Health News Illinois reported: New HIV and AIDS diagnoses in Chicago last year fell to levels not seen in over 30 years, the city’s Department of Public Health said Thursday.

Chicago recorded 504 new HIV diagnoses and 236 new AIDS diagnoses last year, according to provisional data. If those numbers stand, it is a 38 percent drop in new HIV diagnoses and a 22 percent decline in new AIDS diagnoses compared to the previous year.

CDPH said the new HIV diagnoses are the lowest since the agency first began recording them in the early 1990s, and the lowest number of new AIDS diagnoses since the mid-1980s.

"This data, while provisional, is very heartening," CDPH Commissioner Dr. Garth Walker said in a statement. “It reflects the ongoing work CDPH does with our community and healthcare partners to get Chicagoans tested, connected to care, and engaged in HIV prevention. With health equity as our guiding star, the trends are promising.”

Black Chicagoans made up 46 percent of new HIV cases, while Hispanic Chicagoans made up 34 percent of new cases.

Thursday’s numbers show a continued downward trend in new cases post-pandemic. Since 2020, new HIV diagnoses have fallen 22 percent, and new AIDS diagnoses have dropped 12 percent.

Final 2025 data will be published in the agency’s surveillance report in December.

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MEDPAGE TODAY reported: CKM framework validated in a cohort of 20-somethings.   

The relatively new concept of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) staging got further validation for young adults, based on a study in an urban population.

Among FF-CHAYA study participants followed from birth, the cardiovascular health scores in their early 20s fell in line with CKM staging (P<0.001). Scores on Life's Essential 8 averaged 77.6 in stage 0 (no risk factors), 70.0 in stage 1 CKM (excess adiposity), 63.8 in stage 2 CKM (metabolic risk factors), and 64.4 in stage 3 CKM (subclinical cardiovascular disease or advanced kidney disease).

In addition, CKM stages corresponded to early markers of carotid arterial injury in young adulthood. CKM stages 1-3 were associated with significantly higher mean-maximum carotid intima-medial thicknesses compared with stage 0, for instance, 0.014 mm thicker for stage 1, 0.020 mm thicker for stage 2, and 0.100 mm thicker for stage 3, reported Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and colleagues in Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes.

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MEDPAGE  TODAY reports that U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Monday.

The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That's an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the 2025-2026 school year.

It's the fourth consecutive year that the national average exemption rate has reached a new record, and the vast majority are parents withholding shots for nonmedical reasons. Exemptions increased in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

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Health News Illinois reported: A plan to make sexual assault examinations more accessible with telehealth options was part of a package signed Tuesday by Gov. JB Pritzker.

The proposal will allow a hospital or other approved pediatric healthcare facility to submit a plan to the Department of Public Health that will allow them to provide telehealth access to sexual assault examinations.

Another provision clarifies that such medical examinations for those 13 and older can be performed by a trained in-person examiner and supervised by a qualified medical provider.

It also clarifies language around patient consent for such examinations, specifically that a guardian, spouse, or power of attorney can consent if the sexual assault survivor is without decisional capacity.

“Survivors of sexual violence deserve to have access to high-quality care that respects their trauma and experiences,” bill sponsor Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said in a statement. “These reforms will strengthen the rights of victims and build upon programs meant to help ease their pathways to recovery.”

The new law is one of three signed Tuesday intended to broaden protections for domestic violence survivors.

Other proposals will clarify that emergency orders of protection will remain in effect until the plenary, or final, order of protection has been served; and require police officers to administer a lethality assessment if there is an allegation of intimate partner domestic violence.

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Discussion Paper Supports FDA's Innovation and Global Leadership Strategic Pillar; Public Docket Opens on Regulations.gov

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a discussion paper on considerations for the regulation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-enabled medical devices, seeking feedback from interested parties on risk assessment, premarket evaluation, postmarket monitoring, and other topics relevant to the regulation of GenAI-enabled medical devices. This effort aligns with one of the Trump Administration's key priorities to harness AI to accelerate the delivery of innovative medical products to market.

