinsic rate of mutation that the virus has, and as with most mutations, the vast majority … don’t lead to any additional pathogenicity or transmissibility.”
He went on, “But the more cases that you have, whether that is in chickens or cows or people, the more of those random events are occurring and we know that eventually the virus will probably find a way to increase its transmissibility to people or increase some other property that makes it a problem.”
Moody said he is also concerned about reassortment, which is when a hybrid — or recombinant — virus, is formed. An example is an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time and a hybrid virus forming as a result.
He clarified that there is no evidence this has happened yet, and that he believes the U.S. is in a better position to respond today if a pandemic-like situation arises, “but nature has a way of surprising us.”
(WASHINGTON) — The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term have been filled with mass firings, cancellations of research grants, university funding cuts and questions over what should be studied.
Thousands of people have been let go at federal agencies and critical research has been put on hold. Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines and antidepressant medications despite dozens of studies proving they are safe and effective.
Doctors and public health specialists critical of the administration tell ABC News they view these actions as an “attack” on science, damaging the reputation of respected agencies and by questioning what is believed to be established science.
“It’s completely unprecedented,” Steve Cohen, senior vice dean of Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies and a professor of public affairs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, told ABC News. “It’s frankly a little unhinged. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The White House did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
An HHS official told ABC News that framing the actions of the admiration as an “attack” is “fundamentally dishonest.”
“Further reviewing pharmaceutical products with gold standard science and common sense is not an'”attack on science’ — it’s what the American people have asked for and deserve,” the official said. ” Let’s be clear: Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability.”
Thousands of layoffs
Earlier this month, HHS began to lay off 10,000 workers as part of a massive restructuring plan.
Sources previously told ABC News that affected offices included most of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, key offices in the Center for Tobacco Products, most of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the entire assisted reproductive technology team at the CDC.
There have also been local impacts in communities due to federal layoffs. ABC News previously reported in March, the CDC was poised to send its lead ‘disease detectives’ to Milwaukee amid an ongoing lead crisis in schools, but the entire division was cut under sweeping HHS layoffs, leaving local health officials without help they were relying on.
Erik Svendsen, the director of the division that oversaw the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention branch, previously told ABC News that what’s happening in Milwaukee is a real world example of the impact of their absence.
“Without us, there is no other unit at the federal level that is here to support them in doing what they need to do,” he said.
On Monday, officials in Milwaukee announced two additional schools are closing due to this crisis
Despite Kennedy saying some programs and employees would soon be reinstated because they were mistakenly cut, it still leaves thousands of federal employees without jobs.
Scientists have also been laid off at NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Cohen said these firings have put studies on hold and have greatly reduced the capacity of the federal government to review research.
“Scientists inside agencies, whether they’re environmental scientists or medical scientists or people focusing on vaccines or drugs, are being fired, and so some of the research capacity in Washington, in the federal government is being eliminated, and also their ability to judge proposals from universities,” he said.
“The only place I haven’t seen [firings] happen yet are the laboratories,” Cohen added.
Cuts that are currently proposed or have already been implemented include the elimination of the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV Policy, created by Brett Giroir, the former U.S. assistant secretary for health.
Giroir, who helped convince Trump in his first term to set a goal to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S., wrote in a post on social media last week that the president could ruin his legacy and mission with such cuts.
Canceling research grants, funding cuts to universities
Millions of dollars’ worth of grants have been terminated at the National Institutes of Health related to studies involving LGBTQ+ issues, gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) because they do not “effectuate” the “priorities” of President Donald Trump’s administration, according to copies of termination letters sent to grant recipients and viewed by ABC News.
Dr. Harold Varmus, a cancer researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and former director of the NIH, said these terminations are “detrimental” because they may be affecting people in the middle of clinical trials, or affecting the early stages of experimental work.
Research projects focusing on minority populations have major benefits, Varmus noted.
“The purpose of health research in this country is to address problems faced by everybody and to explore every facet of a population that may affect their health,” he said. “To single out certain categories of individuals who would not be appropriate to study seems ludicrous to me … one of the great strengths of America is that we are diverse.”
Universities have also been threatened with funding cuts — or have seen funds frozen — if they don’t fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus and to end race-based programs.
