Dozens of people in Wisconsin have been sickened and at least five needed emergency medical services after inadvertently eating pizza tainted with Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive compound in cannabis, officials of Public Health Madison & Dane County reported late Friday.

The contamination, which health officials called "unintentional," occurred at Famous Yeti’s Pizza in Stoughton between October 22 and October 24. In a news release, the local health department advised customers to throw away any pizza they had from the restaurant during that time period.

"We want to be sure anyone who has this pizza on hand throws it away so they don't get sick," Bonnie Armstrong, director of Environmental Health at Public Health Madison & Dane County, said in the release. "If you ate the pizza and are experiencing THC-related symptoms, please contact your health care provider or call 911 if your symptoms worsen."

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News and talk of GLP-1 drugs are everywhere these days—from their smash success in treating Type 2 diabetes and obesity to their astronomical pricing, drug shortages, compounding disputes, and what sometimes seems like an ever-growing list of other conditions the drugs could potentially treat. There are new headlines every day.

Although the drugs have abruptly stolen the spotlight in recent years, researchers have been toiling away at developing and understanding them for decades, stretching back to the 1970s. Despite all the time and effort, the drugs still hold mysteries and unknowns. For instance, researchers thought for years that they worked directly in the gut to decrease blood sugar levels and make people feel full. After all, the drugs mimic an incretin hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1, that does exactly that. But, instead, studies have since found that they work in the brain.

In fact, the molecular receptors for GLP-1 are sprinkled in many places around the body. They're found in the central nervous system, the heart, blood vessels, liver, and kidney. Their presence in the brain even plays a role in inflammation. As such, research on GLP-1 continues to flourish as scientists work to understand the role it could play in treating a range of other chronic conditions.

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Big-name fast food chains, including Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King, are reportedly pulling onions off their menus in certain locations amid a deadly, multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders.

Though the source of the outbreak bacteria has not been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading suspects are the beef patties and the sliced onions used on the popular burger.

On Wednesday, McDonald's onion supplier Taylor Farms recalled peeled and diced yellow onion products, according to a notice from US Foods, a supplier of food service operations.

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As H5N1 bird flu continues to spread wildly among California dairy herds and farmworkers, federal health officials on Thursday offered some relatively good news about Missouri: The wily avian influenza virus does not appear to have spread from the state's sole human case, which otherwise remains a mystery.

On September 6, the Missouri Health department announced that a person with underlying health conditions tested positive for bird flu, and later testing indicated that it was an H5N1 strain related to the one currently circulating among US dairy cows. But, state and federal health officials were—and still are—stumped as to how that person became infected. The person had no known contact with infected animals and no contact with any obviously suspect animal products. No dairy herds in Missouri have tested positive, and no poultry farms had reported recent outbreaks, either. To date, all other human cases of H5N1 have been among farmworkers who had contact with H5N1-infected animals.

But aside from the puzzle, attention turned to the possibility that the unexplained Missouri case had passed on the infection to those around them. A household contact had symptoms at the same time as the person—aka the index case—and at least six health care workers developed illnesses after interacting with the person. One of the six had tested negative for bird flu around the time of their illness, but questions remained about the other five.

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One person is dead and 48 others across 10 states have been sickened in an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that appears to be linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders and the slivered onions used on the burgers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

McDonald's has paused distribution of the slivered onions and removed Quarter Pounders from the menus of restaurants in areas known to be affected. As of now, those areas include Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

However, the CDC was quick to note that the size and span of the outbreak are likely larger than is currently known. "This outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses, and the true number of sick people is likely much higher than the number reported," the agency said in its outbreak notice posted Tuesday afternoon.

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Amid ongoing legal battles over coveted GLP-1 therapies, a drug vendor in Washington state is accused of running an outlandish scheme to sell do-it-yourself kits to make illicit knockoff versions of weight-loss and diabetes drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro.

For the alleged scheme, vendor Pivotal Peptides has customers buy a set of ingredients they have to mix together to create their own injectable versions of the drugs. Customers don't need a prescription or even a medical consultation to order the kit, even though the brand-name drugs are prescription-only. That may not be surprising, though, since the dubious white powder customers receive is stated to be "a research chemical for lab research and veterinary purposes only." Once purchased, the kit's instructions recommend users disinfect their home work surface before beginning and stress the importance of using the sterile water included in the kit to dissolve the powder to the desired concentration. The instructions then explain how to inject oneself with the homemade mixture using a 30-gauge syringe.

That's all according to a lawsuit filed Monday by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, maker of tirzepatide-based Zepbound and Mounjaro, which are sold as ready-to-use medicines in single-dose pens or vials. The lawsuit against Pivotal Peptides is one of three that Lilly filed this week, all accusing questionable drugmakers of unlawfully selling knockoff versions of its tirzepatide drugs that have not been tested or approved. But the one against Pivotal Peptides stands out for the scheme the owners allegedly used to sell their knockoff version.

