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As measles continues to spread nationwide, hospitals and health officials are pouring more money into efforts to increase vaccinations, testing and surveillance of the disease. The funds include a surprise $100 million infusion in recent weeks to states from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Mandavilli and Blum, 10/8)

A letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, JD, from Democratic lawmakers indicates a growing frustration with her leadership amid attempts by President Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to change childhood vaccine recommendations. (Dall, 10/8)

Main Street is bustling on a Wednesday afternoon in late September. Cars mix with horse-and-buggy carriages on the road, many coming and going from the weekly Sale Day — a market spread over 10 acres with livestock, fruits and vegetables, flowers and other goods available to purchase. Lively conversations in English and Pennsylvania Dutch fill the barn where a produce auction stretches until lunchtime; bids for a pint of bright red cherry tomatoes run from 90 cents to $1.30. (McPhillips, 10/7)

Pennsylvania is reporting 74 new measles cases since Monday, the state's health department said Wednesday. A total of 1,078 cases have been reported in the state so far this year. At least 207 people have been hospitalized and five people have died, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH). "Of the 74 cases added, more than 40 represent individuals who were sick more than two weeks ago and are no longer contagious, but their cases were only recently reported and subsequently confirmed, the DOH said. Wednesday's update "does not reflect a current surge in new infections." (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 10/8)

Measles has spread to another Ohio county and another with a near double-digit increase as Ohio's third measles outbreak of 2026 continues. The state had 22 new cases in the past week, a 120% increase from the 10 new cases reported the week before, the Ohio Department of Health reports. (Murphy, Powel and Walrath-Holdridge, 10/8)

Walgreens is already seeing an early-season bump in cold and flu-related sales, according to data first viewed by ABC News. Purchases of cold and flu medications are up 21.7% compared to the same time last year, and cough drops are up 16.6%. Numbers from the company from past seasons also show that activity is expected to rapidly increase in the weeks ahead. Recent history indicates flu activity starts increasing around the end of September and then ramps up in December, according to Walgreens. (Benadjaoud, 10/8)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it has established measures to "identify and assess" any travelers from the Russian region where a possible plague case was reported. In a statement on Wednesday, the agency noted that roughly only 200 travelers from the region arrive in the U.S. over the course of a year. These travelers enter the country through airports where CDC staff are already positioned.  (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 10/8)

Taylor Farms, whose produce was linked to this summer’s diarrhea-causing parasitic outbreak, will indefinitely suspend iceberg lettuce shipments from central Mexico for much of next summer. The Salinas, California-based company will not harvest or process iceberg lettuce from central Mexico during the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s defined cyclospora season, Taylor Farms Chief Executive Bruce Taylor said in a public letter. The season runs from May 1 to Aug. 31, according to the CDC. That mirrors the rainy season in Mexico, the company wrote in its letter. (Peterson, 10/8)

According to the latest update from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), there were six new detections of H5N1 avian flu this past week, including major outbreaks at two large facilities in Indiana and Minnesota. (Soucheray, 10/8)