The Food and Drug Administration announced on Wednesday that it's investigating yet another outbreak of Cyclospora, the unicellular foodborne parasite behind a nationwide surge in explosive watery diarrhea illnesses. The FDA said 72 cases have been identified in this outbreak, but the agency provided no details on the situation.

This announcement marks the sixth Cyclospora outbreak investigation the FDA has opened this year. Overall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gotten reports of more than 11,500 cases (including 4,173 confirmed and over 7,400 probable) from 41 states. Among the cases, there have been 308 hospitalizations and no deaths.

This year's tally so far—just in July—greatly exceeds the normal number of cases the US sees in a whole year. In recent years, the US has reported between 2,000 and 5,000 cases in a year, according to CDC data. With a new outbreak announced, the tally of cases is likely to continue climbing. Nevertheless, when asked about the national surge in cases earlier this week, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the situation was "under control."

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On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the startling announcement that the US military would begin requiring all active duty and reserve personnel aged 30 and older to undergo mandatory screening for testosterone deficiency. The screenings will take place during yearly health assessments. Those under age 30 can also get screened on request.

In a short video posted on social media, Hegseth explained to the military community that the screenings and possible subsequent treatments are intended to "optimize your performance, your resilience, and your long-term health." While saying that the initiative wasn't about "artificial enhancement" and that members could decline treatment, Hegseth claimed that the testing and potential treatment was for "restoring and optimizing" capabilities, protecting "longevity," and "ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight."

But will testosterone screening and treatment actually "optimize" our "warfighters"? Will it help most of them live longer? Should everyone else get screened and treated, too?

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Federal officials on Friday announced that shredded iceberg lettuce imported from Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants in five states is a source of Cyclospora, the foodborne parasite causing the nationwide surge in cases of explosive, watery diarrhea. The five states are Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.

A traceback investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration identified a single supplier in Mexico as the source of iceberg lettuce for Taco Bell restaurants where sick people reported eating. While federal authorities did not name the supplier, sources told the Washington Post that it is Taylor Farms.

Taylor Farms was also implicated in a 2024 multi-state E. coli outbreak linked to contaminated onions served at McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants. At the time, FDA inspectors found multiple violations at a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado.

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Two nominees for high-profile health roles in the Trump administration faced scrutiny from the Senate health committee Wednesday—and both crashed and burned in their own special ways.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) scrutinized Erica Schwartz, the nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Sean Kaufman, up for the role of assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

Schwartz's assignment

Public health experts were "cautiously optimistic" about Schwartz's nomination. She is well-respected and holds views in line with evidence-based medicine, including being supportive of vaccinations—in contrast to anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she will serve under. She is also highly qualified for the role, with a medical degree, a master's degree in public health, and a law degree. She's had a long career as a Navy Officer and previously held the roles of chief medical officer for the US Coast Guard and deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration.

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The Trump administration on Monday barred US citizens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from returning home amid an Ebola outbreak that continues to outpace response efforts.

Reuters first reported late Monday that Americans currently in the DRC or those who have recently traveled to the Ebola-stricken country have been put on a "do-not-board" list. They cannot travel back to the US until they have spent 21 days in a third country. The order, taken under a transportation authority known as Title 49, was independently confirmed by Politico on Tuesday.

Both outlets noted that roughly two dozen Americans who had been set to board flights home on Tuesday have already been blocked by the new rule. It remains unclear if the bar also applies to government workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has at least two dozen employees working in the DRC.

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Lettuce and salad greens have become the prime suspects in an explosive outbreak of the diarrheal parasite Cyclospora, which is surging nationwide but erupting to extraordinary heights in Michigan.

In recent years, Michigan has typically reported around 50 cases of cyclosporiasis, which causes urgent bouts of watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea. But, this year, as of July 14, the state has reported 3,309 cases of the food-borne pathogen. Of those 44 have been hospitalized.

Based on interviews with more than 1,000 people sickened in Michigan, the latest data is pointing to leafy greens as the source, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).

