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Uganda on Wednesday ordered the closure of its border with Congo, where suspected cases of a rare type of Ebola are surging, and as cases have been confirmed at home after Ugandan health workers were exposed to the disease from Congolese patients. The measure, which goes against the guidance by the World Health Organization, underscores growing fears of contagion in East Africa from Bundibugyo, a rare type of the Ebola virus that is behind this outbreak and that has no approved medicines or vaccines. (Muhumuza, 5/27)

Congo is seeking access to an experimental antibody treatment targeting multiple Ebola strains as confirmed infections and deaths continue climbing in the country’s conflict-hit east. The Democratic Republic of Congo reported 121 confirmed Ebola cases and 17 confirmed deaths as of May 26, while suspected cases climbed to 1,077 and suspected deaths reached 238, according to health ministry figures released Wednesday. Sixteen new confirmed infections were recorded in Ituri province alone, the ministry said. (Gale, 5/28)

An American medical missionary doctor infected with Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains weak but is not critically ill after being evacuated to Germany for treatment, officials said. During a news conference on Wednesday, health officials said Dr. Peter Stafford has not required intensive care and has not suffered organ failure. Officials said his viral counts are steadily decreasing as he receives antiviral treatment. Stafford is being treated in a fully isolated ward at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, though officials said he can still see his family through a window. (Delandro, 5/27)

When Dr Vladimir Maduali died of Ebola in the early hours of Sunday morning, he was the fourth member of staff at his hospital to be killed by the disease in as many days. Two days later, his colleague Dr Tibenderana Katho Blaisealso died of the disease at the Bunia Evangelical medical centre, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Maduali graduated from the University of Bunia just three years ago and had been working in the Rwampara region, one of the areas of eastern DRC’s Ituri province worst hit by Ebola. The 30-year-old died at Rwampara’s isolation centre, where he had spent two days on oxygen therapy, according to his family. (Ngorora, 5/28)

Doctors, relatives and Red Cross volunteers gathered in the eastern Congolese city of Bunia for the burial of a doctor who died after treating Ebola patients, underscoring growing fears among frontline health workers as the outbreak worsens. (5/27)

The Democratic Republic of Congo said its national football federation and FIFA had confirmed its World Cup delegation is compliant with U.S. protocols related to the Ebola outbreak, ​clearing the way for the team to compete at the tournament. A team official ‌had said on Saturday that preparations would continue as planned despite a U.S. requirement for individuals to complete a 21-day isolation period before entering the country. (5/28)

The FIFA World Cup is now just a few weeks away, but Dr. Rebecca Katz has been worrying about the public health threats it poses for years. “With any mass gathering event, there are certain disease conditions that people worry about,” said Katz, who leads Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. “There’s always something happening.” There’s a well-established playbook for planning how to protect the public’s health during mass gatherings like the World Cup, experts say. But broader circumstances surrounding this year’s tournament, which is expected to bring millions of visitors to North America, are poised to test that playbook. (McPhillips, 5/27)

Late last year, an infectious-disease surveillance company was tracking the spread of an unusually contagious virus as it moved through Argentina. Not only were people getting sick in parts of the country where the virus hadn’t appeared before, BlueDot Inc.’s intelligence showed, but the death rate was higher too. On Dec. 14 the firm issued an alert to subscribers — including countries, cities, airlines, drugmakers and even defense alliances such as NATO — about the swelling danger of the Andes strain of hantavirus. That was four and a half months before the disease erupted on a Dutch cruise ship off Cape Verde, infecting almost a dozen travelers and leaving three people dead. Now something even friendlier to contagion than a cruise ship is on its way: the FIFA World Cup. (Hart, 5/28)

Americans who have visited Congo, South Sudan or Uganda in the past 21 days must reenter the country through select airports for enhanced screening during an Ebola outbreak in these African nations. Three airports are involved in the process: Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport. (Davis, 5/27)

The cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak is preparing to welcome new passengers on board. The MV Hondius plans to set sail for North Spitsbergen, an Arctic region in Norway's Svalbard archipelago on June 13, 34 days after 140 passengers and crew members who were on board during the outbreak disembarked in Spain's Canary Islands to be repatriated and enter quarantine or self isolate. (Thayer, 5/27)

This month, a pair of viruses seized the headlines. First came a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship, which caused as many as 13 infections, three of which were fatal. Then an Ebola outbreak flared in Africa, so far leading to more than 900 infections and 220 deaths. In both cases, the news has been not only frightening but also confusing, even to scientists. The hantaviruses didn’t seem to be acting like hantaviruses, and the Ebola viruses weren’t behaving like Ebola viruses. (Zimmer, 5/27)

