The current measles outbreak has gripped US states like Texas and New Mexico leaving people worried whether it would become a new pandemic. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services as of February 21, 90 cases were diagnosed in the last month in the South Plains area, with at least 77 of them were reported in children and teens under 17.

Measles is highly contagious and can be deadly. The outbreak, which started spreading in late January, has resulted in multiple hospitalizations, with at least nine confirmed cases and three probable cases as of early February. Health officials caution that at least one in five infected individuals will have to be hospitalized, highlighting the severity of the situation.

Misinformation surrounding vaccines and with the new Trump administration anti-vaccine campaigs, has causing parents to hesitate or refuse vaccination.

Furthermore, the country down under Australia is also witnessing a surge in measles cases as health officials in Sydney have issued an urgent alert, urging residents to watch for measles symptoms after an infected individual visited several places in Sydney over the last seven days.

Authorities report that the traveller had returned from South East Asia where there are ongoing outbreaks of measles.

What Are The Symptoms Measles?

Key symptoms of measles include fever, a runny nose, sore eyes, and a cough. Typically, a red, blotchy rash appears three to four days later, spreading from the head down to the body. Symptoms can manifest between 7 and 18 days after exposure.

Anyone who experiences these symptoms after potential exposure should immediately contact their doctor or emergency department. It is crucial to call ahead before visiting to avoid potentially exposing others in the waiting room. Dr. Selvey also highlighted that ongoing measles outbreaks are occurring in various parts of the world, making awareness and prompt action essential.

Why It Is Important To Get Vaccinated?

According to CDC everyone should get the MMR vaccine. It protects you from measles, mumps, and rubella. Getting vaccinated helps stop these diseases from spreading. There are two safe MMR vaccines available. They work the same way, so it doesn't matter which one you get. Kids can also get a shot that protects against chickenpox too, but this is only for children.

Who Should Get Vaccinated?

Kids Need Two Shots

All children should get two MMR shots. The first shot should be given when they are between 12 and 15 months old. The second shot should be given when they are between 4 and 6 years old. If needed, the second shot can be given earlier, but it must be at least 28 days after the first shot.

College Students Need to Be Protected

Students going to college or other schools after high school, need two shots if they are not already immune. The shots must be at least 28 days apart.

Adults Need at Least One Shot

Most adults need at least one MMR shot. Some adults need two shots, especially those who work in healthcare, travel a lot, or go to college. These people should get two shots, with 28 days between them.

Travelers Need to Be Extra Careful

Anyone traveling to other countries should make sure they are protected. Babies 6 to 11 months old should get one shot before traveling. Kids 12 months and older, teens, and adults need two shots, with 28 days between them.

Healthcare Workers Must Be Immune

People who work in healthcare should have proof that they are immune to measles, mumps, and rubella. If they are not immune, they need two MMR shots, spaced 28 days apart.

Women Thinking About Having Babies

Women who might get pregnant should talk to their doctor about the MMR vaccine. It's safe to get the shot while breastfeeding.

A deadly meningitis outbreak in Kent has claimed two young lives and left several others seriously ill, prompting health authorities to urgently warn students and young people in the area.

According to reports, the outbreak involves invasive meningitis, a severe infection that spreads quickly and can become life threatening within hours. One of the victims was a student at the University of Kent, while the other was a Year 13 pupil from Faversham. Most of the affected individuals are between 18 and 21 years old, and several are university students.

Health officials say at least 11 people from the Canterbury area have been hospitalized and are currently receiving treatment.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has begun contacting more than 30,000 students, staff members, and their families to inform them about the outbreak and the precautions being taken.

Read: Meningitis Outbreak: University of Kent Student Among Two Who Died of the ‘Invasive’ Disease

Strain B Identified As The Cause

Government scientists have now confirmed that the outbreak is caused by meningococcal strain B, a type of bacteria that many young people have not been vaccinated against.

Gayatri Amirthalingam, deputy director of immunization and vaccine preventable diseases at the UKHSA, said laboratory testing identified the strain responsible for the cluster of infections.

She explained that teenagers in the UK usually receive a meningococcal vaccine around the age of 13 or 14, but that vaccine protects against strains A, C, W, and Y, not strain B.

