CDC

The CDC has already changed some vaccine guidelines, and the FDA may change others, which could throw insurance coverage into question and lead to fewer people getting shots.

The last new Kansas measles cases were reported during the week of July 6. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,356 confirmed cases of measles as of last week.

Staff at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment are concerned about plans to create a registry of Americans with autism. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared a “massive testing and research effort” to determine a “root cause” of the disorder.

Western Kansas is the place for a quiet, rural lifestyle. But with that comes shortages when you need to see a doctor. Many will drive an hour or more to receive quality health care. But some of the problems may not be easily fixed.

Officials say an unvaccinated child in Sedgwick County has tested positive for measles.

Dozens of people in the St. Louis region became sick after eating at catered events late last year. Lawsuits seek to tie the poisoning to a national vegetable company.

Staff and observers worry that the agency may not be prepared for emerging threats including bird flu and insect-borne diseases. Two fired CDC workers had been deployed to Kansas City to help work on a tuberculosis outbreak.

The agency tested blood from health workers who had been exposed to a person with H5N1 bird flu and later developed flu-like symptoms, raising concerns of human transmission.

A routine flu screening in late summer found the H5N1 virus in a Missouri patient. Unlike the other reported cases of avian flu, this person did not report being in recent contact with animals.

So far, there have been 14 human cases of bird flu this year. All the patients — except the one from Missouri — had been linked to sick dairy cows or poultry.

The USDA has confirmed 126 cases of bird flu in dairy cattle herds in a dozen states, and three dairy farmworkers have contracted the disease this year. Now Kansas is one of four states participating in a pilot program to test bulk milk tanks on dairy farms.

Wastewater tests are designed to provide an early warning system so that public health officials can ward off outbreaks.