Health officials confirmed dengue virus in a California resident with no history of international travel, marking an "extremely rare case of local transmission" in the U.S., the Pasadena Public Health Department said Oct. 20. 

Leishmania mexican, a flesh-eating parasite that also causes fever, weight loss, and an enlarged spleen and liver is now endemic to Southern parts of the U.S., CDC experts told CBS News Oct. 19.

A new biomedical research hub is coming to New York City, with the ultimate goal of bioengineering immune cells capable of stopping a disease in its tracks. 

As of Oct. 19, flu activity in the U.S. is down 66 percent compared to last year, marking a more gradual start to flu season that is closer to the pre-pandemic norm, according to new data from Walgreens' Flu Index.

The spread of mosquito-transmitted viruses is accelerating in the Southern U.S., stirring concerns about the potential return of yellow fever, two infectious disease experts wrote in an Oct. 14 article for The New England Journal of Medicine.

Remnants of the virus that causes COVID-19 may linger in the gut, ultimately causing a reduction in circulating levels of serotonin. This may explain a number of long COVID-19 symptoms, such as brain fog and memory problems, according to new research from scientists at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Last week, 1,127 patients with laboratory-confirmed flu cases were admitted to a hospital, according to CDC data ending Oct. 7.

Following the August wildfires that decimated parts of Maui, the state's department of health issued a new warning Oct. 15 urging the public residents and visitors to avoid contact with toxic ash remnants. 

New weekly COVID-19 admissions are down for the fourth week straight, according to the latest data from the CDC. Meanwhile, flu and respiratory syncytial virus are starting to rise. 

Health experts are betting on a collection of vaccines and a monoclonal antibody to prevent severe illness and minimize capacity strain on hospitals from flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus this respiratory virus season. However, hurdles in accessing the shots may prevent those most at risk for severe illness from getting vaccinated before virus season is in full swing. 

Researchers at Boston-based Harvard Medical School and University of Oxford in England have created an AI tool to forecast which COVID-19 strains will grow in dominance, according to an Oct. 11 article in Nature. 

After seals in Seattle's Puget Sound tested positive for H5N1 avian flu in late August, a researcher at the University of Washington Medical School is highlighting the unprecedented wave of cases in the last year and what that means for human health.

Forty percent of healthcare leaders are "not confident at all" that the U.S. would be better prepared for a future pandemic, according to a September Becker's LinkedIn poll.

Dengue fever, an infection caused by mosquito bites, may become increasingly common across the Southern U.S. within the next decade.

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus have been rising slowly in the U.S., according to CDC data published Oct. 5.

Columbus-based Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center was awarded $20 million by the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science to gather evidence needed to inform the FDA's regulation of tobacco products.

The CDC has announced the agency will no longer distribute COVID-19 vaccination cards. 

New York City has already confirmed about 500 cases of active tuberculosis this year, and understaffed clinics have led to long waits for diagnosis and treatment, Politico reported Oct. 4.

Verily, the healthcare unit of parent company Alphabet, has won its first CDC contract to support national wastewater monitoring, the company said Oct. 2. 

There have been no confirmed detections of infections caused by a family of flu viruses known as Influenza B/Yamagata since March 2020, suggesting it may have been eliminated. Based on that, the World Health Organization recommends leaving it out of flu shot compositions for next year.