Health

(NEW YORK) — Millions of COVID-19 reinfections have been reported across the country yet just 11 states confirmed they are actively tracking them, according to an ABC News analysis.

At least 18 states used to track infections but stopped once the public health emergency ended in May 2023.

Public health experts said tracking reinfections is important for understanding long-term complications and immunity from vaccination. Resources at health departments, however, are now being diverted to other areas that are in need. It comes even as COVID-19 hospitalizations tick up across the U.S., though experts say it’s no reason for concern yet.

“It takes an enormous amount of resources not only to track COVID in its own right but also to track those reinfections,” Dr. Richard Martinello, a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics in infectious diseases at the Yale School of Medicine, told ABC News. “I’m not surprised that we don’t have all of our communities doing this tracking because of the enormous resources that it takes and … that draws away from other important programs.”

More than 2.4 million COVID reinfections

Reinfection is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as someone becoming infected with COVID-19, recovering and then getting infected again, typically 90 days after the first bout.

ABC News contacted health departments in all 50 states. Many did not have the data readily available and at least 10 states said they never tracked reinfections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the 17 states that did provide tallies, at least 2.47 million people have tested positive more than once for COVID-19.

California and New York each recorded more than 600,000 reinfections, while North Carolina and Pennsylvania each recorded more than 200,000 reinfections.

“What was our hope, maybe in 2020, was that immunity for one episode of COVID would be lasting and durable and reinfection would be so much more unlikely but that’s not proven true, sadly,” said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Duke University School of Medicine. “So, as many folks would know, you can get reinfected multiple times.”

Experts said reinfections became even more common with the advent of the omicron variant, which was responsible for the winter wave of 2021-22, and its subsequent offshoots.

Typically, reinfections are mild but in certain populations they can be more severe, according to the CDC.

Why many states stopped tracking reinfections

Many state health departments told ABC News they stopped tracking COVID-19 reinfections either before or right as President Joe Biden ended the public health emergency in May 2023.

The end of the public health emergency meant doctors and labs were no longer required to report COVID-19 cases to state health departments. And with more people using rapid at-home tests to monitor illness — with results not required to be reported to officials — reinfections became harder to track.

“You can sort of almost think about it very similarly to flu,” Wolfe said. “We don’t concern ourselves with the accuracy of counting every single case of influenza or reinfection.”

Experts said it’s also labor-intensive and requires a lot of manpower to count and keep track of reinfection data.

Additionally, the stoppage of reinfection counting could be due to pandemic fatigue and a desire to return to normal or at least a sense of normalcy.

“There’s been a real desire by everyone to return to a state of normal and so as long as we are heavily tracking and reporting COVID numbers, things are not feeling normal,” Dr. Ashley Drews, Houston Methodist medical director of infection prevention and control, told ABC News.

Benefit to tracking reinfections

Reinfections are not being tracked as diligently but experts say there are benefits to doing so, even as we move into a new phase of learning to live with COVID.

Studies have shown that repeat infections can increase the risk of long-term health effects including long COVID and organ failure.

“If you’re talking about sort of risks of long COVID development, absolutely, we need to do a little bit more work there,” Wolfe said.

Moreover, tracking can help health care professionals understand how quickly immunity wanes after vaccination and how often boosters are needed.

“One, it gives us an idea of how well our protection is against infection, such as vaccination, and it gives us more information to draw from to better understand how to time revaccination for people,” Martinello said. “We’re expecting there to be a recommendation from the CDC for a fall vaccination … and we need to better understand what the appropriate timing of that vaccine is and whether an annual vaccine similar to what we do for flu is going to be sufficient for COVID.”

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(NEW YORK) — A new lawsuit claims the manufacturers of drugs used for weight loss, including Ozempic and Mounjaro, do not adequately warn consumers about the risk of an alleged side effect of the drugs.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Louisiana, focuses on gastroparesis, a severe form of delayed gastric emptying, described by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases as a “disorder that slows or stops the movement of food from your stomach to your small intestine.”

Diabetes is a known cause of gastroparesis, responsible for almost one-third of cases.

The lawsuit claims a 44-year-old woman with a history of diabetes took Ozempic for over one year, stopping in July, at which point she started using Mounjaro.

The woman, who lives in Louisiana, lost around 150 pounds on the two medications, according to her attorney, Paul Pennock, a New York City-based attorney for Morgan & Morgan,

According to the lawsuit, the woman, who has not been officially diagnosed with gastroparesis, suffered “severe gastrointestinal events,” including, “severe vomiting, stomach pain, [and] gastrointestinal burning.”