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Measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus—devastating and sometimes deadly diseases await comebacks in the US as more and more parents are declining routine childhood vaccines that have proved safe and effective.

The vaccination rates among kindergartners have fallen once again, dipping into the range of 92 percent in the 2023–2024 school year, down from about 93 percent the previous school year and 95 percent in 2019–2020. That's according to an analysis of the latest vaccination data published today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The analysis also found that vaccination exemptions rose to an all-time high of 3.3 percent, up from 3 percent in the previous school year. The rise in exemptions is nearly entirely driven by non-medical exemptions—in other words, religious or philosophical exemptions. Only 0.2 percent of all vaccination exemptions are medically justified.

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Another nationwide meat recall is underway over Listeria contamination—and it's far more formidable than the last.

As of October 15, meat supplier BrucePac, of Durant, Oklahoma, is recalling 11.8 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products after routine federal safety testing found Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially deadly bacterium, in samples of the company's poultry. The finding triggered an immediate recall, which was first issued on October 9. But, officials are still working to understand the extent of the contamination—and struggling to identify the hundreds of potentially contaminated products.

"Because we sell to other companies who resell, repackage, or use our products as ingredients in other foods, we do not have a list of retail products that contain our recalled items," BrucePac said in a statement updated October 15.

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Facing a lawsuit, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to reconsider its decision to take popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs off of the national shortage list, which will allow compounding pharmacies to continue selling cheaper copycat versions—at least for now.

A trade organization representing compounding pharmacies sued the agency last week over its October 2 announcement that there was no longer a shortage of tirzepatide drugs, branded as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss. The products, members of the extremely popular and effective class of GLP-1 drugs, had been on the shortage list since December 2022.

Being on the list meant that compounding pharmacies were legally allowed to make "essentially copies" of the products; the only time these pharmacies—also called outsourcing facilities—can make imitation versions of approved drugs, such as tirzepatide, is when the products appear on the shortage list. So, with the FDA's announcement, compounders were immediately barred from making any more of the lucrative drugs and had 60 days to fulfill existing orders.

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Has your dentist ever told you that it's recommended to get routine dental X-rays every year? My (former) dentist's office did this year—in writing, even. And they claimed that the recommendation came from the American Dental Association.

It's a common refrain from dentists, but it's false. The American Dental Association does not recommend annual routine X-rays. And this is not new; it's been that way for well over a decade.

The association's guidelines from 2012 recommended that adults who don't have an increased risk of dental caries (myself included) need only bitewing X-rays of the back teeth every two to three years. Even people with a higher risk of caries can go as long as 18 months between bitewings. The guidelines also note that X-rays should not be preemptively used to look for problems: "Radiographic screening for the purpose of detecting disease before clinical examination should not be performed," the guidelines read. In other words, dentists are supposed to examine your teeth before they take any X-rays.

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More than 86 percent of healthcare providers surveyed across the US are experiencing shortages of intravenous fluids after Hurricane Helene's rampage took out a manufacturing plant in western North Carolina that makes 60 percent of the country's supply.

IV fluids are used for everything from intravenous rehydration to drug delivery. The plant also made peritoneal dialysis fluids used to treat kidney failure.

Premier, a group purchasing organization for medical supplies that counts thousands of hospitals and health systems among its members, surveyed 257 such providers earlier this week. The poll makes clear that supplies are unsurprisingly imperiled.

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If you're going to eat a bear, make sure it's not rare.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that once the beast has been subdued, all danger has passed. But you might still be in for a scare. The animal's flesh can be riddled with encased worm larvae, which, upon being eaten, will gladly reproduce in your innards and let their offspring roam the rest of your person, including invading your brain and heart. To defeat these savage squirmers, all one must do is cook the meat to at least 165° Fahrenheit.

But that simple solution continues to be ignored, according to a report today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In this week's issue, health officials in North Carolina report that rare bear meat was served at a November 23 gathering, where at least 22 people ate the meat and at least 10 developed symptoms of a worm infection. Of the 10, six were kids and teens between the ages of 10 and 18.

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Compounding pharmacies are suing the Food and Drug Administration so they can keep making imitation versions of popular—and lucrative—tirzepatide drugs, namely knockoffs of Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss.

Generally, compounding pharmacies make customized formulations of drugs for patients with specific needs, like when a patient has an allergy to a filler ingredient or if a child needs a liquid version of a drug that normally comes as a capsule. But larger compounding operations are also legally allowed to make imitations of branded drugs if those drugs are in short supply, acting as a stopgap for patients.

Tirzepatide has certainly been in short supply in recent years. Given the high prevalence of diabetes and obesity in America and the drug's effectiveness, demand for tirzepatide and other drugs in the new GLP-1 class have skyrocketed, and many patients have struggled to fill prescriptions. The FDA placed tirzepatide on its drug shortage list in December of 2022—and that's where it remained until last week.

