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Here’s What Happened the First Time Ebola Hit U.S. Shores
Reports about American doctors contracting or being at risk of developing Ebola hearken back to the 2014 outbreak in West Africa, when a patient fell ill on U.S. soil and ultimately sickened two healthcare workers. On Sept. 28, 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan sought care for fever, vomiting, and diarrhea at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. A Liberian citizen, he was visiting family in Texas when he became sick.
About 2 weeks later, Nina Pham, RN, a nurse who cared for Duncan, tested positive for the virus and was eventually sent to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for care.
Not long afterward, a second nurse who took care of Duncan, Amber Vinson, RN, developed the disease and was transported to Emory University in Atlanta for treatment.
Their infections marked the first known transmission of Ebola in the U.S., according to the CDC.
FDA Assembles Vaccine Experts to Update COVID-19 Formulation
The FDA will convene its vaccines advisory panel to discuss seasonal COVID-19 vaccines — a surprise move after Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. overhauled a separate vaccine committee. The FDA will convene its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss possibly updating COVID-19 vaccines to include the now-dominant XFG subvariant. The meeting will take place on Thursday, May 28.
The session will be a whole-day affair, during which the external experts will hear from the CDC and an independent working group from the World Health Organization, according to a draft agenda posted on the FDA’s website. The U.S. withdrew from the WHO in January. Vaccine developers Moderna, Sanofi and Pfizer will also be at the meeting to present updates from their respective products, per the federal documents.
The FDA’s VRBPAC has convened several times over the years — once during the second Trump administration—to evaluate strain selection and vaccine formulation. During its May 2025 meeting, the vaccines advisory committee unanimously voted to recommend monovalent COVID-19 vaccines targeting the JN.1 lineage of the virus, according to a briefing document posted Tuesday.
Experimental mRNA Vaccine Shows Promise Against Multiple Ebola Strains
Scientists from China have developed a new broad-spectrum mRNA vaccine that could provide long-term protection against the most lethal family of Ebola viruses, including the Bundibugyo strain behind the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD), is a hemorrhagic fever that can cause fever, vomiting, internal bleeding, and organ failure, and is fatal in around 50% of cases. It is caused by viruses in the genus Orthoebolavirus and is spread through direct contact with infected blood or bodily fluids.
Our weapons against the potentially deadly disease are limited. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently two licensed Ebola vaccines, but they primarily target a single Ebola species, Zaire ebolavirus. What is needed is a vaccine for multiple deadly strains.
To try and plug the gap in our Ebola defenses, researchers designed a multi-strain mRNA vaccine called [GPs+NP]@LNP, as they detail in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the same technology used in the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
Ebola Vaccine From Oxford Covid Team Nears Production for Trials
Production of an experimental Ebola vaccine from the developers of a Covid-19 shot is expected to begin soon, with animal studies underway as researchers race to bring a much-needed tool to the spiraling outbreak. Clinical trials for the shot could begin in two to three months, said Teresa Lambe, head of vaccine immunology, at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute. “We are cautiously optimistic around that timing,” she said at a briefing. Animal studies, which are required for a vaccine to be tested in humans, have begun and more will get underway soon.
The Oxford team is working to get the starting material needed to manufacture the vaccine to its partner, the Serum Institute of India, “as quickly as possible,” Lambe said. “We’re hoping to have clinical doses, if needed, within two to three months, all going well.”
There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola spreading in Democratic Republic of Congo. At least one other shot is also in development, but it’s expected to be ready for testing later than Oxford’s. The outbreak is currently spreading faster than responders can contain it, with suspected deaths climbing above 220 and treatment centers under attack.
More People Being Monitored at Home for Potential Hantavirus Exposure
States are monitoring additional people for potential hantavirus exposure, in many cases due to air travel, MedPage Today has learned. While the CDC initially reported a total of 41 people in the U.S. under monitoring, the total now stands at 59.
Here are the states where the number of people being monitored increased:
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- California: from 2 to 8
- Maryland: from 2 to 5
- North Dakota: from 5 to 7
- Virginia: from 1 to 3
- Washington: from 2 to 5
Oregon is also monitoring two people for potential hantavirus exposure. While states would not provide specific details as to why the numbers increased, health department spokespeople from California, Maryland, and Washington said the additional people under monitoring shared flights with those who may have been exposed to hantavirus aboard the cruise ship.
Eli Lilly Will Buy Three Vaccine Developers
Eli Lilly said on Tuesday that it would buy three vaccine developers in deals collectively worth up to $4 billion, a move that signals a return to an area that had not been a major focus for the company in recent years.
The three are Curevo, a Seattle-area company developing a vaccine against shingles; LimmaTech Biologics, a Swiss firm targeting staph infections; and Vaccine Company, homing in on the Epstein-Barr virus. None of the three have products on the market.
Eli Lilly last fall became health care’s first company worth $1 trillion. Flush with cash from sales of its hugely popular weight loss drug sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound, the company has been on a buying spree lately. This year it also acquired a series of small companies working in areas including cancer, narcolepsy, cell therapies and inflammation.
The vaccine industry has struggled under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has overseen a series of policy changes hostile to vaccine development. Sales of major vaccines have slumped, and smaller companies have said the political climate has made it harder for them to raise money and expand.
Is the Weight-Loss Drug Revolution Causing a Frailty Epidemic?
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Chanel Robinson achieved exactly what the gold rush of blockbuster weight-loss drugs promised: She lost nearly 100 pounds, lowered her cholesterol to normal levels and reined in her polycystic ovary syndrome. Yet, nearly three years into her journey on Mounjaro, the 30-year-old from Atlanta, Ga., is discovering the hidden costs of the slimmed-down life.
Robinson experiences muscle fatigue daily, feeling physically weak, frail and often cold. Robinson said she experiences bursts of sluggishness sporadically during the day, and has trouble with basic tasks like opening a jar. “It shouldn’t be this difficult,” she said.
GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound have been a success for public health and the pharmaceutical companies that make them.
Obesity rates are falling, the volume of food consumed in America is declining and retailers report a slump in sales of plus-size apparel. It has improved health and happiness for millions of people. But for at least some of the 13 million Americans taking them, losing muscle along with fat is an unexpected downside that isn’t broadly discussed or immediately apparent.
Warnings Issued to Alabama Doctors Against Non-FDA-Approved Peptides Amid Social Media Popularity
The Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners has issued an alert to physicians and other medical professionals across Alabama, warning them not to prescribe, dispense, or administer peptides that are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Wilson Hunter, General Counsel for the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, says patients are increasingly bringing online claims into exam rooms. “So, the patients are coming to the physician, or MP, or PA with information that they got on social media,” Hunter said. “Once again, not the best platform to get the most up to date medical science.”
He said a major concern is that some products being marketed as peptides are not regulated for human use. “When I go to a physician, or nurse practitioner, or PA… I’m trusting their medical knowledge that what they’re going to prescribe me or put in my body is safe for me,” Hunter said. “But you can’t even get to the concept of safety, when the person can’t verify what’s in the vial that they’re giving to the patient.” The board says the alert comes as public interest in peptides continues to grow, fueled in part by social media and online wellness trends.
