LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A major outbreak of mumps in Arkansas and several other states continues to grow at an alarming rate, according to public health agencies.

Officials say there are more than 2,000 cases of the contagious viral infection in Arkansas. Mumps causes flu-like symptoms and swollen salivary glands in children but can cause more serious complications in adults.

Dr. Manisha Patel, a medical officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency still is trying to determine the reason for the current outbreak.

"CDC is looking very closely at understanding why there's been an increase in the number of cases this year, and we are working closely with health departments to better understand why there is an increase in this year," she said.

Patel said Arkansas has by far the most cases in a national outbreak of about 4,000 cases, the largest number in a decade. Other states with 100 or more cases include Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and Oklahoma.

She said most of the cases in Arkansas are in public schools, while it's mostly on college campuses elsewhere.

Patel said the largest recent outbreak in the U.S. was in 2006 when there were 6,500 cases. She said the best way to avoid mumps is to be properly vaccinated, but there are certain behaviors to avoid, as well.

"Crowding conditions, certain behaviors – if they're sharing cups and that kind of thing, anything that would share saliva – that's how the mumps virus is transmitted," she explained.

Meg Mirivel, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Health, said most of the people in the state who contracted mumps were current on their vaccines.

"About 90 percent of the school-age children who have been involved in the outbreak are up-to-date, and about 40 percent of the adults who are involved are up-to-date," she said.

Mirivel said doctors believe vaccines are limiting the disease to milder symptoms and fewer complications. She said a small number of Arkansas families use a state law to opt out of vaccinations for medical, philosophical and religious reasons but are not a major factor in the current outbreak.


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Florida lawmakers are taking steps to address the state's growing number of people with diabetes, by improving early detection and access to care.

Legislation would link diabetes patients to community health centers through the Florida Department of Health website. More than 2 million Floridians are diabetic, and another 5.8 million are at risk, according to the American Diabetes Association. Community health centers serve patients no matter their income or insurance status.

Dr. Wilhelmina Lewis, CEO of Florida Community Health Centers, said the clinics will be key to curbing the state's diabetes crisis.

"Because they really are whole person care," Lewis explained. "They're addressing not just one problem and not just acute needs but they're really looking at those social determinants or social drivers of health that can influence a person's health outcomes."

She acknowledged challenges remain in rural areas, where access to specialists and costly medications can be barriers. If passed, House Bill 1463 and Senate Bill 1676 would establish a Task Force on Diabetes Management, allow pharmacists to dispense diabetes supplies at capped costs and require insurance coverage for diabetes testing and screenings.

Diabetes care is gaining attention in Florida, with Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, proposing House Bill 723 to focus on early detection of childhood diabetes. The bill would require the Department of Health to collaborate with school districts to create informational materials for identifying Type 1 diabetes.

"For me this is an urgent, critical issue, as most parents (are) just not aware of the signs and symptoms of Type 1 diabetes until it happens to them, or until the disease has progressed to a stage that requires significant emergency medical care," Tant emphasized.

Early detection and intervention are critical, as diabetes can lead to severe complications, from heart disease and kidney failure to vision loss. Lewis noted their health center programs have made a difference, with patients seeing their hemoglobin A1C levels drop from dangerous highs to healthier ranges.

"When you have that team working on their care and they come in talking about how much better they feel, the weight they've lost and how much better their blood sugars are, and now they're not going to the emergency room, those are the success stories that we're hearing about and that we're really proud to be a part of," Lewis added.

However, funding and capacity challenges could limit the effect of services, with proposed budget cuts and Medicaid redetermination. Lewis stressed it is their mission to care for those in need but to do so will require more state and federal financial support.


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Almost two-thirds of Texans have skipped or postponed some form of health care in the past year because of cost.

That's according to a survey by Episcopal Health Foundation. Missed visits include everything from checkups to treatments and dentist appointments.

The foundation's Chief Communications Officer Brian Sasser said those polled see obesity and diabetes as two of the state's most pressing health concerns.

"When it comes to obesity and diabetes, what can we do, not just to treat the symptoms and just deal with it?" said Sasser. "What can we do to prevent it? And I think it starts with knowing that you're at risk. So that routine screening is key."

Research shows that diabetes-related health-care costs contribute between $6 billion and $8 billion annually to Medicaid in Texas.

This is the seventh year for the study and the results have largely stayed the same. The poll also shows that when patients received care, many struggled to pay the bill.

Younger adults, Black and Hispanic adults, and those with lower incomes say they have trouble affording medical bills compared with their counterparts.

Sasser said talk of potential cuts to health care is concerning.

