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A simple strip of treated paper that can swiftly signal whether a street drug contains deadly fentanyl or other contaminants is a common overdose prevention tool, distributed widely on college campuses and at music festivals and community clinics. The federal government has championed test strips since 2021 and has paid to supply them to states, a position the Trump administration publicly embraced as recently as July. But on Friday afternoon, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sent a letter to state health departments and grant recipients across the country, saying that the government would no longer pay for the strips because they are “intended for use by people using drugs.” (Hoffman, 4/27)

Shortly before the attack, Cole Tomas Allen sent an email to his family and a former employer in which he expressed deep anger at the administration and the president, the affidavit said. Administration officials were the suspect’s “targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to a copy of the roughly 1,000-word document shared by two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to disclose the information. (Barrett, Montague and Levenson, 4/27)

Even a glance at Shy’tyra Burton’s life reveals her need for the sort of federal government assistance that helps disabled Americans stay in their homes. Born two months prematurely into a poor family in Philadelphia, unable to breathe or swallow without tubes and largely confined to medical facilities until age 4, Burton was diagnosed with a litany of developmental and intellectual disabilities that left her with an IQ below 70. She persevered and graduated from a high school special education program, then attempted community college. (Hager, 4/28)

A Connecticut Vietnam veteran and his daughter filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for denying her application for benefits, alleging it is discriminatory based on the sex of the parent. Ron and Michele Christoforo are challenging a federal statute that says children who have certain birth defects are eligible for VA benefits if their mother served during the Vietnam War between February 1961 through May 1975. (Hagen, 4/27)

Novartis’ CEO warned Tuesday that the U.S. drug pricing policy under President Donald Trump poses a “very difficult situation” and the reality will soon catch up with both drugmakers and patients. “The longer-term implications are significant,” CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC’s Carolin Roth. “The reality of MFN is going to set in in the next 18 months.” (Ohlen, 4/28)

Last week, Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) asked health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. whether he would release — by Friday — the contract of a longtime vaccine critic who was hired by the Department of Health and Human Services. “Yeah, I’m happy to,” Kennedy responded. But Friday came and went without a response from Kennedy. (Payne, 4/27)

Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a New Jersey Republican who has not cast a vote in the House in nearly two months, said on Monday that he expected to make a full recovery from what he called a “personal medical issue,” but offered no additional details about his health or when he might return to Congress. “My doctors continue to assure me that my recovery will be complete and that I will be back to the job I love very soon,” he said in his first public statement since he began missing votes in Washington last month. (Tully, 4/27)

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Monday that he will return to the upper chamber this week after taking time off for the death of his daughter, Madison. The Virginia senator wrote on the social platform X, “As we remember our incredible daughter, Maddy, my family has been deeply touched by the outpouring of support we’ve received. Thank you to everyone for your kind words.” Madison Warner, 36, died earlier this month after a decades-long battle with juvenile diabetes and other health issues. Mark Warner and his wife, Lisa Collis, wrote in a statement last Monday that they were “heartbroken beyond words” by their daughter’s passing. (Rego, 4/27)

South Carolina public health officials on Monday declared an end to the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. since 1991. On Sunday, the state marked 42 days with no new cases reported related to the outbreak. Over a six-month period starting last October, 997 people were infected with measles in South Carolina. Most of them were unvaccinated children. At least 21 people were hospitalized with measles complications. (Godoy, 4/27)

The decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending giving infants a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours after birth is likely to lead to hundreds of more infections, worse health outcomes and millions of dollars in higher costs, according to new research published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The CDC in December approved the change to longstanding practice following a vote by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisory panel. (Weixel, 4/27)

Despite bipartisan agreement on the need for testing and treatment for the life-threatening liver disease hepatitis C, potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans remain untreated or even unaware they’re infected as efforts to expand access to cures have stalled in Congress. (Hellmann, 4/27)

​It was hailed as a “triumph of 21st century medicine” — a daily pill that cures a life-threatening liver disease in a matter of weeks with minimal side effects and a success rate of more than 95 percent. But more than a decade after direct-acting antivirals to cure hepatitis C hit the market, potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans are still untreated and the U.S. is lagging behind other developed nations in eliminating the virus as a public health threat. (Hellmann, 4/27)

Late last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 34 people in 13 states have been sickened in an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul tied to backyard poultry. So far no deaths have been associated with this outbreak, but 13 people have been hospitalized. (Soucheray, 4/27)

