Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Feb. 2, 2026–Feb. 6, 2026.
CDC says at least 588 U.S. measles cases reported in January
ABC News (1/30, Benadjaoud, Kekatos) reported CDC data released last week revealed at least 588 measles cases confirmed so far this year nationwide. The results suggest the U.S. “has seen more cases in about one month than is typically recorded in an entire year.” Across the country, “at least 17 states have also reported measles cases this year,” with nearly all cases “tied to ongoing outbreaks in pockets of undervaccinated or unvaccinated communities.” The elevated case counts are “largely being driven by a measles outbreak in South Carolina.”
Reuters (1/30, Sunny, Mahatole) added that the South Carolina Department of Public Health “reported 847 measles cases on Friday...including 58 additional infections since Tuesday.” Of those infected, “760 were unvaccinated, 15 were partially vaccinated with one of the recommended two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccines, 20 were fully vaccinated and 52 had unknown vaccination status.”
You may also be interested in: What doctors wish patients knew about measles.
Men develop greater risk for cardiovascular disease years earlier than women, study suggests
CNN (2/2, Koda) reports a study found that “men develop a greater risk of cardiovascular disease years earlier than women —starting at around age 35.” The report “followed more than 5,000 adults from young adulthood and found that men reached clinically significant levels of cardiovascular disease about seven years earlier than women.” Prior to their early 30s, researchers stated that “men and women had similar short-term cardiovascular risk. But at around age 35, the risk began to diverge. Men began to face a consistently higher 10-year risk than women.” Over the follow-up period, they observed that “men developed cardiovascular disease earlier than women. By about age 50, 5% of men had developed cardiovascular disease—nearly seven years earlier than women, who reached the same level around age 57. Specifically for coronary heart disease, the difference in risk between men and women was even more pronounced.” The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Congress passes funding bill with new rules on PBMs, telehealth, hospital-at-home measures
Modern Healthcare (2/3, McAuliff, Subscription Publication) reports Congress “finally passed significant health care legislation Tuesday featuring new rules on pharmacy benefit managers and a measure of certainty for telehealth and hospital-at-home providers. The legislation funds most of the federal government, including the Health and Human Services Department, and provides $4.6 billion for community health centers this year.” The PBM provisions include “extensive reporting and transparency requirements while also requiring PBMs to pass the rebates they earn from drugmakers through to health plans and patients. Instead of taking a cut of the rebates they secure, the PBMs will have to charge a set fee.” Regarding telehealth, “the bill includes a two-year extension of rules first permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic that dramatically expand the remote services physicians can bill to Medicare. The measure provides a five-year extension for acute hospital-at-home coverage under Medicare.” The President later Tuesday “signed the bill into law.”
PAHO calls for increased surveillance, vaccination amid rising measles cases
Reuters (2/4, Rajan, Pandey) reports the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Wednesday “called for intensifying epidemiological surveillance and vaccination, as a widening outbreak led to a spike in measles cases across the Americas.” PAHO’s alert comes in response to growing “cases and outbreaks across several countries in the region, amid a sustained rise in measles infections in 2025 compared with the previous five years, a trend that appears to be continuing. During the first three weeks of 2026, an additional 1,031 measles cases were confirmed in seven countries, with the highest cases reported in Mexico and the United States.” Notably, Canada lost its measles elimination status in November “after nearly three decades due to its failure to curb a year-long outbreak, a loss that also resulted in the Americas region losing the status.”
You may also be interested in: AMA urges public to get vaccinated against measles as cases rise.
Patients diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 had worse short-term survival than those diagnosed between 2015 and 2019
The AP (2/5, Stobbe) reports, “During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts worried that disruptions to cancer diagnosis and treatment would cost lives,” and new research “suggests they were right.” Investigators “found that people diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 had worse short-term survival than those diagnosed between 2015 and 2019.” This “was true across a range of cancers, and whether they were diagnosed at a late or early stage.” The findings were published in JAMA Oncology.
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