A new study in BMJ Global Health across 13 middle- and high-income countries reveals that 25% of patients reported symptoms of long COVID after symptomatic COVID-19, and long COVID is significantly more prevalent in participants from less wealthy nations and in patients of Arab or North African ethnicity. [CIDRAP - Univ. of MN]

A second study published in BMC Public Health showed that, among 3,693 COVID-19 patients in China, 30.2% reported at least one persistent long-COVID symptom, and 10.7% noted symptoms affecting daily life.

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The CDC's vaccine advisors are considering options that would narrow the recommendations for the fall COVID vaccine to only include groups at higher risk for severe illness. [ MedScape] 

The news came at a Tuesday meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the first of a 2-day session that was originally scheduled for February but abruptly postponed by HHS.

Seasonal COVID shots are currently recommended for everyone 6 months and older, but CDC's Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, MD, MPH, presented findings from a recent poll of the ACIP COVID-19 Work Group showing that 76% of its members supported a non-universal (risk-based) recommendation for the 2025-2026 respiratory virus season.

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Black and Hispanic people paid more in out-of-pocket costs for maternal care than Asian and white people with the same commercial insurance, a new study published in JAMA Health Forum found. [Axios & JAMA Health Forum]

Why it matters: Black mothers in the U.S. face a pregnancy-related death rate that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women is similar to that of white mothers but has surged in recent years.

• The cost burdens of maternity care may exacerbate those significant racial disparities, the researchers say.

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Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined nearly two dozen colleagues on Monday to urge the federal government to reverse several proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace. [Health News Illinois]

In their letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the 22 attorneys general said the changes could cause up to two million Americans to lose health insurance coverage for the coming plan year.

The proposed rules require all exchanges, whether state-based or federally-facilitated, to have a 45-day open enrollment period that closes on December 15. The federal government also seeks to eliminate a special enrollment period for low-income individuals.

Another proposal would allow health insurance plans to deny enrollment to anyone who has missed a premium payment once, regardless of when the missed payment occurred. 

The federal government also plans to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care as an essential health benefit.

The attorneys general argued the rules would create “new hurdles that will significantly restrict eligibility, diminish enrollment, and increase consumers’ health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs.”

“These proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act are unnecessary and disturbing,” Raoul said in a statement. “Everyone in this country deserves access to lifesaving health services and these changes could cause hundreds of thousands of Americans to be uninsured.”

Illinois will launch a state-based exchange later this year.

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Federal budget cuts, increasing burnout among dentists and the potential impact of tariffs are three of the challenges that dentists, DSO executives and dental practices have unexpectedly come up against so far in 2025. [ Becker's Dental & DSO Review]

These seven dental leaders recently connected with Becker’s to share the obstacles facing the dental industry that were not necessarily predicted to arise in 2025.

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Mark Heyrman spent more than four decades teaching about the mental health system as a University of Chicago Law School professor. He says the biggest problem he sees is this: No single entity in Illinois coordinates care. [ Chicago Sun-Times]

The Chicago Sun-Times, as part of an investigation into the circumstances behind random attacks downtown involving suspects with histories of severe mental illness, asked Heyrman why these people seem to have fallen through Illinois’ safety net of treatment.

“If you failed in the previous discharge plan, we should say, ‘Why did you fail?’ And usually it’s not ‘you failed,’ but ‘we failed you, we didn’t give you enough services,’ ” says Heyrman, a public policy committee member with the organization Mental Health America who’s retired from the U. of C.

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Fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid driving the nation’s high drug overdose rates, is also caught up in another increasingly serious problem: misinformation. [KFF Health News]

False and misleading narratives on social media, in news reports, and even in popular television dramas suggesting people can overdose from touching fentanyl — rather than ingesting it — are now informing policy and spending decisions.

In an episode of the CBS cop drama “Blue Bloods,” for instance, Detective Maria Baez becomes comatose after accidentally touching powdered fentanyl. In another drama, “S.W.A.T.,” Sgt. Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson warns his co-workers: “You touch the pure stuff without wearing gloves, say good night.”

While fentanyl-related deaths have drastically risen over the past decade, no evidence suggests any resulted from incidentally touching or inhaling it, and little to no evidence that any resulted from consuming it in marijuana products. (Recent data indicates that fentanyl-related deaths have begun to drop.)

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Celebrating 110 years ! National Public Health Week. Four actions (4) you can take to make National Public Health Week meaningful this year:

1) Become a Fellow of IOMC or recommend a Nominee here.

2) Register for the Maternal & Child Health Symposium on April 22, 2025 here.

3) Register for the 110th Anniversary - 2025 Leadership Awards & Annual Meeting on June 26, 2025 here.

4) Support IOMC's mission - Become an Advocate or Sponsor now

Celebrating success and moving forward to advance health equity by reducing healthcare disparities- 110 years.

Questions? - We are here to help,contactus@iomc.org.

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The rising rates of diabetes, obesity, and other health conditions make people more vulnerable to invasive strep, which can trigger flesh-eating disease and be life-threatening. Other news is on toxic metals left in the body after MRI scans, how marathon running can damage the brain, and more. [KFF Health News]

NBC News: Invasive Strep Infections Have More Than Doubled In The U.S., CDC Study FindsSevere, possibly life-threatening strep infections are rising in the United States. The number of invasive group A strep infections more than doubled from 2013 to 2022, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Prior to that, rates of invasive strep had been stable for 17 years. Invasive group A strep occurs when bacteria spread to areas of the body that are normally germ-free, such as the lungs or bloodstream. (Bendix, 4/7).

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Fact checked by Ros Lederman

The United States is grappling with a significant measles outbreak, with 607 confirmed cases across 21 states as of April 3, 2025. The surge has resulted in three known deaths as of April 6. At the outbreak’s epicenter in northwest Texas, cases have been rising since late January. Health officials warn the outbreak could persist for up to a year, with most infections occurring among unvaccinated children. [ Chicago Health] 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), measles cases in the first three months of 2025 more than doubled the total recorded in 2024 — 285. Public health officials emphasize that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine remains the most effective tool for preventing the disease. Yet declining vaccination rates, fueled by misinformation, continue to leave communities vulnerable.

“Across the United States, there has been a decrease in overall vaccine rates since around 2020,” says Brian Borah, MD, medical director of vaccine preventable disease surveillance for the Chicago Department of Public Health. He attributes this to public fatigue surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and the spread of misinformation and disinformation, which have become more mainstream.

Robert Murphy, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at Northwestern University, stressed how easily measles spreads and why even vaccinated individuals remain at some risk when herd immunity breaks down. “The vaccine works 97% if you take the two doses. So 3% are at risk who had the vaccine, and 100% of the people are at risk who didn’t take the vaccine,” Murphy says. “It’s so highly contagious. It’s even more contagious than Covid and avian flu.”

Texas has seen the highest number of cases, with one of the largest clusters occurring among Mennonite communities in Gaines County.

Chicago health officials remain on high alert, though as of early April, no cases have been reported in the city. Local health departments are urging residents to ensure their vaccinations are up to date, and are expanding efforts to reach communities with lower immunization rates.

“Chicago being a big hub of travel, with our airports, we are always at risk for pathogens coming into our community,” says Taylor Heald-Sargent, MD, PhD, infectious disease physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

The consequences of measles can be severe, particularly for children. “One in 20 children can develop pneumonia, and 1 out of 1,000 can experience brain infection” she says.

Murphy echoes these concerns, emphasizing that despite claims from vaccine skeptics, good nutrition alone cannot prevent the disease. “Healthy people get measles encephalitis and die,” he says.

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