Infectious DiseaseAug 22, 2026
Cyclosporiasis can look like an ordinary stomach bug at first, but the pattern is different: watery diarrhea that drags on for weeks, or clears and comes back, often with heavy fatigue, cramps, lost appetite, bloating, gas, and sometimes weight loss. It comes from Cyclospora cayetanensis, a parasite picked up from contaminated food or water. Right now, during the May-through-August U.S. season, it is worth asking about if symptoms started about a week after fresh produce, including recalled iceberg lettuce, or after travel to a higher-risk region. You cannot confirm it from symptoms; that takes a stool test that specifically looks for Cyclospora.
CholesterolAug 22, 2026
Lipfendra (enlicitide) is the first once-daily oral PCSK9 inhibitor, a pill that lowered LDL cholesterol by about 56 percent beyond a placebo pill in a roughly 2,900-person trial. Its reported list price is about $315 a month, but it has not yet been shown to prevent heart attacks or strokes.
Food SafetyAug 22, 2026
If you already ate the recalled Publix GreenWise frozen whole blueberries or mixed berries and feel fine, don't reach for a stool test or a course of antibiotics. Stop eating the product, clean whatever it touched, and watch for E. coli symptoms for up to nine days. Get medical care if warning signs appear, because this is a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli outbreak, where antibiotics and anti-diarrheal drugs can raise complication risk. The recall is narrow, so start by checking whether the berries in your freezer match the recalled products.
CancerAug 22, 2026
If your high-risk melanoma has been fully removed, a personalized mRNA vaccine may help keep it from coming back. In a phase 2b trial, adding intismeran autogene (formerly mRNA-4157 or V940) to pembrolizumab led to fewer recurrences and fewer distant metastases than pembrolizumab alone. On August 19, 2026, Moderna and Merck said the larger phase 3 trial met its recurrence and distant-metastasis endpoints. But the vaccine isn't approved, and its topline release gave no effect sizes or survival data. The proven move today is still standard adjuvant care after surgery.
Food SafetyAug 22, 2026
If those Calco or Everything Sprouts alfalfa sprouts are still in your fridge, throw them out. You can't rinse them safe, because these bacteria grow inside the sprout, not on the surface. If you already ate them, watch for one to two weeks: diarrhea, stomach cramps, and fever. Get medical care early if the diarrhea turns bloody or you notice you're urinating less.