“Her problems have been so severe that she’s been to the emergency room multiple times, including last week,” Pennock told ABC News Wednesday.

The lawsuit alleges Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the manufacturers of Mounjaro and Ozempic, respectively, failed to adequately warn about the risk of gastroparesis.

“Had Plaintiff been warned of the increased risk of severe gastrointestinal events (e.g., gastroparesis and gastroenteritis) associated with Ozempic and Mounjaro, she would not have used Ozempic and Mounjaro and/or suffered from severe gastrointestinal events,” states the lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial.

Both Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe the medication “off-label” for weight loss, as permissible by the FDA.

Ozempic is one of a class of drugs called GLP-1 RAs that help people produce insulin and lower the amount of sugar in the blood. Ozempic, made from a compound called semaglutide, works by slowing down movement of food through the stomach and curbing appetite, thereby causing weight loss.

Mounjaro contains an active ingredient, tirzepatide, that works by activating two naturally produced hormones in the body: glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.

The combination is said to slow the emptying of the stomach, making people feel full longer, and suppress appetite by slowing hunger signals in the brain.

Mounjaro and Ozempic are both taken as a weekly injection.

Known side effects of both Mounjaro and Ozempic can include severe nausea and constipation.

There have been no official health warnings from doctors or government agencies regarding gastrointestinal side effects. The FDA and other experts encourage patients to discuss any medication side effect concerns, which could include nausea or vomiting that won’t stop, with their doctors.

Both medications come with clear warnings about their side effects, and a warning about a delay in “gastric emptying” is on the label.

Mounjaro’s website states the most common side effects of the drug include, “nausea, diarrhea, decreased appetite, vomiting, constipation, indigestion and stomach (abdominal) pain.”

Similarly, Ozempic’s website states the most common side effects of the drug may include, “nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach (abdominal) pain, and constipation.”

Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, told ABC News in a statement that “gastrointestinal events are well-known side effects,” adding the majority are “mild to moderate” and typically only occur for a “short duration” of time. It also said the drug has been used for over a decade, has been extensively studied and that gastroparesis can have a variety of causes.

Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro, told ABC News, “We actively engage in monitoring and reporting safety information for all our medicines.”

Dr. Devina Mehta, licensed dermatologist, is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(WASHINGTON) — A new immunization to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

The approved drug called nirsevimab, which will be marketed in the U.S. by Sanofi as Beyfortus, was recommended unanimously by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice for all children under 8 months old and signed off on by CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen, the last step in the regulatory process.

It comes less than two weeks after the Food and Drug Administration approved the shot, with both federal agencies saying it’s safe and effective at protecting infants against the risk of severe infection and hospitalization from RSV.

Beyfortus is a one-dose shot made of monoclonal antibodies, which are proteins manufactured in a lab and mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting an infection. Though given as an intramuscular injection, this shot is different than a vaccine, which activates the immune system.

Under the CDC’s decision, children 8-19 months old can receive another dose of the shot during their second RSV season if they are among a group of those still vulnerable to severe infection who meet specific health criteria or who are American Indian or Alaskan Native.

In addition, the advisory committee also passed a resolution to add this shot to the federally funded Vaccine for Children program that ensures children on Medicaid or those under and uninsured can receive the drug at no cost.

A spokesperson from Sanofi told ABC News that the shots are expected to be widely available this fall — in time for the upcoming winter respiratory illness season. It has already been approved for use in Europe as of November 2022.

The shot offers about five months’ worth of protection, which should carry young children through the typical RSV season.

“This works…without needing to activate their own immune system,” Dr. Michael Greenberg, North America medical head of Vaccines at Sanofi, told ABC News. “So this allows for a lot of flexibility and timing so it can be given according to when the RSV season starts, which in the U.S. is approximately November to March, and is designed to last through that and to be able to protect babies through that first RSV season.”

In the ACIP meeting on Thursday, Sanofi stated the retail price of the drug will be $495 and will be sold to the VFC program for $395.

In a phase III clinical trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, data showed Beyfortus reduced severe RSV infection by about 75% in late preterm and term infants.

Results from an earlier phase of the clinical trial studying effectiveness for preterm infants born 29 to less than 35 weeks’ gestation were comparable, showing a 70% reduction in infections requiring being seen in a physician’s office, emergency department or hospital.