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In an extremely odd case, a single 79-year-old patient was granted early access to Eli Lilly's powerful, still-experimental obesity drug retatrutide through the Food and Drug Administration's "compassionate use" program—raising immediate questions if that sole patient is President Donald Trump, according to a report by Stat News.

Lilly's retatrutide is a highly anticipated next-generation obesity drug that targets GIP and glucagon hormones in addition to GLP-1. It is currently in late-stage trials to treat obesity, diabetes, sleep apnea, and other conditions. Data from a Phase 3 trial that Lilly released in May indicates that patients with obesity (but without diabetes) who took the drug for 80 weeks lost 28 percent of their weight, an amount comparable to bariatric surgery.

Millions of Americans with obesity are eager to get the drug, with options being limited so far to enrolling in a clinical trial or trying to obtain it by dodgy methods.

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For our weary eyeballs, strained and tired from long periods locked onto screens, rest and relaxation can do wonders. But a man in Scotland came up with an eye-popping plan to try to pamper his pooped peepers.

Ophthalmologists discovered it when the man, who was in his 20s, appeared at an eye treatment center in Edinburgh. He told them he had noticed increasing floaters and flashing lights in his right eye over the previous six days. According to a BMJ Case Report, the man said he hadn't had any eye or head injuries before the vision problems began, and that his family didn't have a history of eye disorders that might explain them. Besides having mild near-sightedness and needing glasses, he usually didn't have any problems with his eyes, he said.

When the doctors—Niamh O’Connell ‍‍and Ashraf Khan—took a close look, they were surprised to find that both of his eyes were in terrible shape. In his right eye, he had multiple retinal tears, widespread retinal bruising, and a condition called retinal dialysis—a retinal break at a junction in the front of the eye—that is usually seen after a significant eye injury. In his left eye, he had more widespread bruising and six full-thickness rips in his retina.

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Independent advisors for the Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted 9–0 in support of approving Moderna's seasonal mRNA flu vaccine, which a Trump appointee at the agency initially tried to block from even being reviewed.

In an all-day meeting, members of the FDA's advisory committee—known as VRBPAC for Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee—pored over data and presentations on the vaccine, which is dubbed mRNA-1010 and branded as mFlusiva. The presentations included a review from FDA scientists, which was supportive of the vaccine.

Data from a Phase 3 trial including over 40,000 adults age 50 and older found the mRNA vaccine was around 27 percent more effective against seasonal flu than a standard flu shot. A smaller Phase 3 trial, involving data from nearly 3,000 people age 65 years and older, showed the shot produces stronger immune responses than a high-dose flu vaccine, which is recommended for this age group. The safety profile of the vaccine was also generally good.

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The Food and Drug Administration this week cleared a second carcass-feasting fly species for use in maggot wound therapy, according to an announcement from Cuprina Holdings, a Singapore-based company that has dubbed its new therapeutic larvae MediFly Maggots.

With the clearance, Cuprina appears to be the only company to have FDA clearance to sell two species of fly larvae—and it's abuzz with the potential to dominate the global maggot market.

The new species is Lucilia cuprina, or Australian sheep blowfly. It's a close relative of Lucilia sericata, or the common green bottle fly, which is the fly species most often used for wound therapy, often called biosurgery or maggot debridement therapy (MDT). L. sericata is the only other fly with FDA clearance, which the agency first granted in 2004 to Ronald Sherman, who is now Cuprina’s Medical and Scientific Director.

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A gene therapy for Huntington's disease has a new path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration after the ouster of several Trump officials, particularly Vinay Prasad, who rejected the therapy in a shocking move one former FDA official called "truly evil."

Huntington's disease is an inherited condition that typically strikes in middle age and causes nerve cells in the brain to gradually break down. There are currently no treatments for the disease, and many afflicted die in their 50s and 60s.

Gene therapy company UniQure developed a one-time treatment, AMT-130, that aims to lower brain levels of the mutant protein behind the disease, called huntingtin. Data from a small, early trial suggested the drug could slow the progression of the disease up to 75 percent, and patients and advocates have closely watched the drug's development in hopeful anticipation.

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