• US could see return to high levels of measles spread as vaccination rates fall
• So far this year, measles cases are up 180% over full-year 2024, CDC reported
• US outbreak already is second highest in 25 years, CDC reported. [KFF Health News and CDC]

April 24 (Reuters) - The United States is at a tipping point for the return of endemic measles a quarter century after the disease was declared eradicated in the country, researchers warned on Thursday.

At current U.S. childhood vaccination rates, measles could return to spreading regularly at high levels, with an estimated 851,300 cases over the next 25 years, computer models used by the researchers suggest.

If rates of vaccination with the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, shot were to decline by 10%, an estimated 11.1 million cases of measles would result over 25 years, according to a report of the study in JAMA,

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A total of 800 measles cases and 10 outbreaks were reported in the United States during the first 16 weeks of 2025, representing approximately a 180% increase over the 285 measles cases reported in the United States during all of 2024. Most cases have been associated with an ongoing outbreak in close-knit communities with low vaccination coverage in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. [CDC]

Overall, 11% of measles patients have been hospitalized, and three deaths have been reported. Similar to previous years (1), nearly all (96%) cases occurred in persons who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, and 77% of cases occurred in persons who were unvaccinated when excluding cases reported by Texas. Most (92%) imported cases occurred among U.S. residents returning to the United States while infectious and from all six World Health Organization regions. Adherence to standard measles control measures, including isolation and quarantine, as well as high vaccination coverage locally, prevented secondary transmission from most of these persons who were infectious after returning from travel abroad.

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Republicans are far more skeptical of vaccines and twice as likely (1 in 5) as Democrats (1 in 10) to believe the measles shot is worse than the disease, according to the survey of 1,380 U.S. adults. [KFF Health News} 

Some 35% of Republicans answering the survey, which was conducted April 8-15 online and by telephone, said the discredited theory linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism was definitely or probably true — compared with just 10% of Democrats.

The trends are roughly the same as KFF reported in a June 2023 survey. But in the new poll, 3 in 10 parents erroneously believed that vitamin A can prevent measles infections, a theory Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought into play since taking office during the measles outbreak.

About 900 cases have been reported in 27 U.S. states, mostly in a West Texas-centered outbreak.  

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A state-backed initiative is looking to expand the behavioral health workforce.

The Department of Human Services’ Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery and the Illinois Certification Board recently recently announced new funding to help individuals looking to become certified alcohol and drug counselors. [Health News Illinois]

Chris Boyster, executive director of the Illinois Certification Board, said the program is in its second year of implementation, and they have already seen a noticeable increase in interest since it first started.

Along with covering tuition and scholarships for interested individuals, Boyster said the funds help cover wraparound services like transportation and babysitting for students. They also help retain the workforce by covering the cost of certification fees.

“Many people want to make a difference,” Boyster said. “This is an opportunity to do it and address obstacles that might hinder your success.”

He said there are over 50 individuals in this program, which includes students and those in the field. The goal at the time is to maintain stability in the workforce.

Officials say more than 1.5 million Illinoisans are affected by substance use disorder, and Boyster said resources like counselors can increase the chances of recovery.

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Even by rural hospital standards, Keokuk County Hospital and Clinics in southeastern Iowa is small. [ MedPage Today]

The 14-bed hospital, in Sigourney, doesn't do surgeries or deliver babies. The small 24-hour emergency room is overseen by two full-time doctors.

CEO Matt Ives wants to hire a third doctor, but he said finding physicians for a rural area has been challenging since the COVID-19 pandemic. He said several physicians at his hospital have retired since the start of the pandemic, and others have decided to stop practicing certain types of care, particularly emergency care.

Another rural hospital is down the road, about a 40-minute drive east. Washington County Hospital and Clinics has 22 beds and is experiencing similar staffing struggles. "Over the course of the last few years, we've had not only the pandemic, but we've had kind of an aging physician workforce that has been retiring," said Todd Patterson, CEO.

The pandemic was difficult for health workers. Many endured long hours, and the stresses on the nation's healthcare system prompted more workers than usual to quit or retire.

"There's a chunk of workers that were lost and won't come back," said Joanne Spetz, PhD, who directs the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco. "For a lot of the clinicians that decided and were able to stick it out and work through the pandemic, they have burned out," Spetz said.

Five years after the World Health Organization declared COVID a global pandemic and the first Trump administration announced a national emergency, the United States faces a crucial shortage of medical providers, below the projected need for an aging population

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A new study in BMJ Global Health across 13 middle- and high-income countries reveals that 25% of patients reported symptoms of long COVID after symptomatic COVID-19, and long COVID is significantly more prevalent in participants from less wealthy nations and in patients of Arab or North African ethnicity. [CIDRAP - Univ. of MN]

A second study published in BMC Public Health showed that, among 3,693 COVID-19 patients in China, 30.2% reported at least one persistent long-COVID symptom, and 10.7% noted symptoms affecting daily life.

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The CDC's vaccine advisors are considering options that would narrow the recommendations for the fall COVID vaccine to only include groups at higher risk for severe illness. [ MedScape] 

The news came at a Tuesday meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the first of a 2-day session that was originally scheduled for February but abruptly postponed by HHS.

Seasonal COVID shots are currently recommended for everyone 6 months and older, but CDC's Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, MD, MPH, presented findings from a recent poll of the ACIP COVID-19 Work Group showing that 76% of its members supported a non-universal (risk-based) recommendation for the 2025-2026 respiratory virus season.

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Black and Hispanic people paid more in out-of-pocket costs for maternal care than Asian and white people with the same commercial insurance, a new study published in JAMA Health Forum found. [Axios & JAMA Health Forum]

Why it matters: Black mothers in the U.S. face a pregnancy-related death rate that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women is similar to that of white mothers but has surged in recent years.

• The cost burdens of maternity care may exacerbate those significant racial disparities, the researchers say.

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Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined nearly two dozen colleagues on Monday to urge the federal government to reverse several proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace. [Health News Illinois]

In their letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the 22 attorneys general said the changes could cause up to two million Americans to lose health insurance coverage for the coming plan year.

The proposed rules require all exchanges, whether state-based or federally-facilitated, to have a 45-day open enrollment period that closes on December 15. The federal government also seeks to eliminate a special enrollment period for low-income individuals.

Another proposal would allow health insurance plans to deny enrollment to anyone who has missed a premium payment once, regardless of when the missed payment occurred. 

The federal government also plans to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care as an essential health benefit.

The attorneys general argued the rules would create “new hurdles that will significantly restrict eligibility, diminish enrollment, and increase consumers’ health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs.”

“These proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act are unnecessary and disturbing,” Raoul said in a statement. “Everyone in this country deserves access to lifesaving health services and these changes could cause hundreds of thousands of Americans to be uninsured.”

Illinois will launch a state-based exchange later this year.

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Federal budget cuts, increasing burnout among dentists and the potential impact of tariffs are three of the challenges that dentists, DSO executives and dental practices have unexpectedly come up against so far in 2025. [ Becker's Dental & DSO Review]

These seven dental leaders recently connected with Becker’s to share the obstacles facing the dental industry that were not necessarily predicted to arise in 2025.

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