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Wednesday May 14, 2025
(NEW YORK) -- Drug overdose deaths dropped in the United States last year to the lowest levels seen in five years, according to a new federal report published Wednesday morning.
The provisional report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics found nationwide drug overdose deaths fell from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024.
This represents a decline of 26.9% and the lowest figure of annual drug overdose deaths since 2019, according to the report.
This is the second year in a row that drug overdose deaths have dropped after year-over-year increases were seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, and researchers say they're cautiously optimistic about the declines.
"We should have a guarded enthusiasm here because what we're seeing is almost the return to the overdose death rates that we had before the pandemic," Dr. Petros Levounis, a professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and associate decant of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who was not involved in the report, told ABC News.
"So essentially, we have corrected the bump and the increase in overdose deaths we experienced with the pandemic," he added.
The report found the biggest drop in deaths by drug type was seen in fatalities linked to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, which fell from 76,282 to 48,422 between 2023 and 2024.
Declines were also seen in overdose deaths from psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine; cocaine; and natural or semi-synthetic drugs such as morphine.
Additionally, nearly every state across the country saw decreases in drug overdose deaths. Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C., saw declines of 35% or more from 2023 to 2024, according to the report.
By comparison, South Dakota and Nevada each saw slight increases in 2024 compared to 2023, the report found.
Lavounis, who is also the director of Rutgers' Northern New Jersey Medications for Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence, said public health officials should also pay attention to Alaska, where opioid overdoses have steadily been increasing since at least 2018.
Overdose rates in Alaska have reached historic levels, according to CDC data, due to a proliferation of fentanyl
Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine and can be deadly even in small doses, according to the CDC. Other drugs may be laced with deadly levels of fentanyl, and a user is not able to see it, taste it, or smell it.
Experts told ABC News they believe there a few reasons behind the drop in overdose deaths. One reason is the more widespread use of naloxone, the overdose reversal drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter use in March 2023.
Narcan, made by the company Emergent BioSolutions, is given as a nasal spray and naloxone -- the active ingredient in the medication -- can quickly restore one's breathing if an individual is experiencing an opioid overdose, though its effect is temporary and some people may need additional doses.
Harm reduction groups and other experts have been pushing for easier access to naloxone as one strategy to help prevent some of the tens of thousands of overdose deaths that occur each year in the U.S.
Dr. Allison Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the report, said there has also been wider use of medications to treat opioid use disorder as well as an increase of public awareness of the dangers of opioid use.
"These are the things that we know, at least from a research perspective, to be lifesaving," she told ABC News. "We've been battling this overdose epidemic for now over a decade, and so there's been tremendous efforts invested by communities, by the federal government, by our state governments, anything from prevention to overdose education."
Lin said although the data is encouraging, it's too soon to say the overdose crisis in the U.S. is over and that public health officials should continue their efforts to drive down overdose death rates.
"It's nice to celebrate all the hard work that people have been putting in; we're starting to see some rewards from that," she said. "But it's not time to like move from the gas pedal, I would say."
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(GAZA) -- Gaza's entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the third month of Israel cutting off aid to the strip, according to a report published Monday.
Gaza's 2.1 million residents will face a "crisis" level of food insecurity -- or worse -- from now through the end of September, according to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, whose members include the World Health Organization.
"Crisis" is the third-highest level of food insecurity, out of five, according to the IPC classification system. This is when households are either struggling to access food and are seeing cases of malnutrition or "are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by depleting essential livelihood assets," according to the IPC.
Of the entire population, three-quarters of Gaza's population are already classified at the "emergency" or "catastrophe" levels, which are the two worst stages of food insecurity, per the IPC.
The report projected that by the end of September, about 470,000 people Gaza, equivalent to about 22% of the population, will be classified as living under "catastrophe," which is equivalent to famine levels of starvation.
In the previous IPC report, released in October 2024, 12% of the population was projected to be under classified as living under "catastrophe."
The IPC said famine is classified when an area has 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two of every 10,000 people dying each day due to starvation or a combination of malnutrition and disease.
In a press release, the WHO said the situation in Gaza is "one of the world's worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time."
"We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Monday. "Today's report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine."
Ingredients have started running out in Gaza, and some food relief organizations have already closed.
In late April, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.
Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza.
"Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can't get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March," Cindy McCain, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said in a statement. "It's imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people."
The Israeli government said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release its hostages, as well as the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended March 18.
The WHO said that since the blockade began, 57 children have died from malnutrition, citing figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. If the current situation persists, an estimated 70,500 children between ages 6 months and just under 5 years old will experiencing acute malnutrition by March 2026, according to the IPC report.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also at risk with nearly 17,000 expected to need treatment for acute malnutrition by March 2026.
Aid workers told ABC News that malnutrition makes it harder for Gazans to heal from injuries suffered during the war, and they can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure.
An official from President Donald Trump's administration told ABC News there is a not-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave.
"Our team members inside Gaza are surviving on the cheapest staples they can find -- lentils, fava beans, dry chickpeas -- if anything is available at all," Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, said in a statement. "The people of Gaza are enduring one of the most harrowing humanitarian crises in recent history."
"All barriers to food, water, and aid must be lifted now," she said, "before even more lives are lost."
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(LONDON) -- Israel's decision to halt all humanitarian aid from crossing into Gaza is entering its third month.
The Israeli government said the blockade is to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, including the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended on March 18.
Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) wrote in a post on X in late April that humanitarian personnel have been allowed to enter and exit Gaza to support humanitarian efforts in the strip.
But multiple doctors and international aid workers told ABC News that water, food, medicine and medical supplies are running low, and in some cases running out completely.
Children are becoming malnourished, diseases are at risk of spreading and those who are injured cannot be treated properly, the workers said.
"If nothing is done, if food is not brought in, if water is not brought in, if vaccines are not brought in at scale -- we're already in a catastrophe, and we're going to have way more children dying [from] preventable causes," Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF Palestine, told ABC News.
A Trump administration official told ABC News there is a no-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment.
Children becoming malnourished
The lack of food entering Gaza is one of the most severe problems the strip is facing, according to aid workers.
Osama As, the lead for quality, evidence and learning with the Mercy Corps Gaza Emergency Response Program, said the situation "is getting worse day after day, especially in relation to food" because most people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid and community kitchens for food.
He said most families survive on one meal a day, and that most food available is canned food and bread.
"I never imagined that we would reach this point. Most people cannot afford the remaining items, which are either like canned foods and few quantities of vegetables which are produced locally here in Gaza," As, who is based in Gaza, said. "The prices are very high, so I think most people cannot afford these kinds of items to buy from the local market."
Dr. Ahmed Alfar, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said he has seen many examples of malnourished children over the past two months.
One example he gave is a baby girl named Siwar, who was born four months ago. At birth, she weighed 2.5 kilograms, or 5.5 pounds.
Four months later, she should be weighing about 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. Instead, she is only about 6 pounds, according to Alfar.
Alfar said the mother is unable to lactate and the family does not have much money, so they have been unable to feed Siwar milk, just sweetened water.
"That means in four months she gained just 200 grams, and this is unbelievable," he told ABC News in Arabic. "She was a full-term baby. She was delivered vaginally. Her health was completely normal. ... We called it one of the most severe [cases of] malnutrition. Now Siwar is facing a severe, critical situation."
Similarly, Crickx, from UNICEF Palestine, who is currently in Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza, said he visited Nasser Hospital this week and met a 4-year-old boy named Osama.
Crickx said Osama should weigh 15 to 16 kilograms, about 33 to 35 pounds. Instead, he weighs 8 kilograms, or 17.5 pounds, Crickx said.
He said UNICEF and its partners have a small number of ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition, but they are running out. UNICEF has already run out of food meant to address the first signs of malnutrition.
"[Osama] has, really, the skin on the bones, and he was healthy before the beginning of this terrible war," Crickx said. "So, we are now in a situation where children are hungry, they are little by little being affected more and more by acute malnutrition, acute severe malnutrition. And if nothing is done, we fear that the worst will happen to them."
Community kitchen workers told ABC News if the border crossings remain closed, markets will close, and ingredients will run out. Some food relief organizations have already closed.
In late April, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen (WCK) announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza.
WCK said it has trucks loaded with food and cooking fuel that have been ready to enter Gaza since early March as well as additional food and equipment ready to be shipped from Jordan and Egypt.
"In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination. We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread," WCK said. "But we have now reached the limits of what is possible."
