Nationally, this avian flu sickened at least 66 people in 2024, mostly dairy farmworkers who came in contact with diseased animals and contaminated milk. Most cases have been mild, but two infections late last year were more severe and more concerning.

Since early 2024, the U.S. has logged 66 human cases of H5N1. Scientists are keeping a watchful eye on the virus’s spread as we enter a new year.

When the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) transitions its leadership with a new incoming presidential administration, a thorough dialogue concerning vaccination for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) can be expected, a former USDA Under Secretary Hunt Shipman said.

The Trump administration has ordered federal health agencies to halt external communications — including health advisories and ongoing scientific updates — until at least Feb. 1, according to multiple national media outlets and health organizations.

Changing the membership of an obscure advisory committee could have an outsize effect on Americans’ protection against disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is going dark, along with other federal agencies within the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This week, the returning Trump administration told these agencies to stop talking to the public—for how long, no one knows.

Members of two Senate committees will have a lot of ground to cover at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing to be Health and Human Services secretary (which has yet to be scheduled ). They should devote most of their time probing how his long history of anti-vaccine advocacy will impact infectious disease control.

Kennedy’s potential ascent as HHS secretary brings promise for backers of alternative-health approaches, while skeptics say those treatments are often unproven.

Dr. Robert M. Califf bid farewell to his role as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a reflective post on X, formerly

As President Donald Trump starts his second term in the White House as the 47th President of the United States of America, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate will soon hold hearings

U.S. senators who support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services will bear some responsibility for the consequences.

Trump’s decision is shortsighted and put the rest of the world is put at greater risk, say public health scholars