A new drug has essentially cured 1 in 5 patients with chronic hepatitis B infections, researchers reported on Thursday, a feat that has stymied scientists for years. “It’s the first major advance in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B in decades,” said Dr. William Jarnagin, a surgeon and liver specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. (Kolata, 5/28)

New guidelines from the American Cancer Society are expanding colon cancer screening options beyond colonoscopies and established stool-based tests. The recommendations still call for colorectal cancer screening in people at average risk starting at age 45 and continuing through age 75 for those with a life expectancy of 10 more years. And colonoscopy is still considered the gold standard test. But for the first time, the updated guidelines now include a blood-based screening test done in a doctor’s office. They also add new stool sample kits and a recently FDA-approved at-home test that looks for blood and different molecular markers in stool samples. (Goldstein, 5/27)

A sweeping new review of prenatal antidepressant use underscores a finding that has surfaced repeatedly throughout the last decade: While parental depression is strongly linked to child neurodevelopmental disorders, taking antidepressants during pregnancy does not appear to significantly increase a child’s risk of autism. In an analysis of 37 separate studies covering more than 25 million pregnancies, a research team from the University of Hong Kong found that children born to women who took antidepressants while pregnant were indeed more likely to later be diagnosed with autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). (Purtill, 5/27)

When Shania Collins was first approached about taking performance-enhancing drugs last year, it made her nervous enough to contact two members of the Drug Enforcement Administration — her parents. ... Then organizers of the Enhanced Games, a controversial sports startup, got in touch last fall with an offer. The organizers were planning a one-day competition of sprinting, swimming and weightlifting in Las Vegas that would not only allow but encourage doping. And it paid the kind of money that might take some athletes years to make — six-figure salaries, on top of prize money of up to $250,000 for event winners and $1 million for a world record. (Greif, 5/26)

At 7 p.m. on a Friday in London, the lobby of Third Space in Soho looks more like a members’ club than a gym. There’s a humming smoothie bar, twenty- and thirtysomethings in color-coordinated workout sets and a steady stream of arrivals heading to reformer Pilates classes. A decade ago, this crowd might have been outside the pub, drinking anything but a smoothie. Across the UK and US, younger consumers are redirecting their discretionary income from nightlife to fitness. (Rappaport, 5/27)

A simple shift in how you sequence your dinner — vegetables and protein first, carbs last — may meaningfully lower blood sugar spikes, according to multiple studies and dietitians weighing in on the trend. (Agate, 5/26)

Ozempic was supposed to be a gut story. Then Allison Shapiro looked at the brain scans. An assistant professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz, she was part of a team studying 13 teens and young women with a hormonal disorder affecting the ovaries who were put on GLP-1 drugs. As part of testing to catalogue the effect of the medication on their bodies, Shapiro took snapshots of their brains before and after. She was astonished to find extensive changes. (Cha, 5/28)

The FDA approved the antibody-drug conjugate pivekimab sunirine (Decnupaz) for the rare hematologic malignancy blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). The approval stipulates use of the drug in adults. Although BPDCN occurs most often in patients ages 60 and older, the condition can affect patients in any age group. (Bankhead, 5/27)

Hearts can’t heal themselves. After a heart attack or other cardiovascular insult, hearts can’t regenerate weakened muscles, leaving them less able to pump blood throughout the body. While medications to manage symptoms of heart failure — including newer obesity drugs — have been improving outcomes, many people ultimately face only two solutions: a heart transplant or heart device implant. (Cooney, 5/27)

The results of a survey conducted among healthcare professionals in 37 countries suggest over-the-counter (OTC) antibiotic sales remain all too common, researchers reported last week in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance. The electronic survey, sent to members of the AMR Insights Ambassador Network by a team of international researchers, assessed demographic characteristics, the existence of national regulations regarding OTC antibiotic sales, and the availability of specific antibiotics for purchase without a prescription. Although research has shown that the use of OTC antibiotics remains ubiquitous in many countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, the researchers said the practice “remains inadequately described on a global scale.” (Dall, 5/27)

Vaping may be healthier than smoking, but that doesn’t make it healthy. That is the message public-health experts hope Americans keep in mind after the U.S. government eased long-held restrictions on flavored vaping products earlier this month. (Calfas, 5/27)