Risk of spreading disease
The blockade has also had an impact on the spread of disease in Gaza, aid workers said.
Overcrowding in tent camps -- along with a lack of clean water, hygiene products and poor sanitation -- puts Gazans at risk of contracting infectious diseases, they said.
Limited supplies of soap and hygienic products "will continue to lead to escalation in skin manifestations of diseases like scabies," Dr. Aqsa Durrani, a pediatrician who was recently on assignment in Gaza with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News.
It's unclear how many infections have been diagnosed over the past two months but a study from April 2024 estimated 55,400 cases of scabies and lice outbreaks among children under age five who were displaced.
Limited clean drinking water and overcrowded camps has also led to a rise in diarrheal diseases. A report from the Institute for Palestine Studies estimates at least half of cases recorded as of Jan. 2024 have been among children under 5 years old.
Crickx said a majority of children are affected by chronic watery diarrhea, which can lead to serious complications for babies and toddlers.
There has also been a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases in Gaza including hepatitis A, chickenpox, measles and polio.
Aid workers say the blockade imposed by Israel has halted the delivery of vaccines, such as the oral polio vaccine to Gaza, leaving residents vulnerable to diseases.
"Even in these terrible conditions, we have pregnant women and babies still being born in this community and population of 2 million people," Durrani said. "And so, we need more vaccinations as well vaccines."
Hospitals running out of supplies to treat injured
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible.
More than 15 months into the conflict, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire deal. The ceasefire saw the withdrawal of some Israeli forces to allow more aid to get in and the release of some of the hostages.
However, resumption of hostilities in mid-March led to an increase in injuries, Crickx said. UNICEF estimates that more than 500 children have been killed since March 18 and more than 1.250 children have been injured.
Durrani -- who worked as medical activity manager for MSF at a field hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza from the end of February until the end of April -- said she saw injuries caused by air strikes, fires after air strikes and from large cooking fires.
"Because there's no cooking gas, people are burning household items and trying to cook over large open flames,' she said. "So, we also saw children with burns due to those flames, as well as scald burns from children who had been waiting in food distribution lines, and the jostling of the food items would then lead to them being injured from hot food."
What's more, burn victims or those who are injured can take longer to heal due to malnourishment. They can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure.
Durrani explained that poor wound healing can be associated with poor nutrition, which resulted in some pediatric burn patients developing infections.
"Not only was our staff hungry, but we also had no food for our patients, including our pediatric patients," Durrani said. "Other than just being harrowing from a human perspective, it's also, from a medical perspective, really impacts the way that people can heal from these injuries, and these types of burns."
"Not even being clear that we will have enough antibiotics to treat the infection if the patients develop infections," she continued. "In the face of also not having enough surgical materials or concern that we may run critically low on anesthesia supplies if they need to go back to the [operating room]."
In conversations with doctors this week, Crickx said hospitals are experiencing shortages of anesthetics and anticoagulants. There is also a lack of medical supplies to fix bones when they suffer fractures, he said.
Durrani said her team was forced to ration medications, including painkillers, antibiotics and critical surgery supplies. They often had to perform painful procedures and wound dressing changes without any pain control.
She said she didn't want to cause pain by removing dressings without proper pain control, but if the dressings aren't removed, then it could lead to infections for patients.
"We're being forced to make impossible decisions like that, which is unconscionable, given that just miles away there are trucks and trucks full of food and supplies and medications and nutritional sources," she said. "For me personally, this is the first time that I had to look patients in the eye and say I didn't have something that I know is just miles away."
ABC News' Shannon Kingston and Diaa Ostaz contributed to this report.
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(WASHINGTON) -- Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced he will be nominating Dr. Casey Means for U.S. surgeon general, replacing his former pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, after questions emerged about her credentials.
Means has been prominent in the "Make America Healthy Again" movement championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a post on social media, Trump said Means would work closely with Kennedy "to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans."
Means describes herself online as a "former surgeon turned metabolic health evangelist" who is "striving to create a happier and healthier world and planet."
Here is what we know about Means' background and what her views are on various health topics.
Medical background
Means graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in human biology and a doctor of medicine degree from Stanford School of Medicine in 2014, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She was a resident physician at Oregon Health and Science University with the goal of becoming an otolaryngology surgeon, also known as a head and neck surgeon, but she dropped out in her fifth year.
