The Minnesota Department of Health announced Feb. 8 that it will begin screening all newborns for a viral infection that is the most common infectious cause of birth defects in the U.S., making it the first state in the nation to do so.

Health experts from the University of Washington in Seattle recently released research about growing cases of drug-resistant Shigella among two populations: gay men and homeless individuals.

Retention and recruitment of nurses across the nation is something health systems and hospitals continue to struggle to maintain. It's an ongoing issue that calls for a "great reevaluation," Tamera Rosenbaum, MSN, RN, the chief nursing officer at the University of Colorado Health's Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, told Fox 21 News.

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center is at risk of losing Medicare reimbursements due to patient safety concerns, Bay Area News Group reported Feb. 7.

Athens-based University of Georgia researchers developed a first-of-its-kind fungal vaccine, and they say it has shown promising results in animal trials.

The rise in severe strep A infections that some children's hospitals saw in the last few months of 2022 may mark a return to pre-pandemic levels, the CDC said in a Feb. 2 update. 

Health officials worldwide are keeping tabs on the spread of H5N1 avian flu among mammals — sparking concern about the possibility of animal to human infection.

When a patient in California was diagnosed with a rare and highly fatal brain-eating amoebic infection, physicians concocted a treatment plan that included nitroxoline — the drug most commonly known for treating urinary tract infections — which ultimately led to the patient's survival.

The discovery of a protein showed signs of being a possible therapeutic target for monoclonal antibody treatment in sepsis cases as well as other infectious diseases, including COVID-19, according to research led by Haichao Wang, PhD, a professor and director of the laboratory of emergency medicine at Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.

A growing body of research and anecdotal reports indicate people who regularly use cannabis require more anesthesia during medical procedures. The challenge is getting patients to be honest about their use, experts told The Wall Street Journal in a Feb. 7 report. 

Here are six organizations launching or expanding nursing programs:

Adherence to healthy lifestyle habits including proper sleep and maintaining a healthy body weight prior to COVID-19 infection reduces the chance of developing long COVID-19, a study of nearly 2,000 women revealed.

Below are 13 hospitals, health systems or hospital operators that recently posted job listings seeking chief nursing officers. 

Researchers found CMS' Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program slowed adoption of quality inpatient care for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Three years into the pandemic and hundreds of studies later, evidence is still lacking as to what extent masks may slow the spread of respiratory viruses such as flu or COVID-19, according to a research review published Jan. 30 in the Cochrane Library. Researchers said the findings underscore the need for more studies to definitively understand masking's benefits and are not intended to be a case against the practice. 

The American Hospital Association has named several clinical leaders to its Committee on Clinical Leadership, including four chief medical officers and one chief nursing officer. 

In line with the regulations imposed by the COVID-19 national health emergency for the past three years, hospitals across the U.S. made necessary changes to almost every aspect of their business. Now, as the health emergency is coming to an end in May, the industry is eyeing an unforeseen fallout from the pandemic. 

Receiving a Tdap vaccination during the third trimester of a pregnancy provides protection against whooping cough for the first two months of the baby's life, according to a CDC study published Feb. 6 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Adults on dialysis treatment for end-stage kidney disease were 100 times more likely to be diagnosed with a Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection when compared with adults not on dialysis, according to a Feb. 6 CDC Vital Signs report. 

The FDA is encouraging people to anonymously report the results of at-home COVID-19 tests to help public health officials better track virus trends.