GoKawiil
Tech News
Wisconsin health officials reported Thursday that an infant died from measles, marking the state's first measles fatality in 35 years. The death occurred amid an outbreak that has sickened more than 430 people across 13 counties in 2025, and follows two other measles deaths reported this week in New York and Pennsylvania.
New York health officials announced late Monday that a child in the state has died from measles, the first such death there in more than three decades. It is the seventh measles-linked death nationwide this year, following six deaths in Pennsylvania, which has recorded over 1,430 cases in its own outbreak. New York has logged 170 measles cases across more than a dozen counties this year.
The CDC has released its first comprehensive assessment of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in seven years, estimating that 19 such germs cause 9.7 million infections and more than 50,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Four pathogens—including the fungus Candida auris, drug-resistant gonorrhea, Acinetobacter, and Enterobacterales—were ranked as the most urgent threats, while neisseria meningitidis was newly added as a concerning threat due to growing resistance to common antibiotics. The report also noted a decline in C. diff infections, leading the CDC to downgrade its threat level.
The CDC reports that infections and deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi have increased in the United States since 2019. The agency now estimates that roughly 50,000 Americans die each year from these so-called superbug infections.
Police in Guinea-Bissau seized hepatitis B vaccine doses from the offices of Danish researchers Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn, who had been planning a newborn vaccine trial. The trial, criticized by international health experts as unethical, was backed by a $1.6 million CDC grant awarded under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in December, and plans were paused in January amid widespread condemnation, though a Rolling Stone report this month said the CDC had set aside further funding to proceed.
Rolling Stone reports that CDC director's office staff instructed the agency's budget office in late September to earmark $1.6 million for a vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau that was suspended in January after being widely criticized as unethical. The trial, which would expose newborns to hepatitis B risk, is to be run by Danish researchers Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby, who are currently under investigation by Danish authorities for alleged scientific misconduct. HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced an agency-wide initiative under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. focused on identifying vaccine-related injuries. The plan includes a new NIH clinic for patients reporting post-vaccination health problems, which quietly opened October 5 with Kennedy in attendance, plus a proposal to pay doctors for submitting reports to the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
Pennsylvania has experienced a surge in measles cases, totaling 1,078 so far in 2026, making it the largest outbreak in the US since 1991. The majority of cases have emerged since April, with 207 hospitalizations and five deaths, all among unvaccinated individuals. The outbreak continues to grow, with 34 new cases reported since Monday, and experts are now questioning whether the US has lost its measles elimination status.
A researcher at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died of unexplained severe pneumonia after reportedly breaking a test tube, prompting quarantine of the treating hospital and isolation of her coworkers. The CDC said the case's circumstances remain unconfirmed and there's no sign of broader threat to the US, while the WHO said it has contacted Russian authorities and assesses public health risk as very low.
Recent data indicates an unusually high rate of positive influenza tests in regions like the UK and US West Coast, suggesting an early start to this year's flu season. The dominant strain is H1N1, with signs of a new mutation raising concerns among scientists. Experts caution that while the trend is notable, it does not yet predict the severity of the season.
Thomas Watson Jr., then IBM's chairman, wrote an internal memo in 1963 questioning how his company had lost industry leadership to Control Data Corporation, a firm he noted had only 34 employees, including its janitor. The memo, later nicknamed 'The Janitor Memo,' reflected concern over the competitive threat posed by CDC's new 6600 computer.
Pennsylvania's health department confirmed a fifth death from measles, an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident, as the state's outbreak grew to 943 cases across 39 counties. At least 176 people have been hospitalized, with 119 new cases reported in the past week alone. All five deaths this year—two infants, an 18-year-old, a 40-year-old woman, and this latest case—were unvaccinated, and no measles deaths had occurred in the state in the previous 35 years.