Publisher Health

State health officials worry that declining vaccination rates have left many communities vulnerable nationwide.Measles cases in Kansas more than doubled in the last week, bringing the tally to 20, while another outbreak in Ohio has sickened 10 people, local public health officials reported on Wednesday.There have been several large outbreaks in the United States this year, including one in West Texas that has spread to more than 320 people and hospitalized 40. Health officials have worried that the Texas outbreak may be seeding others.More than 40 measles cases have been reported in New Mexico, and seven have been identified in Oklahoma. In both states, health officials said the infections were connected to the Texas outbreak.In Kansas, the virus has mainly infected unvaccinated children in the southwest corner of the state. Genetic sequencing has suggested a link to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, state health officials told The New York Times on Wednesday.Fourteen other states have reported isolated measles cases in 2025, more often the result of international travel. In Ohio, nine of the 10 cases were traced to an unvaccinated man who recently traveled abroad.“Given the measles activity in Texas, New Mexico and other states around the country, we’re disappointed but not surprised we now have several cases here in Ohio,” said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the state’s Department of Health.Experts fear that declining vaccination rates nationwide have left the country vulnerable to a resurgence of preventable illnesses, including measles.Just under 93 percent of children in kindergarten had the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Experts recommend that at least 95 percent of people in a community be vaccinated in order to avoid outbreaks.In Kansas, about 90 percent of kindergartners were given the M.M.R. shot in the 2023-24 school year, according to state data.About 89 percent of kindergartners in Ohio had the M.M.R. shot that year.Measles, which spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, is one of the most contagious known viruses.Within a few weeks of exposure, those who are infected may develop a high fever, a cough, a runny nose and red, watery eyes. Within a few days, a telltale rash breaks out, first as flat, red spots on the face and then spreading down the neck and the torso to the rest of the bodyIn most cases, these symptoms resolve in a few weeks. But in rare cases, the virus causes pneumonia, making it difficult for patients, especially children, to draw oxygen into their lungs.The infection can also lead to brain swelling, which can cause lasting damage, including blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities. For every 1,000 children who contract measles, one or two will die, according to the C.D.C.One child has died in the Texas outbreak, the first such death in the United States in a decade. One suspected measles death was also reported in New Mexico.

Federal officials cited the end of the Covid-19 pandemic in halting the research. But much of the work was focused on preventing outbreaks of other pathogens.The Trump administration has canceled funding for dozens of studies seeking new vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 and other pathogens that may cause future pandemics.The government’s rationale is that the Covid pandemic has ended, which “provides cause to terminate Covid-related grant funds,” according to an internal N.I.H. document viewed by The New York Times.But the research was not just about Covid. Nine of the terminated awards funded centers conducting research on antiviral drugs to combat so-called priority pathogens that could give rise to entirely new pandemics.“This includes the antiviral projects designed to cover a wide range of families that could cause outbreaks or pandemics,” said one senior N.I.H. official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.The vaccine research also was not focused on Covid, but rather on other coronaviruses that one day might jump from animals to humans.Describing all the research as Covid-related is “a complete inaccuracy and simply a way to defund infectious disease research,” the official said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has said that the N.I.H. is too focused on infectious diseases, the official noted.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

States were told Monday that they could no longer use grants that were funding infectious disease management and addiction services.The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent infections like syphilis and emerging threats like bird flu.State health departments began receiving notices on Monday evening that the funds, which were allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic, were being terminated, effective immediately.”No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds,” the notices said.For some, the effect was immediate.In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city’s director of public health.On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

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Published17 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Robert Cuffe & Gerry GeorgievaBBC VerifyIn the Spring Statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is announcing a series of measures to cut the welfare bill by making it more difficult for people to claim certain benefits. The hope is that this will “get Britain working” by incentivising some of those not working to rejoin the labour force. About a quarter of the working age population – those aged 16 to 64 – do not currently have a job. That’s about 11 million people.How many people are unemployed?According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 4.4% of people were unemployed in the period between October and December 2024,

A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by The Times lists the Trump administration’s plans for thousands of foreign aid programs.The Trump administration intends to terminate the United States’ financial support for Gavi, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, and to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally.The administration has decided to continue some key grants for medications to treat H.I.V. and tuberculosis, and food aid to countries facing civil wars and natural disasters.Those decisions are included in a 281-page spreadsheet that the United States Agency for International Development sent to Congress Monday night, listing the foreign aid projects it plans to continue and to terminate. The New York Times obtained a copy of the spreadsheet and other documents describing the plans.The documents provide a sweeping overview of the extraordinary scale of the administration’s retreat from a half-century-long effort to present the United States to the developing world as a compassionate ally and to lead the fight against infectious diseases that kill millions of people annually.The cover letter details the skeletal remains of U.S.A.I.D. after the cuts, with most of its funding eliminated, and only 869 of more than 6,000 employees still on active duty.In all, the administration has decided to continue 898 U.S.A.I.D. awards and to end 5,341, the letter says. It says the remaining programs are worth up to $78 billion. But only $8.3 billion of that is unobligated funds — money still available to disburse. Because that amount covers awards that run several years into the future, the figure suggests a massive reduction in the $40 billion that U.S.A.I.D. used to spend annually.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Supermarkets will be banned from displaying unhealthy snacks near tills or on their website homepages from next year after the Senedd narrowly approved obesity-tackling plans.

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The government has expressed concerns about the timeline for implementing assisted dying, the BBC understands, before measures were tabled to delay when it could be available.