"During my training as a surgeon, I saw how broken and exploitative the healthcare system is and left to focus on how to keep people out of the operating room," she wrote on her website.
Means went on to study functional medicine, which looks to prevent disease and illness. She is not board-certified in a medical specialty.
The Oregon Medical Board currently lists her medical license as inactive.
Following her exit from the residency, she was a guest lecturer at Stanford for less than a year and an associate editor at the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention for two and a half years, according to LinkedIn.
Over the course of her career, she co-founded Levels, an app that allows people to track their food. along with biometric data like sleep and glucose monitoring, to see how their diet is impacting their health.
Rise to prominence
Means wrote a book with her brother, Calley Means, titled "Good Energy," which was published in May 2024 and allegedly takes a look at why Americans are sick and how to fix it.
The Means siblings appeared on podcasts, including The Tucker Carlson Show in August 2024 and The Joe Rogan Experience in October 2024.
On Tucker Carlson's show, Casey Means said birth control is being "prescribed like candy" and that Ozempic has a "stranglehold on the U.S. population."
The siblings rose to prominence within the Trump campaign and among Trump allies, including Kennedy. They appeared at a September 2024 roundtable discussion on health with Kennedy hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.
"The message I'm here to share and reiterate is that American health is getting destroyed," Casey Means said during her opening remarks. "It's being destroyed because of chronic illness."
Meanwhile, Calley Means currently serves as White House senior adviser and special government employee. He has worked closely with Kennedy and has touted many of his health proposals.
Controversial views
Casey Means' views mirror those of Kennedy's with a focus on tackling the chronic disease epidemic, creating a healthier food supply and expressing vaccine skepticism.
She has called for the removal of ultra-processed foods in school lunches and has advocated for organic, regenerative foods in school meals.
In 2021, she wrote in a post on X that glucose "as a molecule has caused more destruction of the human mind and body than any other substance in human history."
Glucose is a naturally occurring molecule that our body depends on for energy.
Casey Means has expressed skepticism about the safety of childhood vaccines and has called for more research on the "safety of the cumulative effects" of vaccines when following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine schedule, she wrote in her Good Energy newsletter.
"There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children. This needs to be investigated," she continued.
She has also criticized the administration of hepatitis B vaccine among infants, which is recommended by the CDC.
There is currently no evidence to suggest that childhood vaccines or the current CDC vaccine schedule are unsafe.
ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
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(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on Friday additional color additives from natural sources in line with the Department of Health and Human Services' goal to eliminate artificial food dyes.
The agency approved two dyes and expanded approval of a third, meaning it can now be used in a wider range of food products.
"Today we take a major step to Make America Healthy Again," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks. We're removing these dyes and approving safe, natural alternatives -- to protect families and support healthier choices."
The approved additives include Galdieria extract blue, which is derived from algae; butterfly pea flower extract from the butterfly pea flower; and calcium phosphate, a natural compound containing calcium and phosphorus.
Galdieria extract blue has been approved by the FDA to be used in several products including fruit juices, fruit smoothies, candy, chewing gum, breakfast cereals, popsicles and yogurts.
Butterfly pea flower extract, which is already used to color most of the above, had its use expanded to color ready-to-eat cereals, crackers, snack mixes, hard pretzels, plain potato chips, plain corn chips, tortilla chips and multigrain chips.
Calcium phosphate was approved for use in ready-to-eat chicken products, white candy melts, doughnut sugar and sugar for coated candies.
The approvals come after comments from Kennedy about his opposition to artificial dyes, claiming they are harmful and calling for them to be removed from foods and beverages. Under Kennedy, the FDA has sought voluntary commitments from food companies that they will phase out synthetic dyes.
Since then, some U.S. food manufacturers, including Tyson Foods, have said they are working to eliminate artificial food dyes.
Nutritionists and dietitians are divided over whether or not synthetic food dyes are harmful, or the extent to which they are harmful, but all agree they do not have any nutritional value.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary told reporters on Friday that he is meeting with the Consumer Brand Association, touting the administration's efforts to remove dyes from the U.S. food supply.
"On April 22, I said the FDA would soon approve several new color additives and would accelerate our review of others. I'm pleased to report that promises made, have been promises kept," Makary said in a statement. "FDA staff have been moving quickly to expedite the publication of these decisions, underscoring our serious intent to transition away from petroleum-based dyes in the food supply and provide new colors from natural sources."