"Artificial intelligence is transforming medicine, and the United States must lead in shaping how this technology is developed and used safely and responsibly," said Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, J.D. "Today's announcement reflects the FDA's commitment to advancing innovation for health care professionals and leveraging AI to improve care and patient health outcomes."

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CIDRAP: With 101 New Cases, US Measles Total Tops 2,500

With 101 newly confirmed measles cases nationwide, the US total has now reached 2,566 this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update. This is the second straight week of about 100 new cases after previous weeks’ totals of about half that. Most this week’s cases are in Pennsylvania, though Ohio also saw a substantial increase. (Wappes, 8/14)

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As published by JAMA Network-Open: Original Investigation 

Question  To what extent do obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs) experience clinical constraints associated with their state’s abortion laws, and are those constraints associated with moral distress?

Findings  In a cross-sectional study surveying 864 OB-GYNs, those in abortion-restrictive states endorsed higher levels of 3 specific clinical constraints (counseling, care provision, and care for patients with potentially life-threatening pregnancy complications) compared with OB-GYNs in protective states. Greater levels of each clinical constraint were associated with higher moral distress scores in restrictive and protective states.

Meaning  These findings suggest that OB-GYN moral distress, associated with inability to provide certain forms of care to pregnant patients, transcends abortion policy context; institution-level policies and practices to support OB-GYNs are indicated nationally, not only in states with the most restrictive abortion laws.

Abstract

Importance  Moral distress can occur when clinicians cannot provide clinically appropriate care due to external constraints. In the wake of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, moral distress has been reported among subsets of obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs), yet little is known about how moral distress manifests among OB-GYNs nationally.

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Becker's Behavioral Health reports: Access to mental healthcare remains out of reach for millions of Americans, with some states facing more severe shortages of mental health professionals than others, new federal data shows.

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Health Workforce published its latest quarterly report of Designated Health Professional Shortage Area Statistics on Aug. 13, reflecting data updated July 1. For mental health, an area generally qualifies as a shortage area when the population-to-psychiatrist ratio is at least 30,000 to 1, or 20,000 to 1 in communities with unusually high need.

Compared with the 2024 snapshot, the latest HRSA figures suggest shortages have worsened. The number of designated mental health professional shortage areas rose from 6,418 to 6,807 as of Dec. 31, and the population covered by those designations grew from about 122 million to 137 million. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans’ mental health needs met improved only slightly — from 26.4% to 27.3% — while the estimated number of additional practitioners needed to remove the designations increased from roughly 6,200 to 6,800. The figures suggest workforce growth has not kept pace with demand.

Below is a breakdown of how each state and Washington, D.C., rank based on the percentage of mental healthcare needs met.

HRSA calculates “percent of need met” by comparing the mental health providers available in a designated area, population group or facility with the number of providers needed to bring the population-to-provider ratio below the HPSA threshold.

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KFF Health News reported today: An estimated 1 in 3 counties across the nation do not have an obstetrician, midwife, or medical center that specializes in labor and delivery, an annual March of Dimes report found. Nearly 100 labor and delivery units have been shuttered since the beginning of 2025, and travel to the nearest maternity center can take more than an hour for people in rural areas, NBC News reported.

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As reported on August 10, 2026: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced two landmark actions to modernize federal oversight of food ingredients and establish a stronger scientific foundation for future nutrition policy. HHS proposed a rule requiring manufacturers to notify the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when concluding that the use of a substance added to human or animal food is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) and, alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), submitted for final review the federal government’s first proposed definition of ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

“Nearly 60% of the American diet is made up of ultra-processed foods, and childhood obesity now affects more than one in five American children,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We cannot reverse America’s chronic disease epidemic without transforming our food system. These historic actions bring greater transparency to what’s in our food and stronger science to federal nutrition policy. President Trump and I promised to Make America Healthy Again, and today we are turning that promise into policy.”

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