Data also showed a 78% reduction in hospitalization and no major safety concerns.

“Today, we have turned the corner on the threat of RSV to our youngest, most vulnerable population,” Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president of vaccines at Sanofi, said after the committee meeting. “The ACIP’s unanimous recommendations for routine use of Beyfortus and inclusion in the Vaccines for Children program are critical steps toward providing millions of parents in the U.S. with the ability to protect their babies through their first RSV season, when they are most susceptible to severe RSV disease.”

“We appreciate the FDA and CDC leadership, as well as the ACIP public health experts, for recognizing and quickly acting on the threat RSV poses to all infants,” the statement continued.

Symptoms of RSV include coughing, fever, runny nose, sneezing, wheezing and a decrease in appetite, according to the CDC.

RSV typically causes a mild illness but can be dangerous for infants and babies, with an estimated 58,000 to 80,000 children under age 5 being hospitalized with the virus each year, the CDC said.

However, some are at an even greater risk of severe illness, including those born prematurely, immunocompromised children and those suffering from congenital heart and lung diseases.

Last year, cases of RSV appeared earlier than usual, filling up pediatric hospitals and putting stress on the health care system. Public health experts said they believed the surge was due to a lack of children who had been exposed to the virus during two years of pandemic lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.

Infections peaked in mid-November with more than 4,600 cases recorded in a week before declining, CDC data shows.

“As a pediatrician, I’ve been through a lot of winters with many, many babies getting sick and unfortunately sometimes getting hospitalized with RSV,” Greenberg said. “This was particularly acute last year…there were a lot of infants and children who were not only hospitalized with RSV, but we saw hospitals, pediatric intensive care units, literally over capacity and unable to accommodate all these babies. So why this is significant is that with the approval and now routine recommendation for the use of Beyfortus in all infants, we’re able to put those kinds of RSV seasons behind us. We’ve really turned a corner and we’re finally at a historic moment.”

Within the past year, the FDA approved two new RSV vaccines for adults over 60, who are also a high-risk group. Those are also expected to be available for the upcoming winter respiratory virus season.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A new heat wave has left 60 million people across 13 states under heat alerts Thursday.

Record or near-record high temperatures are possible Thursday in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where temperatures could reach 100 degrees. New Orleans could reach 98 degrees, and San Antonio may reach 102 degrees.

College Station, Texas, and Baton Rouge set new record temperatures on Wednesday, reaching 106 degrees and 102 degrees, respectively.  

An excessive heat warning has been issued for California and Arizona.

The heat wave is expected to come close to the Los Angeles metro area, where even Burbank is expected to get close to 100 degrees by this weekend.  The National Weather Service is warning residents without air conditioning that overnight lows in some inland areas could stay above 80 degrees, making it difficult for sensitive groups to cool off.

Flooding and severe storms

Severe storms and flooding are expected to continue from the Rockies to the Midwest.  On Wednesday, flash flooding was reported from Iowa to Missouri where more than 8 inches of rain fell in a short period of time.  In Utah, severe storms brought wind gusts up to 77 mph, while some in Missouri saw hail as big as tennis balls. On Thursday, severe weather is expected from Colorado all the way to Georgia, where damaging winds and huge hail will be the biggest threat, but an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.

Some of the severe weather will move into the Northeast late Thursday night into Friday.  On Friday, severe weather is possible from Pennsylvania through New York and into New England with damaging winds and large hail being the biggest threat.

Flood alerts have been issued for 11 states from Montana to Alabama, where slow-moving storms could bring 3 to 5 inches of rain in a short period of time and could produce flash flooding.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden recently announced his administration’s plans to push private insurance companies to offer the same coverage for mental health services as they do for physical health services, improving upon a well-known hole in America’s health care system, according to the White House.

“We must fulfill the promise of true mental health parity for all Americans. Now. Now. Today, my administration is announcing new steps to dramatically expand access to mental health care in America. Our plans would require health insurance plans to identify the gaps in the mental health care that they provide,” Biden said last week.

During his remarks, Biden said that nearly 70% of kids who need treatment for mental health or addiction can’t get it, and in 2020, less than half of adults diagnosed with mental illness received care.

Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Neera Tanded, joined “GMA3” Tuesday to discuss a new rule in the plan that aims to improve access and address the barriers to receiving care.

DEMARCO MORGAN: So let’s talk about the proposed rule there. What will it accomplish?