Babies infected with the chikungunya virus during labor and delivery are at high risk of developing serious neurologic problems as newborns, as well as learning problems as they get older, according to a new study. Nearly half of newborns (48%) infected with chikungunya by their mothers develop serious neurologic problems, the study found. These include seizures; bleeding in the brain; inflammation of the brain tissue; and impairments of nerve, spinal cord, or brain function that cause problems such as weakness in one arm, facial droop, or speech difficulties. (Szabo, 4/27)

A new survey of US adults suggests that, despite the spread of conspiracy theories about vaccines in recent years, most Americans trust the work of vaccine scientists. (Dall, 4/27)

A multi-year effort to address global declines in childhood vaccination has delivered more than 100 million vaccine doses to more than 18 million children across Africa and Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today. Initiated in 2023 by the WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the “Big Catch-Up” is focused on closing the vaccine equity gap in children ages 1 to 5 in 36 countries. Of the 18.3 million who received vaccines from 2023 to 2025, 12.3 million had not yet received any vaccine, and 15 million had not received a measles vaccine, the WHO said. (Dall, 4/24)

Physicians’ medical liability insurance premiums rose for the seventh consecutive year in 2025, a first for the field since 2005, and at the second-highest rate since that same year, according to a new American Medical Association analysis. Among responses to an annual survey of leading medical liability insurers, 39.9% reported a year-to-year increase in medical liability during 2025, with 6% indicating an increase of 6% or more and 3.1% any level of decrease. Since the early 2000s, only 2024 was higher, with 49.8% of premiums rising. (Muoio, 4/27)

Health insurance CEO pay dipped slightly in 2025 as companies continued to grind their way back to peak profitability. Chief executive compensation fell at Centene, Cigna and Molina Healthcare and rose at UnitedHealth Group, Elevance Health, Aetna parent company CVS Health, Humana, Alignment Health and Oscar Health, according to regulatory filings the publicly traded companies submitted in recent weeks. (Tepper, 4/27)

Self-funded health systems have been navigating a costly GLP-1 landscape in recent years, and the issue has not seemed to lighten up — yet. Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health is one of the latest grappling with steep costs for its 65,000 employees. In an NBC News interview this month, Jefferson CEO Joseph Cacchione, MD, said the organization saved $20 million by implementing a diet-and-lifestyle program for employees, rather than immediately granting GLP-1 coverage. Ninety percent of participants are actively involved in the program. (Casolo, 4/27)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Big Companies Position Themselves For Payday From $50B Federal Rural Health Fund

Tory Starr is worried about the people who get medical care at Open Door Community Health Centers along California’s North Coast. “They’re the folks that work at restaurants. They’re the teacher’s aides,” said Starr, a registered nurse who became Open Door’s chief executive more than six years ago. Those patients, he said, are “really the heart and soul of rural America.” (Tribble, 4/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: An Urgent Care Treated Her Allergic Reaction. An ER Monitored Her — For $6,700

Silvana Toska was playing in a grass field with her daughters late last fall when she felt a sting on her ankle. The family had come to listen for barred and great horned owls as the sun set on a large park near their Davidson, North Carolina, home. It was “just like a mosquito bite, nothing major, and I just scratched it,” said Toska, a political science professor. Then she began to itch everywhere. She couldn’t see anything in the dark, so her husband shined his phone light on her.She was covered in hives. (Jones, 4/28)

Nonprofit health system boards are governing larger, more complex enterprises than ever before, but a report published April 27 by The Governance Institute — part of NRC Health — argues that governance capability has not kept pace with that reality. The report draws on survey data, public health spending figures and field experience to examine the question: Does the current governance model fit the operating reality of modern health systems? The answer, according to the report, is no, and the gap is widening. (Condon, 4/27)

Advanced practice practitioners and pharmacists are taking center stage as health systems revamp their care teams, and the strategy is paying off. The goal of the increasingly popular workforce model is to free up nurse and physician specialists for more complex cases while reducing costs and increasing access. Team-based care initiatives have helped close access gaps in rural communities where physician recruitment remains a persistent challenge. (Kacik, 4/27)

The factory that manufactured the device used during a Raytown man’s heart surgery at The University of Kansas Hospital was not the source of the deadly infection that his family alleges claimed his life, a defense witness testified at a trial on Friday. (Thomas, 4/27)

Doctors in the state of Utah are challenging an artificial intelligence-powered prescription medication refill system they say puts patient safety at risk. In January, the state inked a partnership with AI doctor startup Doctronic to test out an AI-powered system to “automate routine, guideline-based prescription renewals” for Utah residents. It marked the first test of AI as an autonomous clinical decision-maker under a regulatory suspension paradigm, as Fierce Healthcare reported in January. (Landi, 4/27)

