From 6 April 2025, we’re expanding the list of pathogens that Registered Medical Professionals and laboratories in England must notify us about. The changes will strengthen local and national surveillance and support a prompt response to outbreaks of infectious diseases. …
Changes to health protection notification regulations (NOIDs) Read More »
In this blog post we take a behind-the-scenes look at the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL), where our scientists work to safeguard public health from rare and deadly diseases. Our laboratories RIPL is the UK’s frontline clinical diagnostic laboratory …
Behind the Scenes at RIPL: Protecting the UK from deadly diseases Read More »
This blog post summarises the key points about Lassa fever and what UKHSA does when a case of an infectious disease such as Lassa fever is identified in the UK.
What are the symptoms of Lassa fever and how is it spread? Read More »
Cardiovascular disease, including stroke, remains the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the latest data from the American Heart Association (AHA).
Lifestyle interventions, including healthy dietary changes and regular exercise, are some of the most effective methods of prevention against cardiovascular disease (CVD).
A lesser-known tactic involves a secret weapon you might already have in your medicine cabinet: dental floss.
Flossing should be part of any regular oral care routine, but it could also have significant beneficial effects on heart and brain health.
New research shows that regular flossing was associated with a significantly lower risk of certain forms of stroke and atrial fibrillation (AFib). The findings are being presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2025 this week.
“We have known that gum disease and dental caries are risk factors for stroke and heart attack. Flossing is already known to reduce the rate of heart attack,” Souvik Sen, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Neurology, Prisma Health Richland Hospital and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, and author of the research, told Healthline.
“Our research suggests that dental flossing can reduce the risk of stroke, and higher frequency of flossing leads to further reduction of stroke.”
Researchers analyzed the data of more than 6,000 participants in the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort study, which began in 1987. The study utilizes a comprehensive questionnaire to assess various lifestyle factors and behaviors on atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries).
Sen and his team were specifically interested in the association of flossing, independent of other oral care factors such as brushing and regular dentist visits, on cardiovascular disease outcomes.
About 65% of the cohort (4,092) reported flossing. Over a 25-year follow-up period, 434 participants experienced strokes, with 97 of those identified as a specific subtype called a cardioembolic stroke, in which a blood clot travels from the heart to the brain.
Compared to those who did not report flossing, flossers experienced a 22% lower risk of ischemic stroke and a 44% lower risk of cardioembolic stroke.
Flossing was also associated with a 12% lower risk of atrial fibrillation, the most common form of irregular heartbeat. AFib is also the leading cause of cardioembolic strokes.
“There is an increasing awareness of the role of inflammation in the development of AFib and it will be interesting to have more research into this association and, if true, the potential mechanism,” Rod Passman, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Arrhythmia Research at Northwestern University who wasn’t affiliated with the research, told Healthline.
“Studies like this are limited by the self-reporting and the potential for confounders — do people who floss also engage in other activities that may be good for their heart that may not be measured in the study,” Passman cautioned.
The mechanism for why flossing may reduce stroke risk isn’t yet certain, but researchers are honing in on the role of inflammation as a risk factor for heart disease.
“Oral health behaviors are linked to inflammation and artery hardening. Flossing may reduce stroke risk by lowering oral infections and inflammation and encouraging other healthy habits,” said Sen.
Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the gums that can lead to chronic inflammation.
As with other forms of inflammation, evidence suggests that periodontitis may be linked to cardiovascular disease. The link also suggests that good oral health habits like brushing and flossing may be a potential lifestyle factor for reducing cardiovascular disease risk.
Researchers investigated additional links between oral health, the gut, and stroke risk and presented their findings this week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference.
Lead researcher Shuichi Tonomura, MD, staff physician in the department of neurology at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Osaka, Japan, identified an apparent association between the presence of the bacteria Streptococcus anginosus and stroke.
Streptococcus anginosus commonly lives in both the oral and gut microbiota, but Tonomura and his team found that it was abundant in the gut of stroke survivors.
In fact, the amount of streptococcus anginosus in the saliva and the gut was associated with both a higher risk of stroke and worse outcomes, including death and other major cardiovascular events, following a stroke.
“I want to propose that examining gut microbiota patterns has been suggested to be potentially useful for assessing stroke risk and prognosis,” Tonomura told Healthline.
Both Tonomura and Sen’s research highlights the complex relationship between oral health and cardiovascular disease, and points to new areas for research into prevention.
Tonomura suggested that Streptococcus anginosus could one day serve as a biomarker to help determine stroke risk and that targeting harmful bacteria through proper oral health strategies could lower your risk of stroke.
According to Sen, regular flossing may also be a relatively easy way to improve oral health and also help prevent cardiovascular disease.