TANDEN: Well as the president outlined, today people don’t have access to health coverage if they need mental health care. Essentially, people with insurance too often have to pay out of pocket, because they simply can’t find a provider on their networks that the insurers provide them. So that’s a real challenge. What the president outlined is a rule that will require insurers to offer true coverage for mental health care, meaning they need to have enough doctors, mental health physicians, therapists on their network. They have to get rid of some of the roadblocks like prior authorization, and they have to make sure they’re reimbursing mental health care like they reimburse physical care.

EVA PILGRIM: What’s the timeline for this rule to go into effect?

TANDEN: We don’t have a date certain. We are working as fast as possible, but we expect the rule to be out very soon.

MORGAN: And we’ve talked about coverage. Let’s talk about the other two C’s, care and causes.

TANDEN: Absolutely. The president has a comprehensive approach to mental health care. This rule is really about coverage, means that you should have coverage from your insurer when you need it, but there’s a lot of need out there. And we want to make sure that people have care where they need it. That’s why the president has invested in additional clinics to ensure that there’s care wherever you need it, 24 hours, seven days a week, clinics throughout the country. There are now over 500 mental health and behavioral clinics that the president and the Congress have invested in. There’s also the 988 line. This was legislation created last year that created a 988 line for a lifeline, really, for anyone to call if they have mental health issues, concerns, suicidal thoughts, intense anxiety. It will connect you to the health care you really need.

PILGRIM: The mental health issue is a big problem in this country. It’s obviously something the president can’t do on his own. What’s he hopeful that Congress will do to help out here?

TANDEN: Well, the president has a proposal that invests $85 billion a year in mental health care – that is really in front of the Congress. We hope that they recognize that this is an important issue. Congress has taken important bipartisan steps. The bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year invested in mental health care in schools. It’s creating over 14,000 guidance counselors or it’s investing in 14,000 guidance counselors in schools across the country. So the Congress has acted in a bipartisan way in the past, and we hope it will continue to act in a bipartisan way to address this issue. This is not an issue in red America or blue America. All of America has challenges and we need to address them.

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(FLORIDA) — Cases of leprosy are rising in Florida, according to a new analysis published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) journal.

Although the disease is still rare in the U.S. — with just 159 cases reported in 2020 — a study released Monday from the EID and shared by the CDC found that Central Florida accounts for a bulk of those cases.

Central Florida appears to have the highest concentration of cases in the Sunshine State, with the region accounting for nearly one-fifth of reported cases in the U.S.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a lingering infectious disease caused by the acid-fast rod Mycobacterium leprae. The disease mostly impacts the skin and the peripheral nervous system, according to the EID. Today, the disease is curable with antibiotics.

“Leprosy has been historically uncommon in the United States; incidence peaked around 1983, and a drastic reduction in the annual number of documented cases occurred from the 1980s through 2000,” the EID said in its report. “However, since then, reports demonstrate a gradual increase in the incidence of leprosy in the United States.”

Most of the cases from 2020 were from Florida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York and Texas, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

In recent decades, cases have been from travelers coming to the U.S. Now, researchers are pointing out that roughly one-third of cases from 2015 to 2020 appear to have been acquired locally, suggesting the disease is being transmitted in the U.S., either from person-to-person or from contact with animals like armadillos.

In 2015, one Florida county reported an increase in leprosy cases, where three people were diagnosed with the disease in five months.

Barry Inman, an epidemiologist for the Brevard County Department of Health, previously told ABC News that some of those infections from 2015 came from people interacting with armadillos, a known carrier of the disease.

This story has been updated.

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(NEW YORK) — After several months of steady declines, COVID-19 hospitalizations appear to be ticking up again.

For the week ending July 22, hospitalizations rose 12% from the previous week from 7,165 to 8,035, according to data released Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While a double-digit percentage jump may seem scary, experts say these numbers are still among the lowest we have seen since the pandemic began and that there is no reason to panic just yet.

The 8,035 figure is the seventh lowest number of hospitalizations recorded since August 2020 — the earliest date for tracking weekly hospitalizations.

By comparison, weekly COVID hospitalizations during the peak of the omicron wave in January 2022 stood at 150,674, CDC data shows.

In the past few years, summer months have typically been accompanied by a bump in COVID cases. Experts say this time is different because previous increases involved a more infectious variant, such as delta or omicron, and less immunity from vaccines. This increase, however, doesn’t mean a wave is imminent.

“Everyone has to remember to take current data with a grain of salt,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. “There have always been challenges with surveillance like COVID, but that’s especially true right now, for a variety of reasons.”

