The measles crisis in West Texas has claimed the life of another child, the second death in an outbreak that has burned through the region and infected dozens of residents in bordering states. The 8-year-old girl died early Thursday morning of “measles pulmonary failure” at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas,Continue Reading
As the Trump administration moves to dismantle international public health safeguards, pull funding from local health departments and legitimize health misinformation, some experts now fear that the country is setting the stage for a long-term measles resurgence. If federal health officials do not change course, large multistate outbreaks like theContinue Reading
Until this year, Dr. Leila Myrick had never seen a case of measles. She doesn’t remember professors in medical school talking about the virus. When she saw photos of the characteristic red rash on practice board exams, she flipped back through her textbooks to figure out what it was. “MostContinue Reading
Dr. Howard Luks didn’t think much about agility — the ability to move quickly while changing speed and direction — until movements that used to come easily became more challenging. Dr. Luks, 61, works as an orthopedic surgeon and is an avid trail runner and climber. During his outdoor workouts,Continue Reading
A worker wheels out the belongings of a fellow employee who was dismissed, outside of the Mary E. Switzer Federal Office Building, which houses HHS offices in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images Chaos and confusion dominated the restructuring affecting thousands of workers at the U.S.Continue Reading
The Trump administration on Friday rejected a Biden plan that would have required Medicare and Medicaid to cover obesity drugs and expanded access for millions of people. Under the law that established Medicare’s Part D drug benefits, the program was forbidden from paying for drugs for “weight loss.” But theContinue Reading
Drug-resistant gonorrhea, a form of the widespread sexually transmitted infection, is considered an urgent health threat worldwide. The United States has just lost its ability to detect it. Among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees fired on Tuesday were 77 scientists who, among other work, gathered samples ofContinue Reading
The drug industry got a temporary reprieve on Wednesday when foreign-made medicines were exempted from President Trump’s far-reaching new tariffs. But Mr. Trump has been saying for weeks that he plans to impose tariffs specifically on pharmaceuticals, with the goal of shifting overseas production of medications back to the UnitedContinue Reading
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity TV doctor, 53-45 and along party lines to lead Medicare and Medicaid, which insure nearly half of all Americans. The future of both programs is the subject of fierce debate: Republicans are contemplating significant cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthContinue Reading
One night last week, my husband, Tom, and I got into an argument. The next morning, I was still fuming. So I gave him the silent treatment. For the uninitiated, the silent treatment is when a person intentionally refuses to communicate with you — or in some cases, even acknowledgeContinue Reading