As Google faces pressure to take greater accountability for the mental health impacts of its artificial intelligence products, the company’s clinical director Megan Jones Bell welcomed the challenge of making artificial intelligence helpful to people who come to its Gemini chatbot with a mental health crisis. (Aguilar, 4/28)

Rovex Technologies Corp. founder and CEO Dr. David Crabb has experienced hospital logistical challenges firsthand. He’s an emergency room physician by trade. This led Crabb to explore autonomous robots and how they could assist. In 2024, he started the Gainesville-based startup and began to develop Rovi – which can carry stretchers. (Connor, 4/27)

A Wyoming judge has blocked a new state law that bans abortions beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy while a lawsuit challenging the provision moves ahead. It’s the first court ruling affecting the legal status of abortion in Wyoming since the state Supreme Court struck down sweeping abortion and abortion pill bans in January, finding that the laws violated the state constitution. The new law, which would ban abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, is likely to be overturned on similar grounds, Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against it Friday. (Gruver, 4/27)

Nebraska on Friday will become the first state to enforce work, volunteer or education requirements for new Medicaid applicants, eight months before the federally mandated requirements kick in. Advocates worry that the state is launching so rapidly that key details remain unresolved and some people who are eligible for coverage will lose it. State officials say they’re prepared, training staff and sending letters, emails and texts to people who could be impacted. Health policy experts, advocates and other states will be watching closely. (Mulvihill and Beck, 4/28)

Democrats and Republicans are at odds over a consequential health care policy embedded in last year’s tax cut law. Democrats say the law’s Medicaid work requirements will create red tape that leads to people losing their coverage. Republicans say the measure encourages work. (Wilkerson, 4/28)

For 30 minutes, Brian Tracey lay naked and unable to breathe on the floor of the medical ward at the St. Johns County Detention Center, a low-roofed building south of Jacksonville, Florida. It was Dec. 15, 2023, the day Tracey was supposed to be released from jail. By the time deputies noticed him, it was too late. His girlfriend, who’d posted bond for Tracey after nine days, waited outside for him but was instead greeted by a deputy and chaplain, who told her Tracey was dead. (Manna, 4/28)

Asked by the Texas Legislature to investigate last summer’s deadly flood at Camp Mystic, Casey Garrett recounted the harrowing early-morning hours as the Guadalupe River surged through cabins and reached deadly heights. Lawmakers at the Capitol hearing sat attentive Monday as Garrett methodically offered one of the most detailed accounts to date of the horrors of July 4 at the camp. (Foxhall, 4/27)

When Halle Middleton arrived for her first day at The Hole in the Wall Gang camp in Ashford, Connecticut, she said she was excited and a little frightened. “It was my first time at sleepaway camp and my first time being away from my family for so long,” Middleton told camp supporters at the March 21 dedication of the infirmary of a new camp opening in Queenstown, Maryland. (Hille, 4/25)

The Supreme Court appeared divided on Monday during arguments in a dispute that could determine the fate of thousands of lawsuits that claim a widely used weedkiller causes cancer. The case is the latest turn in a yearslong legal battle over safety concerns with the weedkiller Roundup. Developed by Monsanto in the 1970s, the herbicide is the focus of the lawsuits, which allege that it causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. (VanSickle, 4/27)

Scientists are wary of glyphosate. MAHA loathes it. And our yearlong investigation shows California is spraying it everywhere. (Halverson, 4/27)

First-time seizures were associated with a higher risk of neurologic and non-neurologic cancers within 1 year and beyond, a study of 50,000 patients in Denmark showed. (George, 4/27)

As heart, kidney and metabolic problems progress to more advanced stages, a person's risk of developing several cancers also rises sharply, a new study finds. Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome is a disorder that occurs when heart disease, kidney problems and metabolic issues including obesity and diabetes all happen together, according to the American Heart Association. About one in three U.S. adults have at least three risk factors for CKM syndrome, the AHA says. (Kekatos and Ajumobi, 4/27)

The drugmaker Erasca said Monday that its RAS-targeting pill shrank tumors in 40% of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and 62% of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, results that the company said exceeded its expectations. (Feuerstein, 4/27)

Why are babies born young? The most natural phenomenon on earth is actually hard to explain — at least on a cellular level. Consider this problem: The components of conception are old. When a woman gets pregnant, she has been carrying her egg cells since birth. The sperm that joins with the egg to form a zygote might have been just a few months in the making, but it inherits markers of age from the man who produced it. It only follows that the zygote would also show signs of age — and at first it does. But then a mysterious metamorphosis begins: The cells of the zygote begin to reverse that damage, shaking off the metaphorical dust that the parents accumulated on their DNA. (Dominus, 4/27)