“Dental flossing could be an added and inexpensive health behavior one could adapt to prevent one from having a stroke,” said Sen.
Doctors attributed nearly 1 million deaths to cardiovascular disease in 2022, the most recent year included in the AHA’s 2025 annual report on heart disease and stroke.
To put that in more concrete terms: on average, one person in the U.S. dies from CVD every 34 seconds.
“Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, a trend that has persisted for over a century,” corresponding author Latha P. Palaniappan, MD, FAHA, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford Medicine, told Healthline.
Cardiovascular disease is responsible for more deaths than all forms of cancer and accidental death (which includes drug overdose and car accidents) — the number two and three causes of death in the U.S. — combined.
Making meaningful, actionable changes to improve your overall health can help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. For better heart health, Palaniappan suggested following the AHA’s Life’s Essential 8 checklist:
Cardiovascular disease, including stroke, remains the leading cause of death for Americans. Modifiable risk factors, including diet and exercise, continue to play a crucial role in lowering your risk.
Researchers are focusing on the role of poor oral health as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Conversely, good oral health habits, such as flossing, may reduce your risk, new research suggests.
Flossing may be a simple, inexpensive way to lower your risk of certain forms of cardiovascular disease, like AFib and stroke.
Regular Flossing Linked to Better Heart Health, Reduced Stroke, AFib Risk Read More »
The bird flu outbreak continues to spread across the United States.
Over the last 30 days, the H5N1 avian flu has been confirmed in 107 flocks (66 commercial and 41 backyard) in 18 states and has affected nearly 18 million birds.
Since the outbreak began in 2022, 145 million chickens, turkeys, and other birds have been slaughtered to keep the virus from spreading. It should be noted that there are nearly 380 million egg-laying chickens and more than 9 billion broiler chickens in the U.S.
Despite the spread of bird flu in animals, experts say the risk of humans contracting the illness remains low. Since March 2024, there have been 67 confirmed cases of avian flu in humans and only one associated death in the U.S.
“There is no evidence to suggest that properly handled, stored, and cooked eggs can lead to avian influenza infections in people,” Timothy Brewer, MD, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California Los Angeles, told Healthline.
Nonetheless, the bird flu outbreak has raised concerns about the illness spreading to people. It also has sent the price of eggs skyrocketing, leading to a nationwide egg shortage.
The latest figures from December show that the average price for a dozen eggs in the United States has hit $4.15. That isn’t as high as the record price of $4.82 per dozen set two years ago, but it is still double the price from summer 2023. In addition, federal agricultural officials expect the cost of eggs to rise another 20% in 2025.
Part of the reason for the increase in price is that an infection of just a few birds forces poultry farmers to slaughter an entire flock to contain the outbreak. It can then take weeks for the carcasses to be removed and a new flock to be brought in, reducing the supply of eggs and driving up the price.
The avian flu has been detected in dairy cows in the past.
However, experts say pasteurized milk is safe to drink since the heated pasteurization process kills the bird flu virus. Some raw milk products, though, may pose a bird flu risk.
Raw pet food has also been linked to bird flu disease-related illness and death in cats.
However, bird flu has not been detected in chicken and beef products for human consumption. Still, experts recommend thoroughly cooking meat to kill any potential traces of the bird flu virus.
When it comes to eggs, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials say there are simple safety precautions you can take to lower the risk of illnesses, such as choosing pasteurized eggs.
When purchasing and storing eggs, the FDA urges consumers to:
“In general, I recommend avoiding buying cracked eggs or eggs past their expiration date,” said Brewer. “I am not aware of any data to suggest that organic eggs are safer than non-organic eggs. The same biosafety regulations apply to both.”
William Schaffner, MD, a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, agreed.
“The public can buy eggs with confidence. Eggs have a strong safety record. Eggs, whether white, brown, organic, or pasteurized, all are safe,” he told Healthline.
When cooking eggs, FDA officials recommend:
“Pasteurized eggs have a lower risk of infection because pasteurization is effective in killing viruses including avian influenza and bacteria,” Brewer noted.
“Persons concerned about food safety should consider using pasteurized eggs when eating raw or undercooked eggs. There is no infectious risk difference between pasteurized and non-pasteurized eggs when eggs are properly cooked.”
If you suspect that you or another person has contracted a foodborne illness, contact a healthcare professional immediately.
The bird flu outbreak continues to spread in the U.S., affecting more than 100 flocks in 18 states over the past 30 days. However, the risk of a person contracting the illness is low.
Federal officials recommend that consumers purchase only refrigerated eggs. They add that eggs should be immediately refrigerated once they are brought home.
Pasteurized eggs have a lower risk of infection since the process effectively kills viruses and bacteria, but thoroughly cooking unpasteurized eggs is also considered safe.
