Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Jan. 12, 2026–Jan. 16, 2026.
Flu shows early signs of decline in U.S., but officials warn season may not have peaked
The AP (1/9, Stobbe) reported “U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline” two weeks ago, “but health officials say it’s not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.” New government data that were “posted Friday—for flu activity through” two weeks ago—“showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.” But, “some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there’s more suffering ahead.”
NBC News (1/9, Edwards) reported, “The flu is hitting children especially hard this season.” The CDC “reported Friday that the rate of kids and teenagers hospitalized with flu nationwide is the second highest in 15 years for this point in the season.”
You may also be interested in: 6 reasons patients avoid flu vaccination.
Study finds one in four Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are prescribed risky, brain-altering drugs
The Washington Post (1/12, Johnson) reports, “An estimated quarter of traditional Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are prescribed risky, brain-altering drugs despite years of clinical guidelines cautioning against the practice, a new study shows.” According to the Post, “the drugs fall into five broad categories—including antidepressants, antipsychotics, antidepressants and barbiturates—that may leave older adults in a drowsy, confused fog that can make them less steady on their feet and more prone to falls.” Although the study “found that overall prescriptions for these types of drugs for traditional Medicare beneficiaries fell from 2013 to 2021, their ‘potentially inappropriate’ use was significantly higher for people who are cognitively impaired or have dementia compared to people whose cognition was normal.” The findings were published in JAMA.
More Americans diagnosed with cancer are now surviving the disease, data show
The Washington Post (1/13, Chiu) reports that new data released Tuesday by the American Cancer Society (ACS) reveal that “more Americans diagnosed with cancer are now surviving the disease—marking a positive trend that experts say reflects the effectiveness of early prevention and detection strategies, and advancements in treatment and care.” Results from the ACS’s annual report “show for the first time that the five-year survival rate for all cancers has reached 70%, with the most notable survival gains occurring among people diagnosed with more fatal cancers such as myeloma (a blood cancer), liver cancer and lung cancer.” According to the report, “the cancer mortality rate has continued to decline through 2023, averting 4.8 million deaths since 1991.” The data were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
ABC News (1/13, Benadjaoud, Kindelan) reports that William Dahut, MD, ACS’s chief scientific officer, “cited lower tobacco use, more early detection screenings and improved therapies as the main factors propelling the rising survival rates. The ACS’s report did find, however, that while the mortality rate for cancer is declining, the incidence rate for more common cancers—including breast, endometrial, prostate and pancreatic cancers—continues to rise.” The organization projects that in 2026, “5,800 people will be diagnosed with cancer each day, reaching over 2 million diagnoses in total. More than 620,000 people are projected to die from cancer this year, according to the data.”
You may also be interested in: What patients should know about cancer screening and prevention.
Research shows vaccine exemption rates have increased in more than half of U.S. counties since start of COVID-19 pandemic
CNN (1/14, McPhillips) reports that new research published Wednesday in JAMA show that “exemption rates for vaccines that are typically required to attend school have increased in more than half of U.S. counties since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.” While “nonmedical reasons for exemption” are driving the trend, exemptions for medical reasons “have remained stable.” The researchers “compared the average rate of vaccine exemptions among kindergartners at the county level during a period before the COVID-19 pandemic to more recent years.” They found that “the median rate of nonmedical exemptions increased from an average of 0.6% in 2010-2011 to more than 3% in 2023-2024, while medical exemptions remained stable.” Notably, “about 53.5% of U.S. counties saw nonmedical vaccine exemptions rise at least 1% when comparing between 2010-2020 and 2021-2024.”
You may also be interested in: Confused about vaccines? Talk with your physician.
CDC studies show wastewater testing can detect measles days to months before diagnoses
The AP (1/15, Shastri) reports, “Wastewater testing can alert public health officials to measles infections days to months before cases are confirmed by [physicians], researchers said in two studies published Thursday” in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the CDC. Colorado health authorities “were able to get ahead of the highly contagious virus by tracking its presence in sewer systems, researchers wrote. And Oregon researchers found wastewater could have warned them of an outbreak more than two months before the first person tested positive.” Meanwhile, “the national wastewater surveillance system, run by CDC since 2020, is newly at risk from a “budget plan” that “would slash its funding from about $125 million a year to about $25 million.” The studies can be found here and here (PDF).
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