Measles can be a disease of the past, but its recent resurgence is evidence to the contrary. The outbreak, which started spreading in late January, has resulted in multiple hospitalizations, with at least nine confirmed cases and three probable cases as of early February. Health officials caution that at least one in five infected individuals will have to be hospitalized, highlighting the severity of the situation.

The first measles case in a Chicagoan since 2019 has recently been confirmed, again emphasizing the persistent risk—particularly in populations with low levels of vaccination. Although the disease was all but eliminated from the United States after the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine became available in 1963, it is still occurring because there are missed opportunities in immunization coverage.

Extremely contagious and potentially fatal, measles is still a worldwide health issue. Although some who get the disease recover without incident, the fact is that measles can kill, especially in children, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems.

How Measles Spreads and Why It's Dangerous?

Measles is the most infectious viral illness known. It is transmitted by airborne respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing and can remain in the air for as long as two hours after an infected individual has vacated the area. This results in nine out of ten unimmunized individuals exposed to the virus becoming infected. The illness can also be imported into the U.S. by travelers arriving from areas where measles remains prevalent.

Severe Medical Complications of Measles

Although measles may appear to be a normal childhood disease to some, its complications can be serious and even life-threatening. Some of the most frequent problems are:

Pneumonia: The major killer in measles, especially among children.

Encephalitis: A serious inflammation of the brain that may result in permanent brain damage.

Severe dehydration: From chronic diarrhea and vomiting.

Compromised immune system: Measles has the effect of erasing immune memory, and thus the survivors remain exposed to other pathogens for several months.

More than half of measles-infected children in the region of Europe in 2023 were hospitalized according to the World Health Organization (WHO), showing just how critical the illness could be.

Who is at Most Risk During Measles Outbreak?

Infants under the age of five are especially susceptible to measles and its complications. Their immature immune systems predispose them to serious infection. An estimated 136,000 individuals worldwide die from measles each year, and most are children. Prior to mass vaccination, the yearly death rate was much higher, with an estimated 761,000 deaths in children in 2000.

Can You Get Measles During Pregnancy?

Pregnant women who get infected with measles are at risk of severe health complications. The virus poses the risk of:

Pneumonia: Occurs in approximately 18 out of 100 pregnant women infected with measles.

Maternal mortality: Four out of 100 pregnant women with measles die.

Premature delivery: In approximately 13 out of 100 measles-infected pregnancies.

Since pregnant women are not administered the MMR vaccine, it is important for people to vaccinate themselves long before getting pregnant.

Why Vaccination is the Best Defense Against Measles

Measles is a vaccine-preventable illness. The MMR vaccine is extremely effective, with long-lasting immunity:

• A single dose covers 95% of vaccinees.
• Two doses cover 99% of vaccinees.

With such strong protection rates, mass vaccination campaigns have significantly decreased deaths from measles. But reduced vaccination levels in some regions have resulted in renewed outbreaks of the disease. Parents avoid vaccinating their children because of misinformation regarding vaccine safety, but there is overwhelming research proving that the MMR vaccine is safe and effective.

Why Are Measles Outbreaks on the Rise?

Increased measles cases are the result of declining vaccination rates. The main reasons include:

Vaccine hesitancy: There is misinformation surrounding vaccines, causing parents to hesitate or refuse vaccination.

Travel and exposure: Travelers to places where there is an active outbreak bring measles into the U.S.

Weakened herd immunity: As vaccination rates decline, the virus becomes easier to spread, putting more at risk.

What to Do If Exposed to Measles

If you or your child have come into contact with someone who has measles, do the following immediately:

Check vaccination records: If you or your child are already vaccinated, the chances of getting infected are very low.

Get the vaccine if not immunized: The MMR vaccine may still offer some protection if administered within 72 hours of exposure.

Watch for symptoms: Symptoms occur 7-14 days after infection and are fever, cough, runny nose, and rash.

Stay home if infected: People with measles must remain home to avoid infecting others.

Can the Measles Vaccine Cause the Disease?

MMR vaccine includes a weakened virus that allows the body to become immune without actually causing measles. In healthy children, it does not lead to infection. But severe immune deficiencies may develop a condition similar to measles and should not receive the vaccine.

How Long Is Measles Contagious?

Individuals with measles can be contagious before they even notice they are ill. The period of contagiousness is from four days prior to the onset of the rash through four days afterwards. Since the virus remains present in the air for hours, even a short exposure is very risky for those who have not been immunized.

Is it Possible to Prevent Measles?