This includes fewer resources being put toward COVID surveillance, less testing and people moving on from COVID.

“We have to be also very careful about interpreting changes in hospitalization data,” Brownstein, who is also an ABC News contributor, said. “Oftentimes, a percentage increase might seem scary, but when it’s off of small counts, the overall burden reflected will still be low in the population.”

He added, “Now, these could be signals of a worsening problem and so, from a public health standpoint, we should be looking at this data carefully to understand whether we might see a more significant way of the summer. But it’s not time yet to raise the alarm bells about COVID.”

The rise in hospitalizations was preceded by an increase in wastewater levels this past month across the country.

National wastewater levels containing traces of the virus have increased nearly 65% in the past month with the Northeast and South experiencing the highest levels.

Most health agencies are no longer tracking cases, which means it’s not clear how many Americans are really infected.

“Clearly the wastewater data is going up and we see it as a really good early signal,” Brownstein said. “But it could also reflect a lot of low acuity or even asymptomatic cases in the population, in which case, while it’s important, it may not be always a direct correlation with the true population burden of COVID.”

While wastewater signals community transmission and may serve as a strong proxy to determine how many people are infected with COVID, it comes with limitations, experts say.

Wastewater numbers may be impacted by variables like the number of samples, animal waste, or even rainwater and sometimes do not mirror case counts.

So far COVID deaths have not increased, with 494 deaths reported the week of July 1, the latest date for which data is available according to the CDC. This marks the lowest number reported since the start of pandemic.

This could always change because deaths are traditionally a lagging indicator.

Vaccine manufacturers have been developing booster shots targeting XBB.1.5, an offshoot of the omicron variant that was responsible for a majority of new cases in the past few months.

Health agencies are expected to provide guidance on the updated vaccines later this summer and the shots are slated to hit pharmacies in September.

“We don’t have a crystal ball exactly when it comes to COVID,” Brownstein said. “I think that all signs point to likely an increase in the fall as people come indoors. Now we’ll have a new booster so look for that guidance in September. Uptake in the vaccine booster will help to offset any consequences of any surge.”

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(NEW YORK) — Over 1.7 million women, nearly 3% of women of reproductive age in the United States, live in a county without access to abortion and with no access to maternity care, according to an analysis from ABC News and Boston Children’s Hospital. And 3.7 million, or 5.8% of women of reproductive age, live in a county without access to abortion and with no or low access to maternity care.

The data reflect an ongoing trend in maternal health in the U.S. found in previous research: places that restrict abortion also have fewer doctors providing care to pregnant people. Those states also have higher rates of maternal mortality and infant death, prior research shows.

“The same states that are most likely to be restrictive are also states that have been providing minimal services for a long time to women,” says Eugene Declercq, a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, who studies maternal mortality.

ABC News compared new data from the March of Dimes on maternity care deserts in the U.S. with data, originally published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, on counties without access to abortion within a 60-minute drive since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June of 2022.

The March of Dimes considers a county a maternity care desert if it does not have any obstetric providers and does not have any hospitals and birth centers offering obstetric care. It considers a county to have low access to maternity care if it has fewer than two hospitals or birth centers that offer obstetric care and fewer than 60 obstetric providers per 10,000 births.

The analysis showed that around 3.7 million — or 5.8% — of women of reproductive age in the U.S. live in a ‘double desert’ county that the March of Dimes considers having low access to maternity care or that is a maternity care desert, and that has no access to abortion services. Around 1.7 million women of reproductive age live in a county the March of Dimes considers a maternity care desert and do not have access to abortion.

The data reflects some consequences of the end of Roe vs Wade, said Yulin Hswen, assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco and author on the JAMA analysis. It “entraps women in cycles of hardship,” she said.

Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky have the largest numbers of women of reproductive age living in those ‘double deserts,’ according to the analysis.

“What we’re looking at is that the reality is one of forced parenthood for many people without access to abortion,” says Julia Strasser, assistant research professor of health policy and management at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “But then you don’t have the support services you need to be able to see someone through a pregnancy and delivery.”

There are two main types of risks to pregnancy in places without good access to pregnancy care services, Strasser says. The first is they might have to deliver in an emergency department where that care isn’t a core part of services. Second, they may not be able to get enough prenatal and postpartum care, which increases the risk for things like preterm birth, when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy have been completed, and maternal mortality.