They add that eggs should be cooked until the yolk and white are firm, and scrambled eggs should be cooked until they are fluffy and not runny.
Buying Eggs During the Bird Flu Outbreak? Here’s What You Should Know Read More »
Choosing a doctor and a hospital is one of the most important health decisions a person can make.
However, these decisions can be difficult if they are done in an information vacuum.
This is where Healthgrades, an information website dedicated to empowering meaningful connections between patients, doctors, and hospitals, can help.
On January 28, Healthgrades, a top platform for finding a doctor, announced its 2025 America’s Best Hospital Awards. The list highlights the country’s 1%, 2%, and 5% top hospitals with the following awards:
In determining the rankings, Healthgrades, a leader in healthcare transparency, evaluated clinical performances at 4,500 hospitals across more than 30 common procedures and conditions.
Healthgrades officials wrote in a statement their “clinically validated methodology focuses solely on what matters most — patient outcomes — empowering consumers to choose doctors who practice at high quality hospitals.”
“While there are several factors to consider when looking for a doctor, hospital quality is one that can have a critical impact on a patient’s overall quality of care,” Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer and head of data science at Healthgrades, said in the statement.
“That’s why Healthgrades remains committed to helping patients find top-performing hospitals in their area. We want all patients to feel as confident and equipped as possible when it comes to choosing a doctor and hospital.”
Healthgrades officials noted “the persistent performance gap between the nation’s highest and lowest performers underscores the importance of ensuring that consumers have access to objective measures of hospital quality.”
According to Healthgrades’ annual analysis, if all hospitals performed similarly to America’s 250 Best Hospitals, 174,081 lives could be saved.
Healthgrades officials also noted that a “lack of access to the highest quality care poses a major challenge to informed healthcare decision making for half of the U.S. population.”
They point to recent research from Healthgrades that revealed that nearly half (47%) of Americans live more than 25 miles from one of the 250 best hospitals. In fact, 15 states lack a hospital that performs in the top 5%, creating a significant challenge for 37 million Americans in their pursuit of quality healthcare.
Experts in the medical field say rankings for hospitals and other health professionals can play a critical role in helping consumers find the best quality care.
Nancy Foster, the vice president of Quality & Safety Policy at the American Hospital Association, noted that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website has a Care Compare component that shows how a hospital compares to national and state averages on key measures of quality.
Foster added that the American Hospital Association has endorsed a set of principles for quality report cards and rating systems that call for them to have a clearly stated purpose with measures selected to fit this purpose.
“When making healthcare decisions, patients can and should use all available tools at their disposal such as talking with friends and family and consulting with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers who know their specific healthcare needs,” she told Healthline.
Healthgrades’ top 50 hospitals were from 20 different states.
California was the home of 11 of the medical facilities while Pennsylvania had seven and Florida had five.
Here is the list of all 50 hospitals.
Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix
Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Berkeley
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Northridge
Memorial Medical Center, Modesto
Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, Burlingame
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, Mission Hills
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, San Diego
Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Encinitas
Stanford Health Care, Stanford
Sutter Roseville Medical Center, Roseville
Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk
Advent Health Orlando, Orlando
Cape Coral Hospital, Cape Coral
Downtown Baker Hospital, Naples
Lee Memorial Hospital, Fort Myers
Mayo Clinic in Florida, Jacksonville
Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Atlanta
Emory University Hospital, Atlanta
Emory University Hospital Midtown, Atlanta
Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge
University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore
Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington
Ascension Providence Hospital – Southfield Campus, Detroit
Beaumont Hospital Troy, Detroit
Mayo Clinic Health System Mankaro, Mankato
Mayo Clinic Hospital, St. Mary’s Campus, Rochester
Morristown Medical Center, Morristown
Overlook Medical Center, Summit
Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City
Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook
Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie
Mission Hospital, Asheville
Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital, Fairfield
Mercy Health – West Hospital, Cincinnati
Summa Health System – Akron Campus, Akron
The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, Cincinnati
Chester County Hospital, West Chester
Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster
Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey
Reading Hospital, Reading
Riddle Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia
St. Luke’s Hospital – Bethlehem Campus, Bethlehem
Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston
Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg
Evergreenhealth Medical Center – Kirkland, Kirkland
Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Milwaukee
The health information website Healthgrades has released its annual list of the top 250 hospitals in the United States.
Healthgrades also narrowed down that list to the top 100 hospitals and the top 50 hospitals.
California had 11 of the medical facilities named in the top 50 while Pennsylvania had seven and Florida had five.
Experts say hospital rankings can be valuable for consumers when choosing a hospital or doctor.