Mass vaccination is the most effective strategy for preventing the outbreak of measles. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises:

• The initial vaccine dose of the MMR during infancy at age 12-15 months.
• A second one at age 4-6 years.
• One extra dose among high-risk subjects in case of an outbreak.

Infants under the age of one year, who are not yet vaccine-age-appropriate, are protected by herd immunity. This is why it is important that the rest of the community is vaccinated to avoid spreading to the entire community.

Measles is more than a rash and fever- it is a dangerous disease that can cause life-threatening complications. Although the U.S. has made great strides in preventing measles through vaccination, the recent surge in cases is a harsh reminder of the risks of vaccine hesitancy.

Cancer is an umbrella term for abnormal excess growth that can occur in any part of the body. Leukemia is the cancer of blood, which means there is rapid growth of abnormal blood cells. This growth starts in the bone marrow, which is where your body makes blood. The Cleveland Clinic explains that unlike other cancers, leukemia does not form a mass or tumor that can be detected in a CT scan.

The usual treatment of Leukemia involves Chemotherapy, whether by pill, injection into your vein or a shot under your skin. Another treatment for it is immunotherapy which uses a drug to boost your body’ defense system so that it can fight the cancer itself. Now, a research by American Association for Cancer Research April 2025, has revealed that a pre-made version of immunotherapy can effectively fight blood cancers. This "off-the-shelf" approach offers a potentially faster and easier way to deliver this powerful therapy to patients in need.

Promising Treatment Against Blood Cancer

This new way to treat blood cancer uses special immune cells called natural killer cells, or NK cells. These NK cells have been changed in a lab to have special tools, called CARs, that help them find and kill cancer cells. What's really helpful is that these CAR NK cells can be made ahead of time from healthy people and stored. This means doctors can just take them off the shelf and give them to patients who need them quickly, without having to wait for a treatment to be made just for them, making the whole process much simpler and faster.

The results from using this ready-made CAR NK cell treatment yielded promising results, especially for people with a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. The scientists found that after getting this treatment, some of the patients with AML had their cancer completely disappear. This is called complete remission, and it means there were no signs of cancer left in their blood. These early successes give a lot of hope for a new and better way to treat this difficult disease.

Notably, AML is a very fast-growing and serious cancer. According to American Cancer Society this cancer develops in the myeloid cell, the cells that would normally become white blood cells. This type of cancer develops quickly, hence needs to be treated with the same urgency.

Who Does This Treatment Help?

The first group of patients who received this ready-made CAR NK cell treatment were people whose leukemia had either stopped responding to other treatments or had come back after treatment. These are often the most difficult cases to treat. The fact that some of these patients had such a good response to the SENTI-202 treatment, which is a safety feature to the SENTI-202 cells. It's like a special switch that stops the NK cells from attacking healthy cells in the body. With their cancer completely disappearing, is a very encouraging sign that this new approach could offer hope to patients who have run out of other options.

More Research Needed To Confirm Safety and Effective

The researchers are hopeful about the new treatment and early success for the treatment. They believe that this ready-made approach could lead to new types of immune therapies that are much easier to produce and give to patients. Researchers emphasized that there's a big need for better treatments for AML, and he hopes this new method can become an important option for these patients who often have very limited choices.

It's important to remember that these are just the first results from an ongoing study. The scientists are still enrolling more patients to learn even more about how safe and how well SENTI-202 works. They need to keep studying it to make sure it's a reliable and effective treatment for more people with blood cancers. Before this treatment can be used widely, the findings need to be carefully reviewed and published in a scientific journal.

The uncertainty around the Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine has been exacerbated by the Trump administration. The new government has imposed new requirements on the nation's only traditional protein-based vaccine. These new requirements have led to many confusions about vaccine updates, including other vaccines too, which await approval.

The Wait For Full Approval Is Too Long

Novavax is the maker of the protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, which was on track to receive full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by April 1. However, the approval process was paused because of Dr Sara Brenner, the FDA's acting commissioner. The reason for delay has raised many questions about the interference, including political, especially after Dr Peter Marks, FDA's longtime vaccine chief had left following disagreements with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. These events have further led to the apprehensions of uncertainty regarding the vaccine's future.

As of now, Novavax's vaccine is only authorized for emergency use. Unlike mRNA vaccines form Pfizer and Moderna, which have full approval, the Novavax vaccine holds the EUA or the Emergency Use Authorization, which allows it to be distributed during public health emergencies. However, once the emergency ends, the FDA can remove these vaccines from market unless full approval is granted.

