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Measles vaccination rates for young children may be far lower than publicly reported, a troubling development that could mean the United States is closer than expected to losing its “elimination status” for the extremely contagious disease. “We are experiencing an extremely concerning decline in measles vaccination in the very group most vulnerable to the disease,” said Benjamin Rader, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of a recent study that looked at children’s vaccination rates.  (Sudhakar, 3/27)

A measles outbreak in Kansas doubled in less than a week to 23 cases and has “a possible link” to outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico that have sickened more than 370, the state health department said Wednesday. And health officials in Ohio say a single case identified in Ashtabula County has spread to nine others. Even before these two growing clusters were reported, the number of measles cases in the U.S. had already surpassed the case count for all of 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Shastri, 3/26)

The Lubbock public health director said Wednesday local efforts to fight a measles outbreak will be affected by the federal government’s announcement that it’s pulling $11 billion in COVID-era funding for public health departments. (Langford, 3/26)

The Florida House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a proposal that could lead to more medical malpractice lawsuits, while a similar bill cleared a major hurdle in the Senate. (Saunders, 3/27)

Los Angeles County has been using potentially faulty DNA test kits in criminal investigations for months. According to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, on Wednesday, a supervisor became aware on Monday of a notice from a DNA testing kit manufacturer indicating that a specific lot of kits was prone to poor performance with the potential to cause incomplete results. The maker of those kits recommended that the department stop using the kits. (Stone, 3/26)

A federal judge on Wednesday found the extreme heat in Texas prisons is “plainly unconstitutional,” but declined to order the state to immediately start installing air conditioning, which could cost billions. The judge affirmed claims brought by advocates of people incarcerated in the state, where summer heat routinely soars above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). But they will have to continue pressing their lawsuit later in a trial. (Vertuno, 3/26)

A Michigan resident who received a transplant in December died after having been infected with rabies from the new organ, the state health department said Wednesday. The patient received the transplant at a hospital in Ohio in December, then died in January, the department said. The statement did not include information about identity of the recipient or the type of organ that was transplanted. The donor was not a resident of Michigan or Ohio, it said. (Richardson, 3/26)