Healthcare & Laboratory News

NBC News (7/5, Edwards) reported an increasing number of states are taking steps to make it more difficult for parents to opt out of school-mandated vaccines. In the past decade, California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York have removed religious and philosophical exemptions “in an effort to drive up vaccination rates.” Maine had one of the nation’s “highest vaccination opt-out rates in 2017, at 5.3%,” but since passing a law in 2019 eliminating exemptions, “Maine’s kindergarten MMR vaccination rate has climbed from less than 94% to nearly 98%.” While schools in Massachusetts “loosened vaccination requirement rules during the pandemic,” a bill working its way through the statehouse would remove “nonmedical exemptions...for vaccination requirements to attend public schools.”

USA Today (7/5, Loehrke) reported, “This year’s measles outbreak is the worst since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.” Data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation show there have been 1,277 confirmed cases of measles in the US as of July 5. Confirmed measles cases have been reported by 39 states and jurisdictions, with most cases reported in Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas, according to the CDC and the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. The outbreak “has led to at least 155 hospitalizations, including 431 adults and 824 children. There have been three confirmed deaths.” CNN (7/5, McPhillips) added that halfway through 2025, “the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases. Experts say this year’s cases are likely to be severely undercounted because many are going unreported.” The majority of this year’s cases “have been in Texas, with more than 750 confirmed cases associated with one outbreak that started in late January. If cases associated with that outbreak continue to accumulate through January of next year, the US could lose its measles elimination status.” Reaching this status in 2000 was “a historic public health achievement,” according to the CDC.

American Journal of Managed Care (7/3, Bonavitacola) reported that a study found that “interest in on-demand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and long-acting injectable (LAI) PrEP varied in Black sexual minority men,” with on-demand PrEP being seen as “less enticing due to men not being able to plan activity in advance that would increase their risk of HIV.” Researchers found that “76% of all participants were not interested in on-demand PrEP after being provided a quick overview of its use and dosing strategy.” In contrast, “2% of all participants were highly accepting of LAI-PrEP due to the convenience of taking the treatment and its potential to close the gap on adherence to daily oral PrEP. Fear of needles and the novelty of LAI-PrEP were some concerns that participants noted.” The researchers concluded that “programs to increase awareness and knowledge of LAI-PrEP among Black sexual minority men and health care providers that serve them are needed.” The study was published in PLOS One.

Infectious Disease Advisor (7/3, Basilio) reported a study found that “the investigational multicomponent mRNA-1083 vaccine is noninferior to coadministered seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, eliciting higher immune responses against 3 influenza strains and an acceptable safety profile in adults.” Overall, researchers observed that “the multicomponent mRNA-1083 vaccine demonstrated noninferiority vs active comparators against all vaccine-matched influenza and SARS-CoV-2 strains based on prespecified success criteria. Moreover, patients with and without high-risk comorbid conditions who received mRNA-1083 showed comparable immune responses.” They noted that among younger participants, “mRNA-1083 was superior to coadministered SD-IIV4 plus mRNA-1273 for protection against 4 influenza strains (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, B/Victoria, B/Yamagata) and SARS-CoV-2 (XBB.1.5).” The study was published in JAMA.

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KFF Health News (7/2, Reese) reports, “As summer ushers in peak mosquito season, health and vector control officials are bracing for the possibility of another year of historic rates of dengue.” Data from the CDC show that “about 3,700 new dengue infections were reported last year in the contiguous United States, up from about 2,050 in 2023.” Health officials fear that “climate change, the lack of an effective vaccine, and federal research cuts” will result in the disease becoming “endemic to a larger swath of North America.” The disease, which is spread “when people are bitten by infected Aedes mosquitoes, was not common in the contiguous United States for much of the last century. Today, most locally acquired (meaning unrelated to travel) dengue cases in the U.S. happen in Puerto Rico, which saw a sharp increase in 2024, triggering a local public health emergency.” The article adds that “dengue presents a challenge to the many primary care doctors who have never seen it.”

Cancer Therapy Advisor (7/2, Schneider) reports, “Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing after surgery can be used to predict relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Investigators “analyzed 13 studies involving 1283 patients with stage I-IV NSCLC.” The data indicated that “compared to patients who were ctDNA negative after surgery, those who were ctDNA positive had worse RFS...and OS...and this was true regardless of where they were treated, their disease stage, or the duration of follow-up.” The findings were published in Clinical Oncology.

ANCA Vasculitis News (7/2, Maia) reports a study found that “in adults with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), the amount of TWEAK protein in urine was about 50% as high when their disease was active as after six months of treatment, making it a useful biomarker for tracking disease activity.” Researchers observed that in 57% of study participants with active AAV, “the disease had affected the kidneys. At the start, all but seven had begun induction treatment – within a median of five days – to drive disease activity into remission. By six months, 55 or 74% were on maintenance treatment with azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate, or rituximab.” Researchers concluded, “Our findings indicate a role for TWEAK in AAV and suggest that [urinary TWEAK] could be a potential noninvasive biomarker.” The study was published in the Clinical Kidney Journal.