With hospitals reporting packed emergency rooms and halted surgeries as parts of the nation swelter, the HHS launched the first national dashboard to track heat-related illnesses Aug. 9. 

Some experts are concerned that new COVID-19 shots that would be more effective at preventing severe disease from current circulating strains than the existing bivalent booster won't be ready soon enough. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are ticking up again, albeit from record lows. There were 9,056 new admissions for the week ending July 29, marking a 12.5 percent jump from the previous week. 

Fungal infections have been on the rise since COVID-19's inception, but public health tracking tools, tests, and data systems in the U.S. are not quite where they need to be yet, Tom Chiller, MD, CDC's head of mycotic diseases, told Becker's. 

A man bitten by a stray cat in the U.K. developed an infection from a bacterial species that wasn't present in any DNA database, researchers reported in a case study published in the August edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases. 

A variant the World Health Organization and CDC began tracking in mid-July, XBB-offshoot EG.5, became the dominant COVID-19 variant in the first week of August, according to CDC data.

New COVID-19 shots targeting omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 are slated to be ready in September. That strain only accounts for about 10 percent of U.S. cases, though experts say other circulating strains are similar enough to XBB.1.5 that the new shots should still be effective. 

Health officials in Missouri are warning the public about a risk of possible measles exposure at three different locations — including at Barnes Jewish Hospital, an urgent care clinic and a fitness center in the greater St. Louis region in late July, according to an Aug. 7 news release. 

A new TikTok trend that promotes the use of castor oil for improved eyesight and reduced wrinkles has ophthalmologists concerned, NBC News reported Aug. 5.

Two residents in Michigan have contracted swine flu viruses, marking the first human cases in 2023, the CDC confirmed Aug. 4. 

Every year in the U.S., there may be more than 500,000 cases of fungal infections caused by Coccidioides — more than three times the amount of previous estimates, according to CDC data cited by CBS News in an Aug. 4 report. 

The most recent CDC data continues to show a rise in COVID-19's presence across multiple national indicators including hospital admissions, emergency department visits, test positivity, and wastewater levels, but deaths due to the virus remain largely unchanged at 1 percent.

Seventeen states have reported cases of West Nile virus since 2023 began, according to CDC data. And while these have frequently occurred in the middle of the U.S. as well as in southern states, now, some experts are saying West Coast clinicians should prepare, CNN reported Aug. 3.

Inching closer to respiratory virus season, physicians are starting to get a clearer picture of what to prepare for this fall — which will mark the first virus season where COVID-19 has not been a public health emergency. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by 12.1 percent week over week per the most recent CDC data, which was last updated July 31.

Health officials have recently started tracking EG.5, an omicron relative that accounts for an estimated 11.4 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases. 

Almost 6 percent of U.S. adults — about to 20.1 million people —  are experiencing long COVID, according to the CDC's most recent data. 

Access to maternity care in the U.S. is dwindling for millions of women, according to a newly released March of Dimes report. 

Health experts anticipate confusion over risk levels, COVID-19 fatigue and a number of other factors to hinder uptake of new vaccines this fall. Something that could help? Health officials and providers sharing the message that COVID-19 shots, like the flu shot, are likely to become routine, CNBC reported July 31. 

Cases of leprosy are increasing in Central Florida, fueling a growing body of evidence that the condition has become endemic in the Southeastern U.S., according to the CDC.