Healthgrades and Healthline are part of the RVO Health portfolio of brands.
America’s Best Hospitals for 2025 Named by Healthgrades Read More »
President Donald Trump began his first day in office on January 20 with a slew of executive orders to fulfill his campaign promises.
The conservative agenda reverses many Biden-era policies, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement and jeopardizing necessary emissions reductions to help fight climate change.
Trump also pardoned around 1,500 people with criminal charges or convictions who were involved in the insurrection on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, and deployed military personnel to the U.S.–Mexico border.
Yet the new administration’s decision to pull the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO) may have significant long-term impacts that could endanger public health, not just in the U.S. but globally. The White House cited the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as one factor behind the move to withdraw.
“That’s a big one,” Trump said before signing the executive order with his trademark Sharpie marker. As with all executive orders, however, withdrawal from the WHO will require congressional approval before it can take effect.
The U.S. contributes more than $100 million annually to the WHO, making it the organization’s top donor. These funds help with readiness and response efforts for public health issues and support global efforts around routine childhood immunization, tuberculosis, and HIV treatment and prevention.
Removing funding from these public health initiatives could threaten any progress made in global health, particularly in developing countries reliant on funding. Healthline Media has contacted the WHO for comment.
“The new administration’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) is very unfortunate,” said Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
“The WHO is being blamed in the U.S. for the COVID-19 response, but U.S. politics was not the fault of the WHO. The WHO plays a critical role in responding to worldwide outbreaks, advocating for global equity, approving vaccines, forming treatment guidelines, etc. and I hope the U.S. will recognize its pivotal importance as the health arm of the UN and reconsider,” Gandhi told Healthline.
During his first term as president, Trump began the process of withdrawing from the WHO after claiming it had responded poorly to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former President Joe Biden reversed this attempt on his first day in office in January 2021.
Trump’s second term marks a return to the 2020 sentiment. The January 20 executive order cites the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises.”
Yet Gandhi noted that the COVID-19 response was varied across countries and was particularly political in the U.S.
“But the WHO did not advocate the particularly controversial measures of lockdowns and extended school closures; instead, their guidance left such responses up to different countries who acted accordingly,” Gandhi said.
William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told Healthline that despite any criticism over the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s still “better to be part of the organization and help it improve, rather than being outside of it and just critiquing.”
“The World Health Organization is incredibly important in organizing the world’s response to a whole array of illnesses, particularly communicable diseases,” Schaffner said.
The executive order states the WHO failed to “adopt urgently needed reforms” and noted the agency’s “inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” as other reasons for the U.S. withdrawal.
It also notes that China donates far less to the WHO than the U.S. despite its larger population. “The WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” the executive order states.
Still, the United States is a major sponsor of the World Health Organization. Cutting off funding could be consequential for aiding public health programs in developing countries.
“In the context of pandemics, it organizes the world’s public health response, and the United States, by being a participant, helps to formulate those responses. Our capacity to do that will be curtailed because the World Health Organization plays such a strong role,” Schaffner explained.
“Viruses don’t require passports to move around the world. Our capacity to gather information and
apply that information for the protection of our own population is, in part, dependent on our relationships with other countries, and that works most smoothly with the World Health Organization,” he continued.
“In recent years, there have been two pandemics that have concerned us — COVID and Mpox — and both were coordinated. We got that information because if we know what’s happening over there, we can best protect our population over here. And, of course, that applies to all countries as well,” he said.
Schaffner explained that funding to the WHO is necessary to help the developing world and also protect the health of the domestic population in the U.S.
While many political leaders and lawmakers on both sides criticized the WHO’s response to COVID-19 in 2020, many criticized Trump’s move to withdraw from the agency during the pandemic.
In 2020, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on the social platform X that withdrawing from the WHO was “an act of true senselessness.”
Fast forward to 2025, and experts still agree.
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Ashish Jha, MD, former COVID-19 response coordinator for the White House during the Biden administration, called Trump’s decision to withdraw from the WHO a “strategic error.”
“WHO is a pretty essential organization — and with America’s withdrawal, it creates a political vacuum that only one country can fill — and that is China,” Jha said in the interview.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in a post on X that Trump’s withdrawal from WHO was “the most momentous of all” of the executive orders announced on day one of Trump’s second term.
“It’s a cataclysmic presidential decision. Withdrawal is a grievous wound to world health, but a still deeper wound to the US,” Gostin wrote.
President Trump began his first day in office by signing a series of executive orders reversing many Biden-era policies.
Among them, Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the WHO, cutting off funding for important global health initiatives.
Experts have expressed concern over the executive order, which will require approval from Congress before taking effect.
Trump Orders US to Withdraw from WHO. How It Could Impact Public Health Read More »
