After a record-setting year for measles in 2025, transmission of the virus has not slowed.
Just 3 months into 2026, there were 1,575 confirmed measles cases in 31 states — more than half of the total for all of 2025, when the United States set a 33-year high with 2,285 cases.
“It is likely that we will surpass last year’s case count because we have a growing number of unvaccinated communities,” Amira A. Roess, PhD, MPH, professor of global health and epidemiology at the George Mason University College of Public Health, told Healio | Infectious Disease News.
Overall, 92% of measles cases this

The discontinuation of three-digit score reporting for the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 has pushed dermatology residency program directors to place greater emphasis on other objective measures, according to a study.
Since January 2022, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 — the first of three exams to test a medical student’s comprehension — transitioned from reporting a three-digit score to a pass/fail exam.
“This change was made to allow medical schools to focus on educating physicians rather than teaching to standardized examinations, allowing

NEW ORLEANS — Automated physician alerts improved the rate of referral for prompt intervention when valvular heart disease was detected on echocardiography, a speaker reported.
Automated alerts via a natural language processing model (Tempus Next, Tempus AI) could improve care of aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation and reduce disparities in referral rates for repair or replacement, according to the results of the multicenter, cluster-randomized, superiority ALERT clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session and simultaneously published in the Journal

Adults with type 2 diabetes may have greater improvements in beta-cell function eating a ketogenic diet compared with a low-fat diet, according to findings published in Journal of the Endocrine Society.
Using proinsulin to C-peptide ratio to assess beta-cell function for adults with type 2 diabetes, researchers found those randomly assigned to a ketogenic diet for 12 weeks had a larger decrease in the biomarker compared with those randomly assigned to a low-fat diet.
“Treatment of type 2 diabetes should be individualized, and input from patients should be taken into account by health care

A jail-based strategy that includes hepatitis C virus testing, treatment and post-release navigation services could reduce incidence and related deaths among people who inject drugs, results of a simulation study showed.
“People cycling through jails have substantially higher HCV prevalence than the general population, and even brief contact with the health system in this setting can be leveraged to expand testing, initiate treatment and connect individuals to care after release,” Lin Zhu, MBBS, PhD, assistant professor of health services research and policy at University of Miami Miller

Children of mothers exposed to very high vs. background concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances prenatally had elevated asthma incidence, according to results published in PLoS Medicine.
“It’s important to keep in mind that we only saw an association at very high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure,” Annelise J. Blomberg, ScD, associate researcher at Lund University, told Healio. “Because of this, our results are not directly applicable to a general population where exposure levels are much, much lower.
“However, our results may be relevant for clinicians

CHICAGO — Elevated ozone levels during the 2023 Canadian wildfires were significantly linked to higher stroke incidence, according to data presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.
“We found that, on days with heavier wildfire smoke and worse air quality, more people had strokes, and those strokes were often more serious,” Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, DCM, FACP, FHM, FEFIM, executive director of climate health and director of medical humanities at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, told Healio regarding her presentation.
“The findings suggest that wildfire smoke is a real

Physicians have more than four times greater odds of experiencing moral distress than the general U.S. working population.
An AMA survey of more than 9,000 individuals showed nearly 40% of physicians report high levels of moral distress, yet most U.S. adults experience none at their occupation.
Physicians who reported high levels of moral distress had a significantly higher likelihood of burnout symptoms and intent to leave the profession.
“Physicians want to do what they believe is right for patients. That’s what we want all health care professionals to do, prioritize patient care,” Michael A.

In this Healio video exclusive, Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, chief medical editor of Healio Rheumatology, highlights the latest cover story on the current state, and future, of therapeutic drug monitoring within the specialty.
“In rheumatology, we are behind many other professions [in therapeutic drug monitoring],” he said. “We are making some progress in hydroxychloroquine, but there are many other drugs to cover.”
Calabrese additionally noted a feature story on the potential implications of capping education loans for medical students and those entering advanced practice