Australia has sued 3M Co. and its local arm for more than A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) in damages relating to contamination from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, at 28 defense bases. The Department of Defence is looking to recover “significant past and future expenses” incurred by investigating and managing contamination resulting from the historic storage and use of 3M’s aqueous film-forming foam, Assistant Minister for Defence Peter Khalil said in a statement Thursday. (Leigh and Ma, 5/28)

Drew Altman, the founding president and chief executive of KFF, who helped shape the organization into one of the nation’s most influential nonprofit health policy sources, told his staff on Wednesday that he would retire at the end of the year. Dr. Altman, 75, has worked at KFF since 1990. It was formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. He will be replaced by two senior KFF executives, Larry Levitt, 63, who will serve as chief executive, and Mollyann Brodie, 59, who will serve as president. (Abelson, 5/27)

Amazon’s top health-care boss will step down from his role and be replaced by the cofounder of telemedicine company Amwell, the company announced Wednesday. (Palmer, 5/27)

A group of about 115 hospitalists at five Swedish Medical Group locations across the Seattle area voted to unionize as a wave of physician organizing continues nationwide. The hospitalists voted to join Northwest Medicine United (NWMU), AFT Local 6552, which represents hundreds of physicians and advanced practice providers throughout the Northwest, the union announced. They represent the first group of doctors in the Providence health system to organize in the state of Washington. (Henderson, 5/27)

Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago rallied outside the facility Wednesday, protesting what they describe as a crackdown on their efforts to unionize by owner Prime Healthcare. (Schencker, 5/27)

Carilion Clinic partnered with a Pennsylvania-based Select Medical Corporation to open a rehabilitation hospital in Roanoke. Carilion announced plans for the new free-standing rehabilitation hospital in 2024 shortly after submitting a letter of intent to the state’s Certificate of Public Need Division. In August 2025, the division approved the project. (Schabacker, 5/28)

The mobile unit functions as a fully equipped emergency department on wheels. When a patient calls 911 with stroke symptoms, the unit responds alongside traditional emergency services. Onboard, a CT scanner captures brain images within minutes of patient contact. A vascular neurologist evaluates the patient remotely via telemedicine in real time, while a neuroradiologist reviews imaging from the scanner — all while the unit is still moving. (Robins, 5/27)

GoodRx announced Wednesday the launch of GoodRx Companion, a subscription program that offers access to virtual healthcare services and prescription medications at discounted prices. Through the $14.99 monthly GoodRx Companion subscription, users can access free and low-cost generic medications, online care visits and additional healthcare services. The company says the new subscription advances its strategy by adding broader offerings alongside its weight loss, erectile dysfunction and hair loss programs. (Gleeson, 5/27)

The proportion of Americans without health insurance held steady at around 8% of the population in 2025, according to new findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national survey results, released Thursday, show the all-ages uninsured rate has stayed significantly down from where it was several years ago, but the ranks of the uninsured could soon expand as the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the health landscape begin to take hold. (Stobbe and Swenson, 5/28)

Brandi Sharp tends to find herself restless at night. Her 13-year-old daughter, Cambrie, has uncontrolled seizures. Sharp, a mother of three, is constantly up, checking to make sure Cambrie is breathing. During the day, when she’s not at work as a school nurse, Sharp, of rural Hazel Dell, Illinois, is laser-focused on finding effective treatment for Cambrie’s epilepsy. It’s all-consuming, she said. “We tried everything,” Sharp said, listing off more than 20 anti-seizure medications Cambrie’s doctors have prescribed over an eight-year span, including multiple benzodiazepines and phenobarbital. (Taylor, Kopf and Vespa, 5/27)

Health systems are spending more on artificial intelligence to combat claim denials. They also are investing in their people. Some AI models cannot yet interpret payer-specific policies or aggregate complex denial appeals, underscoring the need for people to be involved in the process, particularly as insurers ramp up claim denials, executives said. (Kacik, 5/27)

A federal initiative aimed at cracking down on fraudulent operators could further hamstring efforts to expand access to home healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ six-month freeze on new home health provider enrollments in Medicare also means established operators can’t open locations in new territories or expand into home health services. (Eastabrook, 5/27)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘�������ýҕ�l Health News Minute’ 

Jackie Fortiér [FOR-tee-ay] reads this week’s news: Suicide prevention experts argue that improving Americans’ financial well-being could save lives. Plus, the Trump administration proposes looser artificial intelligence safeguards to speed innovation in healthcare. (5/28)