"The changes that we potentially could see in Washington - Medicaid cuts and cuts to subsidies, and other things that help more Texans afford the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Plan," said Sasser, "how will these numbers look differently if large numbers of Texans lose health insurance?"

Other health-related issues Texans are concerned about include increasing housing costs, mental-health issues, and the opioid epidemic.

By Grey Moran for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Alex Gonzalez for Arizona News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration

As avian flu enters an even more virulent phase, federal funding for animal disease outbreak research has been caught in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration - one of many initiatives targeted by the ongoing, sweeping review of federal government spending. This coincides with a muzzling of the Centers of Disease Control and U.S. Department of Agriculture's public communications on avian flu.

The research in question, the Animal Health and Disease Research (AHDR) Capacity Program, is funded by the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a federal research and grantmaking body. "All NIFA Requests for Applications are currently under review," wrote Faith Peppers, the communications director for NIFA and liaison for multiple multistate research projects looking at aspects of avian flu, in a February 12th email to Sentient.

The NIFA program supporting avian flu and other animal disease research at universities and veterinary colleges was included on this spreadsheet, reported by the New York Times last month, that lists about 2,600 federal assistance programs under review.

For other science agencies, the review process has reportedly involved scouring federal assistance programs for a lengthy list of key words relating to diversity and equity, among other topics, to comply with the Trump Administration's executive orders.

"So they're going through [to] see which of those grants that are right now funded fall under this word classification," Channapatna Prakash, who previously served as the panel manager for the USDA's biotechnology risk assessment grant program, tells Sentient. "And I think they are going to sunset those grants." While it's not clear what this particular review process will look like, he assumes it is similar.

In recent years, the program's multi-state research funding has supported a wide range of scientific insights and innovations into the spread and prevention of avian flu, including research into "how avian influenza spreads from wild birds to poultry flocks," and the role of mallard ducks and contaminated water sources in spreading the virus.

The funding has also supported research into the "new vaccines and regimens to provide better protection against a broader range of avian influenza variants," and the development of tools and automated systems to better detect and surveil the virus and health of animals, according to the USDA's long list of the program's many avian flu research highlights.

For now, the program - which includes ongoing, collaborative research across land grant universities into avian flu - has not had funding frozen, Richard Rhodes III, the executive director of a coalition of agricultural experiment stations participating in the multi-state research projects in the northeast, told Sentient in a February 13th email.

However, the future of new projects under this program remains uncertain as application requests are being evaluated to comply with executive orders. Peppers didn't respond to a request to clarify whether this review also included any freeze on government spending, or questions about what the review entails and when it will conclude. Another U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson responded with the following statement, which appears to have also been sent to other journalism outlets:

"The Trump Administration rightfully has asked for a comprehensive review of all contracts, work, and personnel across all federal agencies. Anything that violates the President's Executive Orders will be subject for review. The Department of Agriculture will be happy to provide a response to interested parties once Brooke Rollins is confirmed and has the opportunity to analyze these reviews."

While the president has the authority to review federal contracts and funding arraignments, a freeze on funding while this is being carried out would be illegal, according to Adam Winkler, a lawyer specializing in constitutional law and a professor at the UCLA School of Law. "The president doesn't have authority to simply unilaterally cut off all of these federal funds just because he wants to get one of his policy goals furthered," Winkler tells Sentient.

The USDA also funds research into avian flu through the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP), which provides "tens of millions in funding to States, producer organizations, universities" to carry out projects on animal disease outbreaks threatening the livestock industry.

The current projects include a $455,649 award to Minnesota Department of Agriculture, funded through mid-2026, to research culling poultry infected or exposed to avian flu with nitrogen gas - a method considered less cruel than the mainstream culling method in the U.S. of killing birds en-mass by heat stroke.

The existing projects under this program also appear to not be disrupted or frozen at this time, according to a USDA spokesperson: "NADPRP funding for all current cooperative agreements that were started prior to January 20, 2025 are continuing and recipients (cooperators) are continuing those projects and receiving funds." The spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions, however, about the status of future agreements.

"As Trump, Elon Musk, and his DOGE team continue to reach out to make serious changes or close multiple important government agencies or de-fund critical programs, the only bright spot I see is the NADRP website (under APHIS) is still there," Dr. Pat Basu, the former chief public health veterinarian for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service under the Obama Administration, told Sentient in an email.

Yet as the Trump Administration continues to test the limits of its executive powers, this bright spot may be brief. "However, NADRP may be low on a priority list for DOGE, but it may still be cut off," wrote Basu. "If the NIH funding for ALL research can be cut off over the weekend, nothing seems off-limits for this team."


Grey Moran wrote this article for Sentient.


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