A 2026 budget proposal that retains the National Eye Institute as a stand-alone entity at NIH is advancing through Congress ahead of a Jan. 30 government funding deadline.
The proposed HHS budget also revives a vision injury research program defunded last year. However, it would cut nearly a third of the budget from the CDC’s Vision and Eye Health program, reducing support for vision-related public health efforts.
The proposals are part of H.R. 7148, which would fund HHS through Sept. 30 to the tune of $116.8 billion. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Jan. 22 and now heads

The FDA cleared an investigational new drug application to advance NOV05 in a phase 2 clinical trial in noninfectious anterior uveitis, according to a press release from Novaliq.
The randomized, double-masked EYETAC clinical trial will evaluate NOV05 (tacrolimus ophthalmic solution in EyeSol) in patients with noninfectious anterior uveitis (NIAU), possibly leading to the first topical steroid-free treatment for the inner eye disease. The trial will be conducted at U.S. clinical centers to investigate the safety, tolerability and potential dose-dependent clinical anti-inflammatory effect of two

Medicaid changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could lead to more than 1 million missed cancer screenings, which could cause hundreds of excess advanced cancer diagnoses and deaths.
Researchers estimated missed breast, colorectal and lung cancer screenings would result in more than 2,000 undetected malignancies within the first 2 years of the law going into effect.
“The frustration for me personally is just so, so large,” Adrian Diaz, MD, MPH, general surgical oncology fellow at University of Chicago, told Healio. “Every week we hear about new chemotherapies, new immunotherapies and

Ethiopia has declared the end of its first outbreak of Marburg virus, health officials announced Monday.
Since Nov. 14 when the outbreak was declared, a total of 14 cases and nine deaths were reported. According to WHO, three of those cases occurred among health workers, two of whom died.
The outbreak was declared after 42 days with no new cases — or the maximum length of two incubation periods.
Unlike Ebola, there are no approved vaccines for Marburg virus or approved therapeutics to treat it, although several vaccine candidates have reached human trials.
In all, 857 contacts of cases were

Correcting sodium faster in hospitalized adults with severe hyponatremia was tied to a lower risk for death or delayed neurologic complications, a new analysis indicated.
Such findings suggest that current treatment guidelines for severe hyponatremia “should be reexamined,” researchers wrote in Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to Dustin G. Mark, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente, and colleagues, current guidance recommends “slow and controlled correction ... to avoid potentially devastating neurologic damage from osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS, formerly termed

Sunshine Eye & Retina, formerly known as Telling It Like It Is, will be held from March 26 to 29 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
Hosted by Healio LIVE, the meeting will feature new events such as the Corneal Health Roundtable, the Retina Case Conference Session and the Industry Innovations Summit, the latter of which will be hosted by Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, Rishi P. Singh, MD, FASRS, and Priya S. Vakharia, MD. Additionally, Jorge A. Fortun, MD, will serve as the program chair for Retina.
“Healio is proud to be the exclusive media partner of Sunshine Eye & Retina,” Stacey L. Adams,

Dollar store products carry a high allergen burden for patients with limited financial resources who are practicing allergen avoidance for contact dermatitis, according to a study.
Allergen avoidance is the gold standard of managing allergic contact dermatitis — a condition that affects an estimated 20.1% of the general population, Sarah Karels, BS, a student at the University of Minnesota Medical School, told Healio. However, the products needed for allergen avoidance are often inaccessible to patients with financial constraints, according to Karels.
“Dollar stores are a primary source of

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — The utilization of silk fibroin wound dressing may reduce wound care complications in total joint arthroplasty, according to data presented at Orthopedics Today Hawaii.
“It is a mesh that goes on the incision after the operation,” Ugo N. Ihekweazu, MD, FAAOS, FAAHKS, joint replacement surgeon with the Fondren Orthopedic Group at Texas Orthopedic Hospital in Houston, Texas, told Healio. “There are no extra glues, no extra things that you have to put on top of it. Patients can keep it on for a few weeks after surgery.”
In his presentation,

A once-weekly injectable GIP/GLP-1 dual agonist conferred up to 22.5% weight loss at 48 weeks for adults with overweight or obesity, according to topline results from a phase 2 trial.
CT-388 (Roche) is an investigational incretin-based medication being developed for the treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and obesity-related comorbidities. In a phase 2, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial, 469 adults with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related comorbidity and without type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to one of five CT-388 dosing cohorts or placebo for 48

Reducing daily salt intake via manufacturing restrictions could significantly improve population-level blood pressure, cardiovascular risk and national health care cost burden, researchers reported.
Nationwide initiatives to reduce sodium content in food products could confer large population-level health benefits, so long as industry partners adhere to agreed-upon sodium targets over time, data show.
The results of two modeling studies evaluating the impact of dietary sodium reduction strategies on population-level BP in the U.K. and France were published in Hypertension.
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