Measles News:

• Measles cases are skyrocketing in Europe and the Americas, up 10x in Europe and 11x in the Americas (including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) compared to last year. (CIDRAP)
• El Paso is seeing a major outbreak with 29 cases in just 18 days, but New Mexico’s cases appear to be slowing. (YLE)
• Michigan health officials have missed the crucial notification window to get preventative treatment (within 6 days) for most measles cases in the state this year. (Detroit Free Press)
• Austin, TX health officials went public with a list of places a contagious person visited last week before notifying the restaurants directly, in part due to the sheer number of exposures, they said. (KXAN)
• The border state of Chihuahua, Mexico, has over 700 measles cases linked to the outbreak in Texas, and the U.S. issued a travel advisory. (WIRED)
  

Health News:

• A 1950s rabbinical ruling says U.S. government oversight of milk is sufficient to make it kosher, but changes at the FDA could call milk’s kosher status into question. (Jerusalem Post)
• After government food deliveries dropped, local food banks are scrounging and cutting costs. (NY Times)
• Climate change may worsen the spread of drug-resistant infections. (Bloomberg)
• “Phenomenal" new data on HPV vaccines show that one shot is just as good as two, which could allow millions more kids worldwide to get the cancer-preventing shots. (STAT)
• Arizona reported a new H5N1 detection in a dairy cattle herd, its third in the past two months or so. (APHIS)
• Some patients are struggling to afford GLP-1 drugs after access to cheaper compounded versions ends now that the shortage is deemed over, and copies aren’t allowed. (STAT)
  

Mental Health News:

• Financial uncertainty and job loss can damage mental health; getting side gigs and prioritizing self-care can help. (NPR)
• Climate anxiety is taking a toll on young people, who are more wary of having kids and experiencing higher rates of situational depression. (TIME)

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call or text 988.

Best Questions:

What causes measles breakthrough cases if someone is already vaccinated?

We think it’s really important to talk about breakthrough cases — because vaccines don’t prevent 100% of illness. They’re very good at preventing illness or making it much milder for most people, but they’re not perfect — just like getting sick with a disease naturally doesn’t guarantee lifelong protection either.

The vast majority of measles cases in the U.S. happen in unvaccinated people. Only about 2% of cases are in people who got both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine. But it’s important to acknowledge: breakthrough cases do exist. The MMR vaccine is really good, but not flawless.

Some people don’t respond to the vaccine at all. After one dose, about 93% of people are protected. After two doses, that number jumps to 97%. That’s excellent — but it still leaves about 3 out of every 100 people who could get measles if they’re exposed, even after being fully vaccinated.

The good news? Breakthrough cases tend to be much milder than measles in unvaccinated people, and they're even less contagious to others.

We saw this recently in Colorado. An adult traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico (where a major measles outbreak linked to Texas is happening). They were fully vaccinated but still caught the measles — but they only had mild symptoms and are doing well.

Sources: NBC, Colorado Sun

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Why are we still seeing so much norovirus? What can we do to stop it?

We’ll start with the good news: noro is finally, finally starting to decline after a truly crazy year. But it’s falling very slowly, and it was at a record high, so there’s still a LOT of norovirus out there. There are two main issues we see with noro outbreaks in the workplace:

1. Working sick. There are so many reasons that employees choose to go to work even when they have vomiting or diarrhea: financial pressures, not letting their team down, or just not realizing it’s a big deal.
2. Returning to work too soon. Noro is still incredibly infectious in the 48 hours after vomiting and diarrhea stop. Many employees don’t realize this, and try to get back to work as soon as they’re feeling up to it.

Managers can make a big impact by educating their teams about the importance of staying home when sick with noro-like symptoms - including for 2 days after those symptoms end. Here’s a flyer in both English and Spanish that you can have managers print and put up in the back to educate employees about preventing norovirus. Email us for a PDF copy if you’d prefer.

Sources: ZHH, NREVSS

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Best Read:

We’ve been getting lots of questions about whether the cuts to USAID could affect public health here in the U.S. One of the most obvious answers is the potential resurgence of polio, which is so close to being wiped out entirely, but wild-type cases keep cropping up in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Without funding to help with vaccination in remote areas, experts worry that polio will expand back into other countries, including here in the U.S., where we might see it start to spread in unvaccinated pockets. Unfortunately, it can paralyze anywhere from 1 in 2000 to 1 in 200 cases, depending on the strain.

Could polio be poised for a comeback? - NPR

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