ABC News' Selina Wang contributed to this report.
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(NEW YORK) -- The U.S. has surpassed 1,000 measles cases for the first time in five years, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Friday.
A total of 1,001 cases have been confirmed in 30 states including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The last time the U.S. recorded more than 1,000 cases occurred in 2019, when there were 1,274 confirmed infections over the course of a year, CDC data shows.
The CDC says 13% of measles patients in the U.S. this year have been hospitalized, the majority of whom are under age 19.
Among the nationally confirmed cases, CDC says about 96% are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Meanwhile, 2% of cases are among those who have received just one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and 2% of cases are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.
In Texas, where an outbreak has been spreading in the western part of the state, at least 709 cases have been confirmed as of Friday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
A total of 92 patients have been hospitalized over the course of the outbreak and at least two school-aged children have died. Both were unvaccinated and had no known underlying conditions, DSHS said.
A third measles death was recorded in New Mexico among an unvaccinated adult who tested positive after dying, according to the New Mexico Department of Health. At least 71 cases have been recorded in New Mexico, mostly in Lea County, which borders western Texas, department data shows.
In both Texas and New Mexico, most cases have occurred among those who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status, mirroring national trends.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
However, CDC data show vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2023 to 2024 school year, 92.7% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 93.1% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019 to 2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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(NEW YORK) -- Temperatures are beginning to warm up, indicating the arrival of spring -- and of allergy season for millions of Americans.
Research shows that allergy seasons may be hitting people harder by starting earlier, lasting longer and creating more pollen.
Growing seasons -- the time of year that conditions allow plants to grow -- start earlier and last longer than they did 30 years ago, according to a report from the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America.
Additionally, pollen concentrations have increased up to 21% across North America over the last three decades, data from the USA National Phenology Network shows.
Allergists told ABC News a mix of climate change and more carbon emissions has led to plants in many areas having longer growing seasons and higher pollen counts.
"Research has definitely shown that the seasons are indeed expanding," Dr. William Reisacher, an otolaryngic allergist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, told ABC News. "We're seeing longer pollinating seasons. We're seeing higher levels of pollen."
What causes seasonal allergies?
Allergies occur when the immune system views food, medicine, plants or something else as a harmful substance and overreacts.
Some seasonal allergies, also known as allergic rhinitis or hay fever, occur due to pollen, which are tiny grains that are dispersed from certain flowering plants.
"Allergies are essentially your immune system overreacting to things that you're exposed to in your environment," Dr. Thanai Pongdee, a consultant allergist-immunologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told ABC News. "So, for example, if you have hay fever and are allergic to tree pollen or grass pollen this time of year, when you breathe that pollen in, your immune system recognizes it and causes a cascade of events where various chemicals get released -- one of the main ones being histamine, and these chemicals cause the symptoms that many experience."
This leads to symptoms including runny nose, sneezing, congestion and itchy, watery eyes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reactions can range from mildly annoying symptoms to life-threatening reactions including anaphylactic shock, which can cause multiple organs to fail.
As of 2021, an estimated 25.7% of U.S. adults and 18.9% of U.S. children have seasonal allergies, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
Why are allergy seasons getting longer?
Allergy season typically begins in the spring, around March, and typically ends in the fall, lasting as late as November.
"When we refer to seasonal allergic rhinitis, we are usually referring to allergic symptoms that occupy a certain time of the year," Reisacher said.
"So, springtime, at least in the northeast, is typically when the trees are pollinating whereas in the summertime, we see the grass is pollinating, and then in the fall, it's all about the weeds," he continued. "Ragweed is the most common pollen present at that time of the year."
However, research has suggested that allergy seasons are getting longer and worse.
"Allergy season is getting longer -- in fact it is an average of 13 days longer compared with 20 years ago," Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News.
A 2022 study from the University of Michigan found that, by the end of the century, pollen emissions could begin 40 days earlier in the spring than occurred between 1995 and 2014, meaning there could be an additional 19 days of high pollen counts.
Allergists say climate change is one of the biggest reasons why allergy seasons are getting longer.
A 2021 study found human-caused climate change is worsening North American pollen season, causing them to lengthen by 20 days on average between 1990 and 2018.