Humans have — presumably — always aspired to living longer, healthier lives. Now that might be more possible than ever before — especially if you have enough money. Think about the Fountain of Youth. Versions of the promise of a life-giving spring date to Ancient Greek philosophers, with variations through the centuries. But the basic concept was: Find the spring, drink its waters, and you’re young and spry again. Today, people seem more inclined than ever to believe there is a path to better health, increased longevity and an improved healthspan — a term from the 1980s meaning that the quality and quantity of life can more closely align. (Sullivan, 4/27)

A case study of an elderly man exposed to dense smoke from a forest fire in China revealed extensive black bronchial casts in both lungs. Bronchial casts are solid branching structures, made of mucus and other materials, that mirror the shape of the airways they block. Xiangdong Mu, MD, of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, told MedPage Today the presentation was "extremely rare," while also emphasizing the importance of properly assessing patients for such a possibility. (Firth, 4/27)

Pharma thinks it’s found the next frontier in preventing heart attacks. Novartis, Amgen and Eli Lilly are among the drugmakers betting that slashing levels of a particularly bad form of cholesterol could deliver the next blockbusters in cardiology. All three of the pharmaceutical giants are in late-stage trials to test whether drugs that cut Lp(a) can protect people from heart attacks. (Peebles, 4/27)

An oral medicine for hair loss successfully spurred hair growth in a late-stage trial, startup Veradermics announced Monday. (DeAngelis, 4/27)

The idea is straightforward: Take a blood test now, even without symptoms, and learn if you could some day develop Alzheimer’s disease. Whether you should get this test is a more complicated matter. Most Alzheimer’s blood tests work by measuring levels of amyloid or tau, proteins that build up in the brain and are thought to play key roles in the disease. Both can begin gathering in the brain decades before any symptoms appear. But it’s still an ongoing debate how well the tests can predict who will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, doctors say. (Lovelace Jr., 4/27)

Stimulant use has spiked in the post-pandemic era, particularly among young adult women. Demand for ADHD medications is surging, but the drugs may not be reaching the people who need them the most. (Owens, 4/28)

An investigational endoscopic procedure showed a trend for reducing weight rebounds after patients with obesity discontinued the GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide (Zepbound), according to preliminary results from the REMAIN-1 trial. (Bassett, 4/27)

Before the new obesity drugs came on the market, almost no one used the term food noise. Researchers studying and developing drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound analyzed doses, side effects, weight loss and improvements in conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and sleep apnea. Incessant thoughts about food and internal dialogues about what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat, how to resist eating — these were not on the research agenda. (Kolata, 4/27)

As a fledgling researcher in US, Zhang Li was struck by the efficiency of extracting human tissue in the morning and mining it for data the same afternoon. Such a streamlined process had been missing from his years of training as a bio data scientist in China. Inspired, he returned home to Beijing to join the Chinese Institute for Brain Research and launch a national database that will collect blood and DNA samples from 33,000 children to help identify patterns of brain disease and their risk factors. (Kan and Tong, 4/28)

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma could be dissolved and replaced by a company focused on the public good by the end of the week, as a massive legal settlement resolving thousands of lawsuits is set to take effect. A federal judge on Tuesday is expected to deliver a criminal sentence to the company to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice probe — a last necessary step to clear the way for the settlement. (Mulvihill, 4/28)

Doctors are fighting a trust failure that evidence alone cannot fix. (Jonathan Slater, 4/28)

The current system incentivizes employer compensation through insurance rather than cash, driving up costs. (Elizabeth J. Fowler and Michael F. Cannon, 4/27)

This month, the Trump administration announced what may be the biggest win for the Make America Healthy Again movement on an environmental issue to date. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would, for the first time, formally flag microplastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water as threats that deserve federal attention — putting them on its list of contaminants that merit study, tracking, and possible future regulation. (Tim Ryan and Justin Zorn, 4/28)

Governments, industry, and philanthropies are investing in neuroscience at an unprecedented scale, and the ambition behind this impetus is a noble one: to reduce the growing burden of brain diseases and extend healthy cognitive life. We fully support this movement’s push for “brain health” to mirror successful frameworks established for cancer and heart health that prioritize early screening and aggressive preventive treatments, making it possible to act before irreversible damage sets in. (Husseini K. Manji, Eric J. Nestler and Patrick J. Kennedy, 4/28)

Congress adopted a clear preemption law for chemicals like glyphosate. (4/27)