Latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention News
US suicides held steady in 2023 — at a very high level
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation's history, preliminary data suggests. A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number...
US health authorities need to play a larger role in cannabis policy, a new report says
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.” Thursday's report proposes a health-focused strategy with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention taking a...
WHO and Africa CDC launch a response plan to the mpox outbreak
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization launched on Friday a continent-wide response plan to the outbreak of mpox, three weeks after WHO declared outbreaks in 12 African countries a global emergency. The estimated...
Africa has almost 4,000 new mpox cases in a week, but the wait for vaccines continues
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Africa is seeing a rapid increase in mpox cases with nearly 4,000 reported in the past week, the continent's public health body said Tuesday as it repeated a plea for long-awaited vaccines whose arrival this week in the most affected country, Congo, has been delayed. ...
Schumer says he will work to block any effort in the Senate to significantly cut the CDC's budget
NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat said Sunday he will work to block a plan that would significantly cut the proposed budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warning that such a spending reduction could endanger the public. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer...
Biden has COVID-19 and didn't wear a mask. The CDC's guidelines say he doesn't have to
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden did not wear a face mask in public a couple of times after the White House announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. The White House said the Democratic incumbent was experiencing “mild” symptoms while the president's physician said Biden...
Tuskegee syphilis study whistleblower Peter Buxtun has died at age 86
NEW YORK (AP) — Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study, has died. He was 86. Buxtun died May 18 of Alzheimer's disease in Rocklin,...