On the heels of measles cases popping up in North Dakota, local health officials stress the importance and safety of immunizations for young children.

The state Health and Human Services Department said the batch of new cases in Williams County all involve children who were unvaccinated. Measles is mostly common in kids who have not received their measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the disease is highly contagious, causing symptoms like fever, rash and a cough, with possible serious side effects including brain damage.

Lisa Edholm-Moch, administrator of Emmons County Public Health, warned parents still leery of scheduling a shot for their child.

"A lot of people think the disease is going to be a piece of cake, but kids will get sick," Edholm-Moch emphasized. "Forty percent of infected people will end up in the hospital. Some may have long-lasting health issues."

Health leaders said they understand people's personal and religious beliefs but confirmed the measles vaccine has a good track record. Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, with officials crediting a strong immunization program. But skepticism has pushed vaccination rates lower. North Dakota's cases follow bigger outbreaks in states like Texas, where deaths have been reported.

Edholm-Moch acknowledged vaccination rates are not where they should be in her county. She feels misinformation is getting in the way of relaying accurate messages to parents. For families who want to learn more, especially those with newborns, she noted there's a key timeline to follow.

"The first measles vaccination is mumps, measles and rubella, and that should be given after they're 12 months old," Edholm-Moch outlined. "It's repeated again after age four -- between ages four and six -- about the time they're ready to start kindergarten."

She added even if children do not get the second dose, they still have protection from the first but the follow-up is recommended. When a local outbreak does occur, Edholm-Moch pointed out babies can be vaccinated a little sooner, before their first birthday. The CDC said common, temporary side effects of receiving the MMR vaccine include a sore arm or fever. They have been linked to certain types of seizures but experts said the risk is small and has no long-term effects.


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Researchers from Washington and across North America have teamed up to develop a powerful new set of biological tools which could be a game changer for treating brain diseases.

Called "enhancer AAV vectors," they target genetic defects in specific cells without affecting surrounding cells, reducing side effects.

Dr. Bosiljka Tasic, director of molecular genetics at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, who worked on the project, said the goal of the research is to understand healthy brain function and then create tools to treat diseased brains.

"That usually has to happen through a focusing on specific cell types in the brain," Tasic explained. "We have to discover them, we have to find what's wrong with them, and then provide help to them."

Enhancer AAV vectors, she noted, consist of harmless viruses loaded with DNA, triggering a change in how the cell functions. Tasic pointed out the technology could be used to treat any number of brain-related diseases including ALS, Parkinson's and epilepsy.

Tasic pointed out her team now has many new enhancer AAV vectors, designed to affect hundreds of different kinds of cells, which are now available for free for other researchers to use and expand on. She added her team was just awarded another round of funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue to build tools targeting more cell types.

"What we can do now is we can access experimentally, look at the cells, poke them, ask what they do, turn them on and off, and look how that affects, for example, an organism's behavior," Tasic outlined.

AARP Washington and the Allen Institute are hosting a free virtual event called "Discovering the Science of the Aging Brain" on June 5, when experts will share more details about the research. People can sign up for the event at AARP.org/brainhealthWA.


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Starting next week, the Episcopal Health Foundation will be accepting applications for its next "Collaborating for Healthy Communities Initiative" to assist coalitions focusing on health disparities in Texas.

The 12-month program is designed to help collaboratives better serve their communities through coaching, resources and support.

Roosevelt Neely, community partnerships officer for the foundation, said the program is based on four basic pillars.

"Shared purpose, so really thinking about working together. Shared leadership, that's really saying we all have a stake in this, we all have a shared interest; and then we also focus on strategic action," Neely outlined. "It's great we all want to do something together, we all think this is important, but how do we actually make something happen?"

He pointed out the 2025-2026 cohort will focus on maternal health, food and nutrition security and diabetes prevention. The application period will run from June 13-July 13.

The Foundation works with organizations in 81 counties across Texas to address nonmedical drivers of health disparities. Neely noted in addition to focusing on the three main issues, groups selected must meet other criteria.

"You have to be a collaborative, a group that is made up of at least two organizations," Neely explained. "It needs to be a group that's working in one or more of EHF's 81 counties. And we want them to have some sort of challenge. This is supposed to be really trying to get you to conquer, to overcome whatever that challenge or challenges are."

Neely added at the end of the cohort, participants will receive $10,000 to help further their work.

"Because we're interested in seeing, in a pointed way, how EHF can support outcomes and closing disparities to health when it comes to those things," Neely emphasized. "What better way to do that than by supporting those collaboratives, across our service area, who are really interested also in those very same priorities for change?"

A nonprofit is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for not releasing records that could show beef industry influence in the upcoming dietary guidelines.

The Center for Biological Diversity says the dietary guidelines impact public health, and more than $40 billion in government spending.

Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director with the Center, said the Trump administration promised transparency - but missed a Freedom of Information Act deadline to release the findings in the documents.

She said Tennesseans deserve to know who's shaping the nutrition advice behind school meals and food programs.

"They play a huge role in the development of menus in places like schools," said Burd. "They're extremely important in developing what, for example, millions of American children are going to be eating every single day, and so we're looking for any early indication or any information about what they might say."

The USDA says final dietary guidelines could be out as soon as this summer.

But critics warn the Health Secretary may reject expert advice, favoring a report from what he calls his new Make America Healthy Again Commission, which they say downplays risks from foods such as beef, dairy and lard - despite links to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Burd said the MAHA report highlights major health threats to children, including exposure to harmful pesticides such as Glyphosate and Atrazine.

She noted that more than 300 million pounds of Glyphosate are used annually in the U.S. - and Atrazine is so toxic it's banned in 63 countries.

"Atrazine isn't used to grow broccoli, and spinach, and the kinds of foods that we know we should be increasing in our diets," said Burd. "Atrazine is used to grow feed corn that's used to feed animals in factory farms that are not producing, that are unbelievably unhealthy. It's used for biofuel production, and it's used to make high-fructose corn syrup."

She added that Atrazine contaminates the drinking water of 70 million Americans, and a Biden-era initiative aimed at cleaning up waterways contaminated with unsafe levels of atrazine would have only addressed about 1% of the affected sites.

"The Trump administration has, right now," said Burd, "the opportunity to take concrete steps to protect Americans from this powerful endocrine-disrupting chemical, that is more toxic than glyphosate, actually by an order of magnitude."

Burd added that Atrazine is associated with a wide range of reproductive health issues, including risks to pregnant women, fetuses, young children, and male reproductive systems - making it a chemical of major concern.