President Trump said Monday that the United States will help Russia amid a potential case of pneumonic plague, though he hasn't spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about it.
Why it matters: International concern spiked over the weekend over the news that a Russian lab worker had died from a possible case of pneumonic plague, reminding some of how the COVID-19 epidemic began.
A suspected pneumonic plague case in Russia rattled health officials, the White House and social media over the weekend, stoking fears about what might happen if the disease spreads around the world.
Why it matters: Pneumonic plague can spread between people and can be deadly without rapid treatment, but it moves differently than COVID-19 and is highly treatable with modern medicine.
The White House is monitoring a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in Russia, raising immediate concerns for scientists, researchers and health officials worldwide.
Why it matters: Pneumonic plague is the most dangerous form of plague and can spread between people through respiratory droplets. Without treatment, it is nearly always fatal, but antibiotics can be highly effective when started quickly.
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Olivia Walton, who's leading a $100 million, bipartisan effort to cut the U.S. maternal mortality rate in half by 2031, tells me maternal health is a solvable problem, with state governments "in the driver's seat."
"We have the medicine," Walton, who's also chair of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, told me last week on the sidelines of the annual Heartland Summit of the nonprofit Heartland Forward, which promotes economic development in America's geographic middle.
"We know what works. There are poorer and more rural countries around the world that are doing this better than we are. We also have pockets of what's working here in the United States."
Health systems that are scrambling to protect themselves against cyberattacks and data breaches have a new problem: unchecked AI agents.
The big picture: The expanding use of agents in health care is outpacing the industry's ability to police the technology, posing new safety and privacy concerns.
Digital security professionals are warning that hospitals and other organizations will have to think about safeguards in new ways to keep agents from exposing personal health information and violating laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The White House is monitoring reports of a suspected plague case and related quarantines in Russia, a Trump administration official told Axios on Sunday.
Driving the news: Russian health authorities have taken precautionary measures in response to the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague research facility, but have not confirmed that she contracted plague.
