On its face, the April 17 report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was nothing short of alarming. According to a nationwide survey conducted in 2022 across 16 localities in the U.S., one in 31 children studied had been diagnosed with autism. That’s a significant increase from the one-in-36 reported in 2020, and a huge jump from the one-in-150 in 2000. “The autism epidemic is running rampant,” declared Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in a press...

Lab scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been analyzing blood samples for weeks to determine how dozens of patients across six states had become infected with viral hepatitis, a disease that can cause serious liver damage. But their DNA detective work stopped abruptly last week. Widespread layoffs across federal health agencies earlier this month had resulted in the firing of all 27 lab scientists who worked in the only U.S. facility that could perform the sophisticated genetic sequencing needed to investigate hepatitis outbreaks, lab experts said....

In the middle of a hepatitis outbreak, U.S. shutters the one CDC lab that could help After people started testing positive for hepatitis C in a coastal Florida town in December, state officials collected blood from patients, wrapped their specimens in dry ice and mailed them straight to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga. The hepatitis C virus, which is spread through contact with infected blood and can lead to deadly liver cancer, is notoriously hard to identify. But if anyone could understand what was happening in Florida,...

Teenage girls led a 60% jump in the number of Americans reporting clinical depression symptoms from 2013 to 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found the share of people ages 12 and older who reported clinical depression symptoms in a two-week period increased from 8.2% of those surveyed in 2013-14 to 13.1% between August 2021 and August 2023. Among the depressed in 2021-23, the federal agency found that 39.3% received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in...

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Autism diagnoses among 8-year-olds saw a slight uptick from 2020 to 2022, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, published Tuesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at 16 sites in 14 states and Puerto Rico and found one in 31 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2022, an increase from one in 36 in 2020. The findings come as the neurodevelopmental condition faces increased scrutiny by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said...

One in 31 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by their eighth birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. The finding, based on an analysis of medical records from 2022, reflects a dramatic rise in autism over the past two decades. Previous CDC reports showed that 1 in 54 8-year-olds had been diagnosed with autism in 2016. In 2000, it was 1 in 150. “The most striking piece of this is how unbelievably common presentations of autism are,” said Zachary Warren, an author...

This is an increase from one in 36 children diagnosed in 2020. Estimated 1 in 31 children have autism as diagnosis rates increase in the US: CDC Autism diagnoses are continuing to increase in the United States, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated one in 31 8-year-olds was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2022, according to the report. To compare, one in 36 were diagnosed with ASD in 2020, the report found. This is also a rise...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid off all its cruise ship inspectors, which would severely damage efforts to prevent outbreaks on board. A smaller group of 12 U.S. Public Health Service officers will remain on duty, but CDC officials say they're baffled by the cuts because the inspectors are funded through paid by cruise ship companies and not taxpayer dollars, . "The cuts come as the U.S. has been battling a record surge of norovirus, largely driven by a of the virus," the network reported. "Agency staff were...

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he plans to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending water fluoridation in communities nationwide. He also announced the formation of a task force to examine the issue more closely. His comments came after a news conference in Salt Lake City, where he spoke with The Associated Press. On the same day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed...