Hospital emergency departments saw child firearm injuries nearly double during the pandemic, a new study found.

Life expectancy for New York City residents dropped by nearly five years between 2019 and 2020, and now, the health department is launching a campaign to target the contributing factors that led to the decline. 

A second case of rare, locally acquired dengue has been confirmed by California health officials in Long Beach. The report comes just over a week after a first was reported in Pasadena.

Infant mortality in the U.S. went up 3% between 2021 and 2022, according to a CDC report published Nov. 1. It's the first time the rate has gone up year over year since 2001-2002. 

The CDC has launched a federal campaign to offer hospital leaders a collection of resources to strengthen workplace policies around employee well-being and to reduce healthcare worker burnout. 

Following on the heels of the FDA's updated recall list of contaminated eye drops, the American Optometric Association issued an alert Oct. 31 warning individuals to completely halt usage of the 26 products in question.

A new omicron subvariant, HV.1, now accounts for more than a quarter of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., CDC data shows. Meanwhile, uptake of the new vaccine has been slow and new hospital admissions continue to decline. 

While some health experts suggest that the next pandemic could be between five and 10 years away, what that pandemic could be caused by and if the U.S. will be ready for it are separate questions. 

The FDA issued an alert Oct. 27 warning consumers to stop using 26 over-the-counter eye drop products because of the potential risk of eye infection that could lead to partial vision loss or blindness. 

A new COVID-19 variant, HV.1, is now dominant in the U.S., accounting for more than 25% of cases, according to the latest CDC data. 

CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, signed off on new committee recommendations for two vaccines: mpox and meningitis.

A quarter of the nation's CDC-sponsored wastewater testing sites are shut down indefinitely as the agency looks to replace the firm it has worked with on wastewater surveillance since 2020, sparking concerns among public health officials that the nation will have little insight into COVID-19's spread as colder months arrive, Politico reported Oct. 26. 

A CDC vaccine advisory group recommended the two-dose mpox vaccine for people 18 and older who are at higher risk, according to an Oct. 25 report from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices formally recommended Pfizer's meningitis vaccine Oct. 25, five days after the FDA granted it full approval.

Concerns are growing among U.S. health experts about rising cases of dengue fever, an infection caused by mosquito bites that could become endemic to some states within the next decade. 

More than 220,000 children were diagnosed with arthritis between 2017 and 2021, a CDC report published in July estimates. The majority of diagnoses were adolescents between 12 and 18 years old. 

The nation's new COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been off to a slow start, with about 12 million Americans receiving the shots since mid-September, according to an Oct. 24 report from Politico.

Officials at Henry Ford Medical Center Fairlane in Dearborn, Mich., thought they may have had faulty testing swabs for strep throat when rates were so high, but the swabs are accurate, radio station WWJ reported Oct. 23. 

In the 38 years Anthony Fauci, MD, spent as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he was often asked what his worst nightmare was. His answer remained consistent: The emergence of a new viral pathogen capable of spreading quickly and causing significant morbidity and mortality.

Although both COVID-19 cases and flu are now both low nationwide, health officials are still encouraging individuals to get vaccinated before the end of October.