What Caused The Delay?

The FDA had initially planned to approve Novavax's vaccine by its April 1 target date. However, sources familiar with the situation revealed that Trump appointees influenced the delay. Since then, Novavax has been in discussions with the FDA to determine additional requirements for approval. In the meantime, the FDA's recent comments have fueled concerns that Novavax’s vaccine may be treated as a “new product” due to its updates to match last year’s coronavirus strain. This would require new clinical trials, a process unlikely to be completed before the fall.

ALSO READ: Novavax Says FDA Approval Back on Track for Its COVID Vaccine

This approach to Novavax’s vaccine approval stands in stark contrast to the FDA’s treatment of the mRNA vaccines, where annual strain updates have been handled in a way similar to flu vaccines, requiring only small-scale tests to demonstrate the vaccine’s continued effectiveness against new strains. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert, argued that it would be unnecessary to treat these annual updates as “new products” requiring full trials, as long as the updated vaccines show that they produce protective antibody levels.

Role Of HHS Secretary

Of course Robert F Kennedy Jr will have a role to play, being the Health Secretary, and a known vaccine skeptic. Despite claiming in recent speeches that he is not anti-vaccine, Kennedy’s past associations with anti-vaccine groups have raised alarms. His nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, has been involved in campaigns questioning vaccine safety, and Kennedy himself has made public statements suggesting that vaccines can cause autism—a long-debunked claim.

His actions have also contributed to the uncertainty that surrounds the Novavax's approval today and the overall direction of US vaccine policies.

Is Novavax Different From Other Vaccines?

What sets Novavax apart from other COVID-19 vaccines is its traditional approach. While Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines use genetic instructions to create a temporary version of the virus’ spike protein, Novavax’s vaccine contains lab-grown copies of the spike protein itself. This approach has been used for decades in vaccines for diseases like hepatitis B and shingles, making it a more familiar method for people who may be hesitant about mRNA vaccines.

Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has launched Wegovy in Thailand, marking the entry of its hugely popular weight loss drug in Southeast Asian market. First launched in 2021, Wegovy helped make Novo Nordisk Europe's most valuable listed company until recently, worth $615 billion at its peak. Wegovy is a semaglutide shot, which means that it is a GLP-1 receptor agonist.

"We actually received the Thai FDA approval already in 2023," said Enrico Canal Bruland, vice president and general manager of Novo's Thai subsidiary. He noted that Novo was making Wegovy available in Thailand ahead of rival Eli Lilly's Zepbound. Wegovy is currently available for prescription in private hospitals around the country and will be available soon in public hospitals. Notably, Bruland declined to provide details on Wegovy's pricing in Thailand, which has a population of around 66 million, or Novo Nordisk's plans for expansion into other Southeast Asian markets.

Notably, the most popular GLP-1 agonist Ozempic was also created by Novo Nordisk. Earlier this month, the pharma giant expanded its research in the field diabetes and weight loss drug and announced that its diabetes pill, Rybelsus, demonstrated cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial. The findings pave the way for the medication to become a new treatment option for people living with both diabetes and heart disease.

How Do Semaglutides Work?

Semglutide is the synthetic version of GLP-1—a natural hormone produced in the intestines that regulates blood sugar, appetite, and digestion. Now, every time you eat, your body produces various hormones, including GLP-1. These are called Post nutrition hormones, and help you absorb the energy you just consumed.

GLP-1 travels to your pancreas, prompting it to produce insulin. It also travels to the hypothalamus in your brain, which gives you the feeling of being full or satiated. Ozempic imitates this hormone, thereby, silencing the food chatter in the brain. Interestingly, for some people this food chatter is really quiet ( people with low appetite) and for others it is an outbrurst, (people who generally binge eat.) So with Ozempic, silencing this self-talk in the brain, people tend to lose their appetite and eventually weight.

However, it is important to note that losing weight includes not just fat but muscle as well. Losing too much muscle can lead to reduced strength and a shorter life span. Notably, records show that most people who start taking them stop it at 12 weeks; therefore, it is important for some but not for others.

Notably, last month, US pharma major Eli Lilly launched the obesity management drug Mounjaro in India at one-fifth of the US price. The company rolled out the drug in a single-dose vial following the marketing authorisation from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). It has been priced at Rs 3,500 for a 2.5 mg vial and Rs 4,375 for a 5 mg vial. "It is a first-of-its-kind treatment for obesity, overweight, and type 2 diabetes that activates both GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) hormone receptors," the company said.