Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
40% Of High School Teens Admit They Binge Eat, CDC Data Show
About 40% of high school students reported binge eating in the past month in a large new government survey, putting a spotlight on how widespread this common form of disordered eating is among young people in the U.S. (Todd, 10/15)
On the spread of measles 鈥�
Measles is sometimes dismissed as an unserious disease or 鈥榡ust a rash.鈥� But the highly contagious virus can cause serious illness not just during initial infection but years later, after patients appear to have made a full recovery.聽This delayed complication, a rare, almost invariably fatal brain disease known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), is highlighted in a new report聽published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. (Bergeson, 10/14)
By the time many children with measles are sick enough to be hospitalized, the illness has already swept through entire families, blindsiding parents who had no idea the virus could cause such severe complications. (Edwards, 10/14)
The chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), argued the Trump administration is not promoting vaccinations vigorously enough amid a massive measles outbreak that has claimed multiple lives in 2026. 鈥淢y concern as a physician is that everyone should be vaccinated for measles,鈥� Cassidy told CNN鈥檚 Jake Tapper. 鈥淎nd you may think it only affects me. That鈥檚 not true because you infect other people.鈥� (Chakraborty, 10/14)
On dementia 鈥�
Dementia cases are set to double within the next 25 years worldwide, warns a new study. There are expected to be 24.7 million new cases of dementia by 2050, up from 11.4 million in 2023, researchers reported Oct. 12 in the journal JAMA Neurology. (Thompson, 10/14)
The study used two methods in two countries. In France, a total of 27.3% of those with dementia had received epilepsy medications, compared to 10.3% of those who did not have dementia. Those results were similar to those in Sweden. (10/14)
A condition that affects millions of American women has been associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. A new review has set out to understand what could be behind the potential connection. Researchers across the U.S. and Iran said that having polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), has been linked with an increased risk of cognitive vulnerability and dementia, and outlined possible mechanisms behind the connection. (Laws, 10/14)
In the study, researchers worked with 53 people with Lewy body disease and 29 people with Alzheimer's disease. Results showed visual problems were worse for those with Lewy body disease than for those with Alzheimer's disease, and that the two visual processing pathways were affected differently for the two diseases. (10/14)
On avian flu and climate health 鈥�
Scientists detected antibodies against the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)聽in four polar bears in East Greenland in 2025, consistent with previous identification of the virus in birds along linked migratory pathways. A team led by University of Inland Norway researchers analyzed heart blood collected from 28 polar bears harvested in subsistence hunts in 2024 and 2025, publishing their findings yesterday in聽Emerging Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 10/14)
A seventh annual 鈥渟tate of the climate鈥� report, published Wednesday in BioScience, underlines with data what 2026 has felt like: A dangerous and unpredictable climate is here. The study assessed the latest available numbers for 16 major indicators of climate change, such as atmospheric carbon levels, ocean temperature change and amount of land burned in fires. (Wolfson, 10/14)