In a deep red state, a public program focused on maternal and infant health has thrived for decades, and continues to win public support and federal dollars.

Project WATCH -- which stands for Working in Appalachia To Capture High-risk infants -- collects data on nearly 100% of live births in West Virginia, and has contributed to a decline in infant mortality in the state. It has also been adapted over the years to help researchers better understand evolving problems like neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

And it has managed to retain most of its federal funding, which grants $4 for every $3 invested by the state, sources told MedPage Today.

One of the reasons Project WATCH remains trusted in West Virginia is simply that it's been around for so long, said its medical director Collin John, MD, MPH, of West Virginia University in Morgantown.

Residents of the state know what the program is, even if they don't know that it receives federal funding, so it doesn't "get that government feel in it," John told MedPage Today.

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New CDC resource released today highlight effective strategies to prevent substance use among U.S. teens. ENGAGE: Evidence-Based Strategies to Prevent Youth Substance Use represents the best available information on what works to prevent youth substance use and showcases how to implement and evaluate programs.

Youth substance use is preventable. The substance use landscape is continually evolving, and prevention efforts need to keep up with these changing circumstances. ENGAGE offers state and local organizations an easily accessible resource to plan for and implement a wide range of evidence-based strategies to prevent substance use before youth reach college age. It includes six strategies - each with several different approaches, along with evidence to support each approach. [CDC]

Youth substance use is a significant public health problem. 

• Early exposure to substances during critical points in development may disrupt healthy brain development.

• In 2024, approximately 26% of 12th graders in the U.S. used illegal substances in the past year, such as cannabis, LSD and other hallucinogens, cocaine or heroin, other narcotics, amphetamines, sedatives, or tranquilizers not under a doctor’s orders. 

• Early exposure to substance use increases risk for being diagnosed with a substance use disorder (SUD); SUDs are linked to developing chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or other mental health conditions like depression.

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As clinicians, we all want the best for our patients. But when our evidence-based recommendations are thwarted by things out of our control, it can be frustrating. [MedPage Today]

In the clinic, my patients routinely ask me about ads they have seen. As an ob/gyn, this becomes particularly relevant when we discuss prenatal vitamins, because I recommend that all my pregnant patients take multivitamins with folic acid. However, what happens when a patient follows my recommendations but inadvertently buys a supplement that has ingredients that can cause harm? A bill in my home state of California, SB 646, aims to stop this from happening.

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Introduction

Child health sets the foundation of the overall health and prosperity of the nation. Healthy children are more likely to become healthy adults who lead meaningful and productive lives.¹ Recent scientific and policy statements have raised concerns that child health in the US may be declining. A 2024 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine stated that “the United States faces a major crisis with the poor and worsening health and wellbeing of children and youth.”² The Presidential Commission to Make America Healthy Again issued a May 2025 report that called out the need to better understand the root causes of the declining health of US children.^3 [JAMA]

^{Objective  To determine how US children’s health has been changing from 2007 to 2023 using multiple data collection methods and a comprehensive set of health indicators.}

^Conclusion 

^{Conclusions and Relevance  The health of US children has worsened across a wide range of health indicator domains over the past 17 years. The broad scope of this deterioration highlights the need to identify and address the root causes of this fundamental decline in the nation’s health.}

^{Full article on the study here>} 

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The common cold may help protect against COVID-19, which may partially explain why children, who are especially vulnerable to most viral respiratory infections, generally have milder SARS-CoV-2 infections than adults, National Jewish Health–led researchers write today in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Prostock-Studio / iStock

The investigators tested 10,493 repeat nasal swabs from 1,156 US children and adults in the Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 (HEROS) cohort for 21 respiratory pathogens. They also performed RNA sequencing on 147 swabs from 144 participants taken before COVID-19 infection and 391 swabs from 165 participants before and during rhinovirus infection, which frequently causes the common cold.

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Amid a slow but steady rise in COVID activity, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater detections last week rose from the low to the moderate level, with the highest levels in the West, followed by the South, where detections in Louisiana are at the very high level, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly data updates.  [KFF health News & CIDRAP]

The CDC said wastewater trends and model-based epidemic trends suggest that COVID infections are growing or likely growing in most states.

Other indicators also rose, including test positivity, which rose from 6.5% to 8.6% over the past week, with levels higher in the West and Southwest compared to the rest of the country. Meanwhile, emergency department visits for COVID are rising for all ages, with the overall level up 19% compared the previous week, with moderate and substantial increases reported for many states. Deaths declined a bit in the CDC’s most recent reporting week.

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In its new guidelines, the American Heart Association says not all ultraprocessed foods are so bad — such as whole grain breads, low-sugar yogurts, tomato sauces, and nut or bean-based spreads. The MAHA Commission report on ultraprocessed foods is due Tuesday.

CNN: Beating MAHA To The Punch, The American Heart Association Releases Its Guidelines On Ultraprocessed Food Step aside, MAHA. The country’s largest heart-health organization has just released its long-awaited guidelines for the consumption of ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs. The new scientific advisory statement from the American Heart Association comes just days before the arrival of the second “Make America Healthy Again” or MAHA Commission report, spearheaded by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (LaMotte, 8/7)

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Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., has renewed her push to ensure service members and their families can access fertility services like in vitro fertilization. [Health News Illinois]

Duckworth and colleagues recently filed legislation to expand the fertility treatments and family-building services that are covered under service members’ and veterans’ healthcare to include in vitro fertilization and adoption assistance for service members and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance. 

The plan would also give individuals the option to freeze their eggs or sperm ahead of deployment to a combat zone. 

“After all the tremendous sacrifices our brave women and men in uniform make, we should be doing everything we can to help our veterans fulfill their dreams of building a family,” Duckworth said in a statement. “I wouldn’t be a mother today without the miracle of IVF, which is one reason why I’m proud to be introducing this important bill that would help modernize our healthcare systems and expand fertility treatments so we can help ensure our servicemembers and Veterans receive the care they deserve.”

The legislation was previously included as part of Duckworth’s broader legislation to expand IVF services, which Republican colleagues previously rejected.

The filing comes amid reports that the White House does not plan to require health insurers to provide coverage for in vitro fertilization services, even though the idea was one of President Donald Trump’s key campaign pledges.

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The Trump administration blocked funding for a number of CDC public health programs, the Wall Street Journal reported. [MEDPAGE TODAY]

Programs that would not be fully funded under the freeze include those focused on youth violence prevention, firearm injury prevention research, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and tobacco use, the outlet reported.

The move is indicative of a "push by the White House to withhold money already approved by Congress," according to the report.

Information on the frozen funds was included by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a footnote on an appropriations memo, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.

The amount of frozen funds could be as high as $200 million, or potentially more than $300 million, according to two different people familiar with the matter.

The blocked funding is distinct from recent reports of funds being withheld from a CDC overdose prevention program, according to NPR. Funding for that program was reportedly reinstated.

President Donald Trump was joined by professional athletes on Thursday as he signed an executive order that will expand on his council on sports, fitness and nutrition, including by reviving the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools. [CNN]

The event, which featured golfer Bryson DeChambeau, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, among others, comes as the US prepares to host the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics — all of which are major feathers in Trump’s cap for his second term.

The president, who often boasts that he gets to oversee the milestone sporting events, has been heavily invested in making them a success. He has also used his bully pulpit to reshape cultural issues, many of which have been tied directly to sports, including new policies on transgender athletes and threatening the Washington Commanders to change its name back to the “Redskins” or potentially face restrictions on a major stadium deal.

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