Reisacher said that as the globe experiences warmer temperatures each year, more storms are occurring, which kicks up more pollen.
"It travels for many more miles on the wind, and it makes it more allergenic, so it gets deeper into our body, into our lungs and even through the tissues that protect our body," he said.
The warming planet also means that it's taking longer to see the first frost, which usually occurs in the fall and hold pollen underground, he said. A longer time to get to the first frost means pollen has a longer time to stay in the air.
Reisacher said greenhouse gases are another reason for the longer allergy season. He said more carbon dioxide has been released into the air due to fossil fuels. Plants feed off carbon dioxide, and this has released more pollen into the air.
"There has been a direct correlation between the levels of [carbon dioxide] in the atmosphere and the amount of pollen that plants, including ragweed, are producing," he said. "So, it's hard to deny that that is a factor."
Reisacher and Parikh say this means there will likely be more people who experience seasonal allergies over the next several years.
How to treat seasonal allergies
Allergists said there are a number of over-the-counter medications that people can try as well as nasal sprays and rinses.
Some are tailored to relieve symptoms while others are used to prevent symptoms. Additionally, only certain medications work for certain symptoms.
"Start with 24-hour antihistamines. They last longer with fewer side effects," Parikh said. "[You] can also add nasal steroid or antihistamine sprays as well as eye drops. However, if you aren't improving, please see an allergist."
Pongdee said allergy shots may be effective for those who are looking for long-term solutions and are not relief from daily medication.
Reisacher recommends starting medications a few weeks before allergy season starts because they need time to take effect.
He said there are also steps people can take to at home to prevent pollen from coming indoors including keeping windows closed in the early morning when pollination is higher, using air conditioner filters. separating indoor and outdoor clothing and showeing to get pollen off skin and out of hair.
"You want to create a safe haven, and that's your bedroom," Reisacher said. "You want to create a pollen-free environment in your bedroom so that at least you have seven or eight hours that your immune system can rest without having to react to pollen."
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(WASHINGTON) -- Bird flu is continuing to spread in animals across the United States more than a year after the first human case was detected.
Since then, at least 70 people have fallen ill and at least one death was recorded in Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of confirmed cases in humans has held steady for almost two months, but hundreds of dairy cows continue to be infected and raw milk samples in several states have tested positive for bird flu, according to federal health officials.
There is currently no evidence the virus is spreading between people, and the CDC has said the risk to the general public is low. However, some experts told ABC News fear the virus could still mutate or adapt to become more severe or transmissible.
Here's the latest to know about the virus and current situation.
Bird flu in the U.S.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, is an infectious viral disease that primarily spreads among birds and is caused by infection with Avian Influenza A viruses
In March 2024, bird flu was reported in U.S. dairy cows for the first time. As of Friday, the virus has infected more than 1,000 herds across 17 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The CDC confirmed the first human case in April 2024 in a Texas dairy worker who was exposed to cows presumed to be infected. This is believed to be the first instance of mammal to human spread of the H5N1 strain.
Bird flu has also been causing outbreaks in poultry, leading to human cases among U.S. poultry farm workers and culling operations workers.
Three human cases have had no known or identifiable exposure to the virus.
Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and in immunology at Duke University School of Medicine, said there has been so much transmission of bird flu in animals that he wonders if mass immunity is far off.
"In terms of the cattle population and other animal reservoirs, I'm starting to wonder exactly how many more cases we'll see because, at this point, we're probably heading toward -- and pun is intended here -- herd immunity," he told ABC News.
Moody said there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, which he says raises the question of whether or not H5N1 is likely to make that jump.
What is the U.S. doing to fight bird flu?
According to the USDA, the agency is investing $1 billion to fight bird flu, including $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for vaccine research.
Between March 2024 and now, the CDC said it -- along with state and local health departments -- have monitored at least 16,600 people exposed to infected animals and tested at least 880. Meanwhile, USDA is responsible for testing livestock herds.
Moody said ramping up testing on both sides would give public health workers better situational awareness.
"I think the real question comes down to: how much do we want to test animals and people in order to be able to nail down transmission events and really understand how frequently this is happening?" Moody said, "I would personally like to see better surveillance and more coordinated surveillance."
He said he understands this might not be possible due to the allocation of limited resources, but it would provide a better national picture.