Because of this, people living in maternity care deserts without access to abortion may have to continue a dangerous pregnancy or one they don’t want, and may also struggle to find the care they need during that pregnancy and delivery.

Abortion and maternity care aren’t unrelated, Strasser says, because it takes the same clinical skill set to provide abortion care as it does to respond to things like miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. “There’s not a bright red line between abortion care and the rest of pregnancy care,” says Strasser. “It’s really a compounding issue.”

That overlap may deepen going forward, Declercq says, because obstetricians may not want to work in places where they face restrictions on their ability to provide abortions and abortion-related care. “That will just exacerbate the problem,” he says.

Good access to maternity care is important everywhere in the U.S., but underinvestment in one aspect of pregnancy-related care is likely to coincide with underinvestment in others.

“This has never just been one thing,” Declercq says. “This is always the combination of a number of factors in terms of underfunding services, particularly for women.”

Dr. Benjamin Rader is a Computational Epidemiologist and Research Fellow with Boston Children’s Hospital. John Brownstein, Ph.D., is an ABC News contributor and the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School. They both contributed to this report.

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(FLORIDA) — Cases of leprosy are rising in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although the disease is still rare in the U.S. — with just 159 cases reported in 2020 — a new CDC analysis released Monday finds that Central Florida accounts for a bulk of those cases.

Central Florida appears to have the highest concentration of cases in the Sunshine State, with the region accounting for nearly one-fifth of reported cases in the U.S.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a lingering infectious disease caused by the acid-fast rod Mycobacterium leprae. The disease mostly impacts the skin and the peripheral nervous system, according to the CDC. Today, the disease is curable with antibiotics.

“Leprosy has been historically uncommon in the United States; incidence peaked around 1983, and a drastic reduction in the annual number of documented cases occurred from the 1980s through 2000,” the CDC said in its report. “However, since then, reports demonstrate a gradual increase in the incidence of leprosy in the United States.”

Most of the cases from 2020 were from Florida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York and Texas, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

In recent decades, cases have been from travelers coming to the U.S. Now, researchers are pointing out that roughly one-third of cases from 2015 to 2020 appear to have been acquired locally, suggesting the disease is being transmitted in the U.S., either from person-to-person or from contact with animals like armadillos.

In 2015, one Florida county reported an increase in leprosy cases, where three people were diagnosed with the disease in five months.

Barry Inman, an epidemiologist for the Brevard County Department of Health, previously told ABC News that some of those infections from 2015 came from people interacting with armadillos, a known carrier of the disease.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration announced Monday it is forming a new Office of Long COVID Research and Practice to study the condition and help those who have been diagnosed with it.

The office, which will be under the Department of Health and Human Services, “is charged with on-going coordination of the whole-of-government response to the longer-term effects of COVID-19,” according to a news release.

“The Office of Long COVID Research and Practice will enhance efforts being undertaken across the U.S. government to improve the lives of those who continue to experience the long-term impacts of the worst public health crisis in a century,” HHS Secretary Admiral Rachel Levine said in a statement.

“Bringing together the resources and expertise of federal, state, and local partners, patients, providers, researchers, and the business sector to answer the American people’s most urgent calls to action,” Levine said

Long COVID is a condition that occurs when patients still have symptoms at least four weeks after they have cleared the infection. In some cases, symptoms can be experienced for months or years.

The HHS estimates that anywhere from 7.7 million to 23 million Americans have developed long COVID after being infected with the virus.

Symptoms vary and can include fatigue, difficulty breathing, headaches, brain fog, joint and muscle pain and continued loss of taste and smell, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A CDC survey last year found 81% of adults with ongoing symptoms of COVID lasting three months or longer — or four out of five adults — are experiencing limitations in their daily activities compared to before they had the virus. Additionally, 25% said they were experiencing significant limitations.

It’s unclear what causes people to develop long COVID but research is ongoing.

The HHS also announced Monday that the National Institutes of Health is launching long COVID clinical trials through the RECOVER Initiative, which seeks to understand, treat and prevent long COVID.

The new clinical trials will explore possible treatments for extreme fatigue, sleep disturbances, changes in body function and cognitive dysfunction,

“As our nation continues to make strides in combating COVID-19, it is crucial that we address the impact of Long COVID and provide resources to those in need,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Last year, President Biden called on HHS to coordinate the response to Long COVID. The Official establishment of the Long COVID Coordinating office and the launch of the RECOVER clinical trials solidifies this issue as an ongoing priority.”

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