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Many people may be surprised to learn the proper procedure for taking a blood pressure reading—because of how different it is from what happens during their doctor's appointments.

According to the American Heart Association and other medical experts, getting an accurate reading requires following a strict set of preparations: You must not eat, drink, exercise, or smoke within 30 minutes of a reading. You must have an empty bladder. You must sit straight up in a chair with back support. Your legs must be uncrossed and your feet must be flat on the ground. The arm to be measured must be rested on a flat surface so that it is at the same level as your heart, not lower, not higher. You must sit calmly, without talking for five minutes to relax before the reading. When it's time, an appropriately sized cuff should be wrapped around your bare upper arm, right above the elbow; it should never be wrapped over clothing. At least two readings should be taken, with the average recorded. Ideally, readings should be taken in both arms, with the highest readings recorded.

Credit: American Heart Association

Deviations from this protocol have the potential to significantly alter your blood pressure reading—and your blood pressure category. For instance, putting the blood pressure cuff over clothing can raise your reading as much as 50 mm Hg. That's enough to make someone with early stage hypertension seem as if they're in a hypertensive crisis, at imminent risk of a stroke or heart attack. If you have to pee, the reading can be 15 mm Hg higher. Talking can raise it by 10 mm Hg.

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The legal saga over Martin Shkreli's infamous 5,000 percent price hike of a life-saving anti-parasitic drug has ended with a flat denial from the highest court in the land.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected Shkreli's petition to appeal an order to return $64.6 million in profits from the pricing scheme of Daraprim, a decades-old drug used to treat toxoplasmosis. The condition is caused by a single-celled parasite that can be deadly for newborns and people with compromised immune systems, such as people who have HIV, cancer, or an organ transplant.

Federal prosecutors successfully argued in courts that Shkreli orchestrated an illegal anticompetitive scheme that allowed him to dramatically raise the price of Daraprim overnight. When Shkreli and his pharmaceutical company, Vyera (formerly Turing), bought the rights to the drug in 2015, the price of a single pill jumped to $750 after being priced between $13.50 and $17.50 earlier that year. And Shkreli quickly came to epitomize callous greed in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Hurricane Helene's catastrophic damage and flooding to the Southeastern states may affect the country's medical supply chain.

Hospitals nationwide are bracing for a possible shortage of essential intravenous fluids after the cataclysmic storm inundated a vital manufacturing plant in North Carolina.

The plant is Baxter International's North Cove manufacturing facility in Marion, which is about 35 miles northeast of Asheville. Helene unleashed unprecedented amounts of rain throughout the western part of the state, killing dozens and ravaging numerous communities, homes, and other structures, including the plant.

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Two California dairy farm workers who had contact with H5N1-infected cows have contracted an H5 avian influenza virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Thursday evening.

In a news release from earlier today, California's health department announced only one presumptive positive case awaiting confirmation from the CDC. In that case, the person's illness was reported to be mild, with the only symptom being conjunctivitis (eye redness). This echoes the experience of other H5N1 human cases in this outbreak. The person is said to be staying at home and taking an antiviral flu medication.

In its media statement Thursday evening, the CDC reported confirming two cases. "At this time, there is no known link or contact between the first and second confirmed cases in California, suggesting these are separate instances of animal-to-human spread of the virus," the CDC said.

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Any striking marketing claims in companies' ads about the gut benefits of a popular probiotic may be full of, well, the same thing that has their target audience backed up.

In a randomized controlled trial, the probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis—used in many probiotic products, including Dannon's Activia yogurts—did nothing to improve bowel health in people with constipation, according to data from a randomized triple-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.

The study adds to a mixed and mostly unconvincing body of scientific literature on the bowel benefits of the bacterium, substrains of which are sometimes sold with faux scientific-sounding names in products. Dannon, for instance, previously marketed its substrain, DN-173 010, as "Bifidus regularis."

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The co-owner of a Chicago-based lab has pleaded guilty for his role in a COVID testing scam that raked in millions—which he used to buy stocks, cryptocurrency, and several luxury cars while still squirreling away over $6 million in his personal bank account.

Zishan Alvi, 45, of Inverness, Illinois, co-owned LabElite, which federal prosecutors say billed the federal government for COVID-19 tests that were either never performed or were performed with purposefully inadequate components to render them futile. Customers who sought testing from LabElite—sometimes for clearance to travel or have contact with vulnerable people—received either no results or results indicating they were negative for the deadly virus.

The scam, which ran from around February 2021 to about February 2022, made over $83 million total in fraudulent payments from the federal government's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which covered the cost of COVID-19 testing for people without insurance during the height of the pandemic. Local media coverage indicated that people who sought testing at LabElite were discouraged from providing health insurance information.

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