Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday. He faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and had been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

The measles outbreak is surging in West Texas, especially in under-vaccinated communities, but it’s not just coverage with the measles vaccine that is lagging behind. The use of other key vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule has decreased too.

“It is research that is essential, it is research that is nonpartisan, it is research that improves lives and improves communities,” said Aaron Krall, president of the UIC United Faculty union. “This is deadly serious, these are life-and-death matters.”

Reports of wild bird deaths continue to mount, and not just in Illinois. Meanwhile, a vaccine for chickens could be on the horizon.

Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — roughly one-tenth of the agency’s workforce — are being forced out under the Trump administration’s move to get rid of all probationary employees.

Wildlife professionals and advocates are grappling with an avian influenza outbreak that seems to be growing more virulent among Chicago's wild birds.

Health officials have said the person was older than 65, had underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock.

The virus is still with us, though humanity has built up immunity through vaccinations and infections. It’s less deadly than it was in the pandemic’s early days and it no longer tops the list of leading causes of death. But the virus is evolving, meaning scientists must track it closely.

While the flu poses minimal immediate risk to humans, experts warn that the virus’ rapid spread among birds and mammals could increase the likelihood of mutations, potentially creating a strain more transmissible to humans.

Forecasts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that this respiratory disease season will be similar to last year’s — which brought more than 20 hospitalizations for every 100,000 people in one week at its peak — and far worse than in pre-pandemic years.

A record share of U.S. kindergartners had an exemption for required vaccinations last school year, leaving more than 125,000 new schoolchildren without coverage for at least one state-mandated vaccine.

With more Americans using ever-stronger marijuana, a federal advisory panel is calling for a public health approach that’s a big departure from “Just Say No.”

The judge’s ruling is another striking dissent to a practice that has been hailed as one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were about 101,000 overdose deaths in the year ending in April, CDC estimates. There are still far more lives being lost now than before the pandemic – in 2019, there were about 72,000 fatal overdoses – but the latest data shows that deaths dropped a marked 10% in one year and are the lowest they’ve been since the spring of 2021.

Last month, the World Health Organization declared an mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to be a public health emergency of international concern, and the outbreak has spread to a growing number of countries in Africa.