Michigan reports 6,065 cyclosporiasis cases in an unusually large summer outbreak
An interim report in NEJM Evidence links the parasitic outbreak to iceberg lettuce and one restaurant chain, with cases spread across most of the state.
Two obesity-diagnosis systems agree on advanced disease, split early
Applied to 411,000 UK Biobank adults, the Edmonton staging system and the Lancet Commission's clinical-obesity model classified severe disease alike but diverged on who counts as early-stage.
Higher pre-pregnancy weight tracks with offspring heart disease decades on
In 2.5 million Swedish births followed to adulthood, mothers' early-pregnancy obesity was linked to a stepwise rise in offspring cardiovascular disease, though sibling analyses temper the size.
Snow looked like the cause of winter hip fractures until the temperature was added
In 2,292 hip fractures across six cities in Nagano, snowfall raised the odds of admission — until the models adjusted for how cold it was, at which point the association disappeared.
In Iraq's Thi Qar province, home slaughter and tick bites drove CCHF infection
A study of 806 suspected cases found nearly a quarter were confirmed Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, all the main risk factors tied to livestock handling — as warming expands the range of the ticks that carry it.
A vaccine switch created a natural experiment on shingles shots and heart disease
Comparing US adults vaccinated just before and just after the changeover from the live to the recombinant shingles vaccine, researchers found a 9% lower cardiovascular burden over seven years.
Anaphylaxis guidelines rest on very low quality evidence, by their authors' account
Hospital admissions for food anaphylaxis in the UK rose 5.7% a year for two decades while the case fatality rate fell. The treatment recommendations have almost no randomised evidence behind them.
Anxiety cases rose 50% in three decades. The age-standardised rate did not move.
The Global Burden of Disease estimates for anxiety disorders separate two things that public debate keeps merging: how many people have it, and how likely a given person is to. Diagnosis is a third question again.
Lebanon investigated only 52% of suspected measles cases adequately, a review finds
An analysis of a decade of surveillance data shows the system leans heavily on hospitals and misses cases in the community — the weakness that lets measles circulate undetected between outbreaks.
Dementia in the Middle East and North Africa is projected to rise 367% by 2050
A review pooling prevalence across the region ties the projection to modifiable risks that are unusually common there — smoking, inactivity, diabetes — layered on rapid ageing.
What "the flu shot is 40% effective" actually measures
Three surveillance networks put 2025/26 effectiveness between 22% and 45% against a drifted H3N2 virus. The figure is a comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who all got tested.
The HPV vaccine works, and the cervical cancer data now prove it in real populations
Two national studies settle the question the trials could not: in England, cancer rates fell 87% among those vaccinated at 12-13; in Sweden, the risk was cut by nearly two-thirds.
In the most active adults, long sitting carried no measurable extra mortality risk
A harmonised meta-analysis of more than a million people found the association between sitting time and death disappeared in the most active quarter. In the least active, it did not disappear at all.
Premature ovarian insufficiency is rising in Ontario, with endometriosis the top risk
Tracking 3.6 million women over 24 years, researchers found women with endometriosis were nearly 3.5 times more likely to develop the condition before 40. Seventy percent of cases still have no identified cause.
In the county that counts heat deaths best, a statistical model found 57% more of them
Maricopa County runs some of the most detailed heat mortality surveillance in the US. A distributed lag model applied to the same five years put the toll far higher — and the gap is the method, not a scandal.
Three obesity definitions, one population: prevalence ran from 17% to 38%
A Swiss cohort was classified by WHO, NIH and EASO criteria at the same time. The share of people with obesity roughly doubled, and the overweight category shrank to fill the gap.
The hallucinogen-psychosis link mostly vanished after adjusting for prior illness
In 273,466 people with substance-related hospital admissions, psychosis was far more common after hallucinogen admissions, until adjustment for preexisting conditions erased the link.
Breast cancer is rising fastest in Korea and Japan — and slowest in Asian Americans
An age-period-cohort analysis across five registries finds annual increases of 5.3% in Korea and 3.8% in Japan, against 1.6% among Japanese Americans and flat or falling rates in US White women.
An estimated 8 million Americans used psilocybin in the past year
The first federal survey to ask about psilocybin specifically finds 2.8% past-year use, concentrated among young, white, college-educated men. People with recent depression had 37% higher odds.
An estrogen-metabolism lifestyle score tracked with lower breast and uterine cancer risk
Women whose habits aligned with a favorable estrogen-metabolism pathway had up to 61% lower endometrial cancer risk. The score explains only a tenth of the variation it predicts.
A household survey puts Gaza's violent death toll a third above the official count
The first independent population-representative mortality survey in the Gaza Strip estimates 75,200 violent deaths through early January 2025 — and finds fewer non-violent excess deaths than some models predicted.
Autism's four-to-one sex ratio may be an artefact of when girls get diagnosed
A Swedish birth cohort of 2.76 million people found the cumulative male-to-female ratio for autism incidence had fallen to 1.2 by age 20 — and projects parity by 2024.
About one in ten infection deaths worldwide may be attributable to obesity
A Lancet study across 547,000 adults and 925 infectious diseases finds obesity raises the risk of severe infection across almost every pathogen type. The global estimate rests on modelling, not on the cohorts themselves.
New ADHD prescriptions rose 157% in nine years, fastest in women aged 25 to 44
A population study covering all 15 million residents of Ontario found the rate of new ADHD medication prescriptions accelerated sharply after 2019 — and shifted decisively toward adults.
Ecuador logged 93,680 mental health hospitalisations in a decade
A national registry analysis found the highest burden among 20-to-29-year-olds and a notable rise among girls aged 10 to 19, with rates concentrated in the Sierra region.
Personality disorder is common and shortens life — and is absent from the GBD
A meta-regression across 28 countries put pooled prevalence near 4-5% and standardised mortality ratios between 1.8 and 4.7, in a condition the Global Burden of Disease study does not count.
Sleep apnea was common in a Tanzanian cohort — and HIV was not the reason
Among 1,000 adults in Mwanza, overnight oximetry found sleep apnea in 17% of people with HIV and 19% without. Excessive daytime sleepiness, oddly, was more common in those without HIV.
How researchers decide a heatwave killed people, and why the method is changing
A 55-expert consensus sets out how to attribute health outcomes to climate change. Its sharpest recommendation is against the fraction-of-attributable-risk method that many studies still use.
A global insomnia estimate built from 18 studies and 31 countries
Applying prevalence figures to UN population data yields 852 million adults with insomnia. Only 31 of 237 countries had a usable national estimate of their own.