Cohen believes universities are at odds with the administration because some on the political right view universities as “left wing.” By “weakening the finances of universities, they can force them to change the ideologies that they believe are being promoted in the classrooms,” he argued.
The problem with this idea, according to Cohen, is that the administration’s actions are hurting the least ideological parts of universities, such as engineering schools or medical centers. At Columbia, for example, several institutes and centers are conducting Alzheimer’s research, he said.
“Those are the places that are being attacked,” Cohen said. “It’s pretty ironic, but the greatest danger, actually, is that one of America’s fundamental economic strengths is the creativity and the innovation of our scientists, and that is now under attack by the Trump administration.”
Questioning safety, efficacy of vaccines
Kennedy has shared vaccine skepticism in the past and has continued to do so as HHS secretary.
In the wake of several ongoing measles outbreaks and over 800 cases so far this year, Kennedy has shared contradicting views about vaccines.
In a post on X on April 6, he said that “most effective way to prevent the spread of measles” is to receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. However, in a post later that evening, he said more than 300 children have been treated with an antibiotic and a steroid, neither of which are cures for measles.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said the statements Kennedy has made in support of the MMR vaccine are “half-hearted.”
“The reason I say ‘half-hearted’ or insufficient is because each time he talks about using the MMR vaccine, he qualifies it,” Hotez told ABC News. “He then draws this false equivalency between either getting the MMR vaccine or this cocktail of interventions that would do absolutely nothing.”
Last month, HHS confirmed that the CDC will study “all the potential culprits” including whether vaccines cause autism despite numerous existing studies already showing there is no link.
Hotez said epidemiologic studies show that children who received either the MMR vaccine, or vaccines containing thimerosal — a compound used as a preservative in vaccines — are not more likely to be diagnosed autism than kids who didn’t receive those vaccines.
Additionally, Hotez said about 100 genes have been identified that are involved in the development of autism, many by the Broad Institute at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He believes rising rates of autism diagnoses are likely due to wider testing and expanding diagnostic criteria. Hotez added that there could be an environmental exposure influencing autism genes, but that it’s not vaccines.
In 2017, he discussed with Kennedy an investigation looking at “about half a dozen chemical exposures” in early pregnancies but Kennedy “had no interest,” according to Hotez, who later documented these conversations in a book he published in 2018.
“He apparently seems to not understand the science or doesn’t care about the science. He’s got his fixed beliefs and doesn’t want to let any of the facts or scientific findings get in the way of his fixed belief,” Hotez said. “And it’s completely irresponsible having someone like that as Health and Human Services secretary.”
Claims around antidepressant use
Earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order to study the use of several medications including antidepressants and antipsychotics.
The order called for the formation of the “Make America Healthy Again” commission — to be chaired by Kennedy — with an aim to understand chronic diseases.
Among the goals of the commission is to “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.”
Dr. Joseph Saseen, associate dean for clinical affairs and a professor in the departments of clinical pharmacy and family medicine at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado, said there are plenty of studies and analyses in the medical literature looking at the prevalence of SSRIs.
“We have an overwhelming amount of information,” he told ABC News. “These medicines, particularly SSRIs, are the most frequently prescribed antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorder. There is a plethora of information evaluating efficacy in a broad range of patient populations for which these medicines are indicated.”
Saseen says these medications do have side effects, just like any drug, but the benefits significantly outweigh the risks for most people in the general population who have major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders.
Kennedy has also falsely linked the use of antidepressants to school shootings and claimed during his Senate confirmation hearings that members of his family had a harder time stopping SSRI use than heroin use.
Experts have said there is no evidence that equates ending the use of antidepressants to ending the use of heroin or to suggest that people on SSRIs are more likely to be violent.
Saseen said it’s reasonable to question scientific research, either to reaffirm or dispute findings, but it must be done following the scientific method.
“Question it the real way, not the cowardly way,” he said. “The cowardly way is labeling things as threats or as bad without taking a scientific approach. The key is you need to use appropriate methodologies, not vocal inflections and very triggering and polarizing words to create an uprising.”
ABC News’ Dr. Jade Cobern, Cheyenne Haslett, Will McDuffie and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