"I think that the problem we have right now is that we have an incomplete view because testing of animals falls under one department, testing of people falls under a different department," Moody said. "They don't necessarily communicate in real time with accurate information and, the two agencies in question here, they've got very different purposes."
Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis Health, said he is worried that there has been a curtailing of testing and surveillance.
"If we don't have the data then we don't know what next steps to take," he told ABC News. "There is increased likelihood that there will be increased spread among animals and humans and, by the time we become aware of increased transmission, then it may be too late for successful mitigation."Under the USDA's National Milk Testing Strategy to test raw milk samples for bird flu, the agency has identified at least seven affected states.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration announced last year it was beginning to sample aged raw cheese to test bird flu, with early results showing most samples were negative.
On the vaccine front, the U.S. has licensed three bird flu vaccines, targeting the H5N1 strain, which are being held in a national stockpile. They are not available to the public and would only be distributed in case of an emergency.
Last year, the World Health Organization it launched an initiative to help accelerate the development of a human bird flu vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
Earlier this year, Moderna was awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines.
What we don't know
Although there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet, or that the virus has mutated to become more infectious, Moody said he still worried about mutations and adaptations.
Earlier this year, a dairy cow was found to be infected with another type of bird flu for the first time, which experts have previously said is evidence that the virus is adapting.
"The thing about this virus is that it mutates every time somebody gets infected, right?" Moody said. "We know that there is an intrinsic rate of mutation that the virus has, and as with most mutations, the vast majority … don't lead to any additional pathogenicity or transmissibility."
He went on, "But the more cases that you have, whether that is in chickens or cows or people, the more of those random events are occurring and we know that eventually the virus will probably find a way to increase its transmissibility to people or increase some other property that makes it a problem."
Moody said he is also concerned about reassortment, which is when a hybrid -- or recombinant -- virus, is formed. An example is an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time and a hybrid virus forming as a result.
He clarified that there is no evidence this has happened yet, and that he believes the U.S. is in a better position to respond today if a pandemic-like situation arises, "but nature has a way of surprising us."
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(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) -- A case of active tuberculosis has been confirmed at a Florida high school, according to state health officials.
The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) identified the infected individual, who was recently on campus at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, John J. Sullivan, chief of communications and legislative affairs for Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), told ABC News in a statement.
"In collaboration with DOH-Broward, Broward County Public Schools has identified and notified individuals who may have been in close contact. With parental consent, DOH-Broward will be on-site to provide testing. Impacted students and staff have been directly contacted," the statement read.
Additionally, the school principal sent a letter to the community on Tuesday, making them aware of the case, BCPS told ABC News.
"No further action is needed unless you are contacted directly. Once again, if you have not been contacted directly or your child has received a letter to present to you, there is no action required at this time," the letter read, in part. "We certainly thank you for your understanding as we continue to navigate through this."
It's unclear if the individual is a student, faculty member or staff member.
It comes after Kansas health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the state experienced one of the largest recorded tuberculosis outbreaks in U.S. history earlier this year.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the CDC. It is one of the world's leading infectious disease killers, the federal health agency says.
TB is spread in the air from one person to another. When a person with TB coughs, speaks or sings, germs are expelled into the air -- where they can linger for several hours -- before another person breathes in the air and becomes infected.
Signs and symptoms include a cough that lasts for three weeks or longer, coughing up blood or phlegm, chest pain, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, chills and night sweats, according to the CDC.
Some people become infected with TB germs that live in the body for years without causing illness. This is known as inactive TB or latent TB.
People with inactive TB do not feel ill, do not have symptoms and cannot spread germs to other people, the CDC says. However, without receiving treatment, people with inactive TB can develop an active infection.
Last year, the U.S. saw more than 8,700 cases of TB, according to CDC data. Although TB cases have been steadily declining since the mid 1990s, rates increased in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with 2023 matching pre-pandemic levels.
There are several treatment regimens for TB disease that may last anywhere from four months to nine months depending on the course of treatment. Health care providers may consider specific regimens for patients with co-existing medical conditions such as diabetes or HIV.
A vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is commonly given to children in countries where TB is common, although it is generally not recommended in the U.S. due to the low risk of infection with the bacteria, variable vaccine effectiveness among adults, and the vaccine's potential interference with TB tests, the CDC notes. The BCG vaccine often leaves a scar where the recipient was given the shot.
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