Former first lady Jill Biden says former President Joe Biden’s performance in his 2024 debate against Donald Trump “scared me to death,” and she worried her husband was having a stroke. “I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News in an interview slated to air Sunday. CBS published a clip from the interview Wednesday. “I don’t know what happened,” she said. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.” (Bradner, 5/27)

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is recovering from treatment for thyroid cancer, just weeks after leaving the Justice Department. Bondi told CNN she had surgery a few weeks ago and is still undergoing treatment, but is “doing well.” President Donald Trump ousted Bondi in April, having criticized her for failing to bring lawsuits against his perceived political foes. (Daniels, 5/27)

The public is about to get its first look at the prices of drugs launched since President Trump struck his most-favored-nation deals with 17 drugmakers. (Wilkerson, 5/28)

Community health programs in South Africa have been heavily impacted by U.S. cuts to global aid. Which means there are fewer community and health workers to support low-income people with HIV and AIDS. We recently visited one of those programs, called We Care, to learn more about the experiences of the few employees who still remain. (Ozug, Zamora and Burnett, 5/27)

Dozens of students freshly trained as recruiters streamed into the dormitories on the sprawling green campus of the University of Zambia on a muggy morning in March. They wended their way past piles of papers, laundry and instant noodle packages, pouncing on any classmate who slowed long enough to listen to their pitch: “Come with me, right now, and get an injection! It will protect you from H.I.V. infection for the next six months. It will take two minutes! And it’s free!” (Nolen, 5/26)

Immigration authorities have detained a pregnant woman and her 4-year-old son at Washington Dulles International Airport for over a week, after the pair arrived from Ghana on a tourist visa seeking medical treatment and were then taken into custody, their lawyers allege in a court filing. Anabella Gyasi, 38, arrived in the United States on May 19 after securing a visa and an appointment for her son at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, where she hoped her son would get care for a physical abnormality affecting his hands, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. (Wu, 5/27)

The little girl approached the therapy dog outside the school library, reaching out to touch her fluffy blond coat. Social worker Nicole Herje leaned in. “How does it feel when you pet Sage?” Herje said. “I like it,” the girl said. “In Ecuador, I had a dog.” A few months earlier, this girl and many of her classmates at Valley View Elementary were staying off the streets to avoid the immigration officers flooding their suburban Minneapolis community. Attendance plummeted as families kept their kids from school during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge. (Balingit and Steiner, 5/28)

A new Maryland law banning the sale of most Glocks and other brands of guns with a certain kind of trigger bar is driving customers to Baltimore-area firearms shops in waves, shop owners say. The law, which will take effect on Oct. 1, will ban the sale of guns that have a “cruciform trigger bar.” Such weapons can be easily converted into illegal, fully automatic firearm, using a banned device colloquially known as a “Glock switch,” though it is not affiliated with the manufacturer. The device overrides the trigger bar, allowing the gun to fire continuously on a single pull of the trigger. Under the new law signed Tuesday, Maryland residents who already own guns with this specific type of trigger bar will be allowed to use them, but can’t resell them to others, except for transfers to family. (Carey, 5/27)

The National Rifle Association and two other gun rights groups sued Maryland officials Tuesday over freshly signed legislation that effectively bans the sale of Glock pistols in the state. (Belson, 5/27)

Well more than a year before the May 18 attack, Caleb Vazquez’s behavior had so concerned officials that he was placed on a 72-hour involuntary hold for a mental health evaluation, feared to be a danger to himself or others, court documents indicate. He was then 17 years old and a student at High Tech High in Chula Vista. (Figueroa, 5/26)

No survivors are expected to be found at a Washington state manufacturing plant after a chemical tank implosion, according to officials, who said Wednesday that a second death had been confirmed and that nine other people are presumed dead. (Gamboa, Helsel, Chesky and Douglas, 5/27)

There are millions of chemical tanks around the U.S., and experts say it is exceedingly rare for them to fail as long as they are properly maintained and inspected. Yet this past week, there were two major hazardous chemical emergencies on the West Coast. A large tank containing a corrosive chemical at a Longview, Washington, paper mill ruptured on Tuesday, killing two and possibly nine others. And late last week about 50,000 people were evacuated in Southern California after a chemical tank overheated and threatened the area with a catastrophic explosion. Authorities mitigated that risk, and people have been able to return home. (Bellisle and Funk, 5/28)

The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital will receive up to $3 million for pediatric cancer research annually, under a bill signed into law Tuesday. The law (SF 2480) implements a 5-cent tax on vapes and alternative nicotine products. The first $3 million from the tax money collected each year will go toward clinical trials, lab research and other research activities for pediatric cancer treatment. (Luu, 5/27)

