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The nation’s infant mortality rate dropped last year after two years of hovering at a late-pandemic plateau. Some experts think one reason for the drop could be a vaccination campaign against RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which is a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be dangerous for infants. The infant mortality national rate dropped to about 5.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted Thursday. That’s down from about 5.6 per 1,000 live births, where it had been the previous two years. (Stobbe, 5/8)

Cancer before age 50 is rare, but increasing, in the United States and researchers want to know why. A new government study provides the most complete picture yet of early-onset cancers, finding that the largest increases are in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers. Scientists from the National Cancer Institute looked at data that included more than 2 million cancers diagnosed in people 15 to 49 years old between 2010 and 2019. Of 33 cancer types, 14 cancers had increasing rates in at least one younger age group. About 63% of the early-onset cancers were among women. (Johnson, 5/8)

University of Maryland scientists are calling for increased surveillance of avian flu in domestic cats after a global review of 20 years of published data reveals a dramatic uptick in feline infections—and the number of ways cats are being infected—after the emergence of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in other mammals. "Infections among mammalian species in frequent contact with humans should be closely monitored," the researchers wrote yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. "Domestic cats are susceptible to AIV [avian influenza virus] infection and provide a potential pathway for zoonotic spillover to humans." (Van Beusekom, 5/8)

Living in a water service area with a golf course showed higher odds of Parkinson's compared with other water service areas or having a private well, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open. (George, 5/8)

Two papers published this week in the journal Vaccine suggest outer membrane vesical (OMV)-based meningococcal B (MenB) vaccines could reduce gonorrhea incidence. The two systematic reviews and meta-analyses, one conducted by researchers from Semmelweis University in Hungary and the other by a team from the University of West Attica in Greece, looked at studies that compared the incidence of gonorrhea in those who received OMV-based MenB vaccines and either unvaccinated individuals or recipients of other meningococcal vaccines. (Dall, 5/8)