Skip to Content

CNN – Health

Hawaii governor: An urgent call to action to protect America’s children from measles

Opinion by Dr. Josh Green (CNN) — America’s children are in danger. Measles outbreaks are spreading in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and beyond, threatening lives, overwhelming health-care resources and exposing vulnerable communities. Texas alone has confirmed more than 400 measles cases and the death of the first child from measles in our country in more

Continue Reading

Dramatic HHS cuts leave US ‘weaker as a nation,’ says top FDA vaccine official forced out under Kennedy

By Katherine Dillinger, CNN (CNN) — Sweeping job cuts and reorganizations taking place at the US Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leave the United States “weaker as a nation,” Dr. Peter Marks told CNN on Friday. Marks, the former director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center

Continue Reading

A city responding to a lead crisis in schools reached out to the CDC for help. The agency’s lead experts were just fired

By Brenda Goodman, CNN (CNN) — A few months ago, a test revealed that a child in Milwaukee had elevated levels of lead in their blood. The results triggered an investigation into the family’s home, then the child’s school and then more aging school buildings still riddled with lead paint. With 68,000 students in the

Continue Reading

Exposure to phthalates during pregnancy can affect a newborn’s brain development, study finds

By Kristen Rogers, CNN (CNN) — Phthalates — the synthetic chemicals used in everyday products for food packaging, personal care, toys and more — have been linked to abnormal neurological development in infants. Now, scientists may have discovered a biological pathway for how this phenomenon could occur. Researchers found that in utero exposure to phthalates

Continue Reading

‘The lives of individuals in the US are at stake,’ researchers warn after HHS cancels hundreds of vaccine grants

By Brenda Goodman, CNN (CNN) — As preventable infections like measles threaten to become endemic again in the US, researchers whose government grants were recently terminated are warning about the consequences of throttling studies looking at ways to increase vaccination. Among more than 1,600 grant cancellations announced by the US Department of Health and Human

Continue Reading

Tuberculosis is the world’s top infectious killer. Aid groups say Trump’s funding freezes will cause more deaths

By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — When health workers stopped visiting her home in Pakistan to administer tuberculosis medication, Ratna Jamni began dragging herself to a clinic “step by painful step, when even standing feels impossible.” The 40-year-old had been receiving treatment and mental health support for months at home after contracting drug-resistant TB, but

Continue Reading

Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now

By Kristen Rogers, CNN (CNN) — What West Virginia lawmaker Adam Burkhammer “once thought was a conspiracy theory became reality” to him recently. The Republican state delegate had been witnessing “the adverse effects that synthetic dyes were having on my son’s behavior, and the improvement of focus and attention” when he removed foods with the

Continue Reading

Top vaccine official forced out of FDA

By Nora Gaul, John Bonifield and Meg Tirrell, CNN (CNN) — The head of the US Food and Drug Administration department responsible for assuring the safety and effectiveness of vaccines has resigned, according to a resignation letter obtained by CNN. Dr. Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, was given

Continue Reading

Some measles patients in West Texas show signs of vitamin A toxicity, doctors say, raising concerns about misinformation

By Neha Mukherjee, CNN (CNN) — Doctors treating people hospitalized as part of a measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico have also found themselves facing another problem: vitamin A toxicity. At Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, near the outbreak’s epicenter, several patients have been found to have abnormal liver function on routine lab tests,

Continue Reading

Trump administration pulls back billions in Covid-era funding for state, local health departments

By Jacqueline Howard, Brenda Goodman, Neha Mukherjee and Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — State and local public health departments are bracing themselves as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulls back about $11.4 billion in grants that were allocated to state and community health departments during the Covid-19 pandemic response. “The COVID-19 pandemic

Continue Reading

‘People will die based on these decisions’: Trump administration cuts funding for dozens of HIV studies

By Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — At the end of last week, Dr. Colleen Kelley said she was getting texts about every 10 minutes from colleagues whose HIV-related research grants were being terminated by the federal government. “This is just pure chaos and insanity,” said Kelley, chair of the HIV Medicine Association. The National Institutes

Continue Reading

‘Measles is only a plane flight away’: As outbreak surges, experts warn against global health funding cuts

By Neha Mukherjee, CNN (CNN) — After returning home from a trip abroad last week, an infant in Houston was hospitalized with measles. In Lamoille County, Vermont, this month, a child became sick with measles after returning from foreign travel. The same thing happened to an adult in Oakland County, Michigan, whose vaccination status was

Continue Reading

Gender-affirming hormone therapy is linked to lower depression in transgender adults, study shows

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN (CNN) — Gender-affirming hormone therapy may help patients with their mental health as well as their physical bodies, according to a new study. “Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse patients prescribed hormones had a 15% lower risk of moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms over 4 years of follow-up compared with those not prescribed hormones,”

Continue Reading

After canceling meeting of independent advisers, FDA issues 2025-26 flu vaccine recommendations

By Katherine Dillinger and Brenda Goodman, CNN (CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued recommendations for the composition of influenza shots for the upcoming respiratory virus season, but without input from its independent vaccine advisers. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee had been scheduled to meet Thursday to

Continue Reading

How to protect your teen from dating violence

By Julianna Bragg, CNN (CNN) — A new Netflix docuseries reveals never-before-seen details about the story of travel vlogger Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman killed by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, during a cross-country road trip in 2021. Like many domestic violence cases, the story depicted in “American Murder: Gabby Petito” sparked outrage over the lack

Continue Reading