Public Health

The pandemic has reversed years of global progress in treating and preventing tuberculosis, the World Health Organization said in an Oct. 14 report.

Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital is not offering flu shots at its fever and flu clinic this year because of low demand from the public, reports ABC affiliate WAAY 31 News.

Aurora-based Children's Hospital Colorado is seeing unusually high pediatric hospitalizations as respiratory illnesses that typically peak in the winter emerge earlier and COVID-19 rates among children remain high, reports The Gazette.

As President Joe Biden is looking to cut $1 trillion out of his $3.5 proposed spending package, top lawmakers want to ensure proposed ACA subsidy expansions and efforts to close state Medicaid gaps are top priorities.

The nation's COVID-19 testing capacity has greatly expanded since the start of the pandemic, but testing access and turnaround times still vary across the U.S., Kaiser Health News reported Oct. 14.

Researchers at LSU Health in Shreveport, La., detected B.1.630 — a rare COVID-19 variant — in two samples from Baton Rouge last week, the academic medical center announced Oct. 13. 

More than 96,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in March, marking a new record high, ​​according to preliminary CDC data released Oct. 13.

If 74 percent of Texas and Florida residents had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by August, they could have reported a total of 95,000 fewer hospitalizations and 22,000 fewer deaths, according to a study published Oct. 7 by The Lancet.

Nationwide, Hawaii administered the most vaccinations Oct. 12, according to data from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University. 

The virus shedding from people with breakthrough COVID-19 infections may be less infectious than that coming from an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient, NPR reported Oct. 12.