Health & Medicine
Vaccines, treatments and public-health milestones, checked against the evidence.
Chile has gone 54 years without a rabies case from a dog, and it can now prove it
The Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization have validated Chile as having eliminated dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem, the first country in South America to be verified. Its last human case from the dog-carried variant of the virus was in 1972.
Bhutan has eliminated dog-transmitted rabies, the first country in its region
The World Health Organization has validated Bhutan as having eliminated dog-mediated human rabies as a public health problem, the first country in its South-East Asia Region to do it, after more than three years without a death.
Timor-Leste has eliminated trachoma, and cleared it from an entire WHO region
The World Health Organization validated Timor-Leste on 3 September 2026 as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. It was the last country in WHO's South-East Asia Region where the disease still counted as one.
The first oral drug approved for dermatomyositis doubled the share of patients whose skin cleared
For decades, people with dermatomyositis have been treated with steroids and with drugs borrowed from other diseases. On 27 August the US Food and Drug Administration approved a once daily tablet aimed at this one. Among trial participants whose skin was worst affected, 45.7 percent reached clear or almost clear skin after a year, against 21.8 percent on placebo.
A daily statin cut heart attacks and strokes by 30 percent in healthy over-70s
For decades, the trials behind cholesterol-lowering pills left out the people most likely to have a heart attack. A study of 9,971 Australians aged 70 and over has now asked the question directly, and found that heart attacks, strokes and cardiac deaths fell to 6.0 percent from 8.3 percent over almost six years.
A drug aimed at RAS has nearly doubled survival in advanced pancreatic cancer
The FDA has approved daraxonrasib, the first medicine targeting the RAS family of proteins to reach pancreatic cancer. In a 500-patient trial, median survival was 13.2 months against 6.7 on chemotherapy.
Babies in intensive care with RSV halved in England in the first full winter of vaccinating in pregnancy, 63 against 132 the year before
Across the 20 English hospital trusts that count them, 63 babies under six months needed intensive care for RSV last winter, against 132 the winter before. It was the first full season after the NHS began offering the vaccine to pregnant women, and about six in ten took it.
US overdose deaths fell for a third straight year, to 69,973 in 2025
The CDC's first count for 2025, still incomplete, puts drug overdose deaths in the United States at 69,973, down almost 14 percent from 81,313 the year before and roughly 40,000 below the pandemic peak.
Bangladesh has cut maternal deaths by 79 percent and met a global target early
The World Health Organization recognised Bangladesh on 8 September 2026 for reaching the Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality target ahead of the 2030 deadline. Its maternal mortality ratio fell from 523 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 115 in 2023.
A bacterium carried by mosquitoes has cut dengue in one Brazilian city by 88.8 percent
Seven years after Niteroi released mosquitoes carrying a dengue-blocking bacterium, reported cases are 88.8 percent below the city's own decade-long baseline, and the bacterium is still there.
The first mRNA flu vaccine is licensed, after a quarter fewer illnesses than the standard shot
US regulators have licensed MFLUSIVA, the first influenza vaccine of any kind made from messenger RNA. In a trial of 40,703 adults aged 50 and over, confirmed flu illness was 26.6 percent lower than with a licensed standard-dose shot.
The first narcolepsy medicine that treats the cause, not the symptoms
US regulators have approved oveporexton for narcolepsy type 1, the first medicine to restore the brain signal whose loss causes the disease rather than managing one symptom at a time.
A new class of antibiotic clears gonorrhoea as well as the standard injection
Two doses of a tablet cleared gonorrhoea from 92.6 percent of patients in a 628-person trial, against 91.2 percent for the standard injection and tablet. US regulators approved it in December 2025.
The first oral PCSK9 cholesterol drug wins FDA approval
A once-daily tablet has become the first swallowable version of one of the most effective cholesterol drugs, lowering LDL cholesterol by about 56 percent in the trials that won it approval.
Chile becomes the second country ever to eliminate leprosy
The WHO verified Chile's elimination of leprosy in March 2026, only the second country worldwide and the first in the Americas.
A new kind of ADHD medicine is approved in the US, the first to act on three brain chemicals at once
US regulators have approved centanafadine, the first ADHD drug of its class. In four trials it beat a placebo on symptom scores at six weeks, and its label is candid about the risks that come with it.
A drug pair beats chemotherapy before bladder cancer surgery
In a trial of 808 people, 79.4 percent of those given two newer drugs before and after bladder surgery were alive with no return of their cancer two years later, against 66.2 percent on the standard chemotherapy.
England recorded zero cervical cancer deaths in young HPV-vaccinated women
A Lancet analysis found no cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20 to 24 in England, among the generations offered the HPV vaccine at age 12 to 13.
El Salvador has eliminated trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness
The World Health Organization has validated El Salvador as free of trachoma as a public health problem, the first country in Central America to stop the world's leading infectious cause of blindness.
A twice-a-year injection to prevent HIV wins WHO backing
Lenacapavir prevented HIV with near-total efficacy in trials, and in 2025 both the FDA and the WHO backed it for prevention.
The malaria vaccine is working, and it is saving children's lives
Four years into the first real world rollout, the evidence is in, and it is measured in children who are still alive.