A state Senate bill that would increase barriers for immigrants to access public food assistance and health insurance has passed both chambers of the state legislature. The Louisiana House of Representatives voted 66-28 Tuesday in favor of the measure. This bill builds on a state law passed last year that required state agencies to report applicants for public benefits without “satisfactory” immigration status to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Parker, 5/27)

The campaign opposing a November ballot measure that would reinstate Missouri’s abortion ban formally launched Wednesday, arguing Republican lawmakers are trying to overturn the 2024 vote that ended the state’s near-total ban through a “bait and switch” measure. (Spoerre, 5/27)

The Texas Board of Nursing restored Camp Mystic’s chief health officer’s nursing license but barred her from working directly with patients after the board temporarily suspended her license on May 19. (Runnels, 5/27)

A former live-in assistant to Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in prison after repeatedly injecting the actor with ketamine, including the fatal dose that killed him. Kenneth Iwamasa, who previously made $150,000 a year working for Perry, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry, 54, with ketamine without medical training, including multiple injections on Oct. 28, 2023 — the day of Perry’s death. (Mejia, 5/27)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: In A Vaccine-Skeptical California County, A Potential Playbook To Contain Measles

James Mu had braced for the call that came in late January. A patient from his rural Northern California county had measles, a disease so rare there that many physicians have never treated a case. While California has some of the strictest vaccine laws in the country, conservative Shasta County’s approach during the covid pandemic stood in stark contrast with the state’s guidance. Its local leaders opposed masking and vaccine mandates, and they ousted the county public health officer, who had sought to enforce those state policies and other safety measures. (Sciacca, 5/28)

Middle-aged folks who suffer migraine with an aura could be more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study says. Overall, people who have migraine with an accompanying aura have a 73% increased risk of stroke, researchers reported recently in the journal Neurology. By comparison, people living with migraine who don’t experience auras had no association with an increased stroke risk, researchers found. (Thompson, 5/21)

Women who sat over 10 hours a day had double the risk of an adverse outcome. (Laub, 5/27)

Children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome had a lower risk of relapses with investigational ecopipam, a phase III randomized withdrawal study showed. (George, 5/26)

Lack of high-level evidence has hindered treatment development, but some patients do improve. (Bankhead, 5/27)

In their new study, an Ohio team vacuumed up dust samples from nearly 30 locations, including schools, university residence halls and office buildings. They then used high-tech genetic tracing technologies to spot molecules that viruses might leave in their wake as they decayed. The result: The team spotted 54 distinct viruses in the dust samples, including COVID, influenza, norovirus, Epstein-Barr and many others. (Mundell, 5/26)

A new analysis of more than a century of laboratory biosafety incidents found that disease outbreaks are closely linked to operational failures, lab settings, and type of personnel involved. The findings also suggest that deaths associated with accidental lab exposures were driven largely by the virulence of the organisms involved. (Bergeson, 5/27)

I was traveling through Uganda just as the Trump administration announced new restrictive measures to guard against the Ebola virus outbreak for travelers coming from that country, the Congo and South Sudan. I wasn’t worried about my health. The epicenter of the virus, located in Ituri Province in the Congo, was about 200 miles away from where I was staying in western Uganda, and I hadn’t visited Kampala, where at least five cases had been identified. My initial concern focused on the logistical hurdles I might encounter returning to the U.S. ... In the end, nothing happened. I didn’t have my temperature taken. I was not questioned or taken aside. (Laura Kelly, 5/27)

Most successful scientists are optimists. They have to be, since the vast majority of experiments fail. In graduate school, I remember sitting in the lab at Rockefeller University in New York at 3 a.m., surrounded by stacks of culture dishes for growing cancer cells, none quite showing me what I hoped to find. But glimmers of interesting changes in the cells promised future success and made me feel the experiments wanted to work. (Sally Kornbluth, 5/27)

The MV Hondius outbreak is not an isolated incident. It is another warning sign—one that echoes the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It demonstrates, once again, the human costs of scrambled health responses at sea. Despite the experience of 2020, international law still lacks clear and coordinated rules for managing public health emergencies on cruise ships. Reform efforts have failed to learn the lessons from the past. (Thomas Mulder and Dr. Natalie Klein, 5/25)

After almost a year of policy disputes, staff turnover and complaints about management, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary resigned under pressure earlier this month. His successor will need to restore order at an agency in turmoil. (5/28)