Texas Doctor Who Led Measles Response Joins CDC Under RFK Jr.

Dr. Jennifer Shuford, head of Texas’ public health agency, has been tapped to serve as chief medical officer at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Donald Trump included Shuford among a slate of proposed leaders for the federal agency, Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday. Trump’s other executive appointments include: Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director…
Source

Original

Measles Outbreak in Texas Immigration Jail Spills Into the Public

An explosion of reported measles cases in Texas’ federal detention facilities broke through to the public last month, infecting at least four El Paso residents who worked in one of the centers and potentially exposing the highly contagious disease to the wider population, according to emails obtained by The Texas Tribune through record requests. The emails also reveal that as they grappled…
Source

Original

Public Health Agencies Struggle to Keep Up With Rising Tuberculosis Cases

In Johnson County, Iowa, the number of tuberculosis cases has increased in recent years — and so has the cost of containing it. The cost of contact tracing and surveillance, traveling each day to patients’ homes to ensure they take their meds or booking hotel rooms to quarantine patients, has surged from $17,000 in 2020 to $65,000 last year. That doesn’t include $13,000…
Source

Original

As Measles Cases Skyrocket, Doctors Contend With a Disease Few Have Seen Before

Asheville, N.C. — At around 2 a.m., 7-year-old twin brothers arrived at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Both had a fever, a cough, a rash, pink eye, and cold symptoms. The boys sat in one waiting room and then another. Two hours and 20 minutes passed before the two were isolated, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services records obtained by KFF Health News. Then two more hours…
Source

Original

South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions

In mid-January, an unassuming man in khakis and a button-down shirt walked to a wooden lectern at a school board meeting in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Most chairs in the audience were empty. The man, Tim Smith, was the only person signed up to speak during public comments. He had five minutes. “I trust that each one of you had a good Christmas and New Year’s,” he began.
Source

Original

Measles Infection Count in January Topped Total Cases in 2023 and 2024 Combined

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified nearly 600 cases of measles in the U.S. in the first month of 2026 — a number that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago, as the virus has been considered eradicated in the U.S. for more than two decades. As of January 29, the CDC counted 588 cases of measles across 17 states. The vast majority of cases…
Source

Original