This means many teenagers and young adults remain vulnerable unless they received the meningitis B vaccine privately.

Why Many Young People Are Not Vaccinated

The meningitis B vaccine was introduced into the UK’s National Health Service routine immunization schedule for babies in 2015.

As a result, people born before 2015 would not have received the vaccine through the public programme. Some may have chosen to get it privately, but many did not.

Private vaccination can cost between £100 and £120 per dose in the UK, and a full course generally requires two doses.

Experts say this gap in vaccination coverage may partly explain why university-age students are susceptible during outbreaks.

Antibiotics Being Offered As Preventive Measure

Health authorities are urging anyone who may have been exposed to the infection to take preventive antibiotics immediately. UKHSA has specifically advised people who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury between 5 and 7 March to come forward for antibiotic treatment as a precaution.

Officials say taking antibiotics quickly can help stop the bacteria from developing into disease and also prevent it from spreading to others. Amirthalingam reassured students that those who have received antibiotics can safely travel home and be around family members.

Can Sharing Vapes Spread The Infection?

The disease spreads mainly through close contact, including activities where saliva is shared. Amirthalingam noted that sharing vapes can be one possible route of transmission, although it is not the only one.

Experts say anything that goes into the mouth, including drinks, cigarettes, or vapes, can potentially pass bacteria from one person to another.

Because meningococcal bacteria can live in the throat and nose, close social contact among students often increases the risk during outbreaks.

What Is Meningitis?

Meningitis is an infection that causes inflammation of the meninges, the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The illness is most often caused by bacterial or viral infections, although fungal and other causes are also possible.

Symptoms can include fever, headache, stiff neck, confusion, and sensitivity to light. In severe cases, bacterial meningitis can lead to hearing loss, neurological complications, or death if treatment is delayed.

Doctors stress that early recognition and immediate medical care are critical because the condition can worsen rapidly within a few hours.

"God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how."

This is what Justice JB Pardiwala said, quoting Henry Ward Beecher to allow India's first ever passive euthanasia for Harish Rana. AIIMS Delhi has now started protocols to implement the Supreme Court verdict for Harish Rana's passive euthanasia. Sources and several reports have mentioned that the process could take two to three weeks.

How Is AIIMS Delhi Preparing For Passive Euthanasia?

A specialized team headed by professor and head of the department of anesthesia and palliative medicine, Dr Seema Mishra, has been constituted to implement the process. The team comprises doctors from departments of neurosurgery, onco-anesthesia, and palliative medicine, and psychiatry.

“The process generally involves withholding or withdrawing the nutritional support gradually while ensuring adequate pain relief. The patient is given palliative sedation so that he or she is not in distress. Life support measures such as artificial nutrition, oxygen and medications are slowly withdrawn. The aim is not to prolong nor hasten death,” Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, former head of the department of onco-anaesthesia, pain and palliative care, AIIMS-Delhi.

Harish Rana Update

A video from Rana's home in Ghaziabad showed that relatives were offering prayers and a member of the Brahma Kumaris put a 'tilak' on his forehead. She said, "Sabko maaf karte hue, sabse maafi mange hue, so jaao...theek hai." Which loosely translates to: Forgiving everyone and asking forgiveness from everyone. Now sleep. It's okay.

The Brahma Kumari seen in the video was Sister Lovely from Mohan Nagar Seva Kendra in Ghaziabad. Komal, who is also a member of Brahma Kumaris based in Mount Abu, told this to news agency Press Trust of India (PTI). "She is following a ritual with the words that mean he (Harish) leave the world in a happy state, seeking and giving forgiveness...it is part of a meditative chant that comforts the soul and eases the entire process of soul merging with the sublime," she told PTI.

According to Komal, alongside medical consultations, the family also sought spiritual guidance as they prepared for the inevitable after the Supreme Court’s directions.

Read: Harish Rana Case Brings Spotlight On How Passive Euthanasia Has Evolved Over The Years

Harish Rana's Passive Euthanasia

The Supreme Court of India, in a landmark judgment allowed 32-year-old Harish Rana, who had been living in a vegetative state for last 13 years, the right to die. This means, that the apex court allowed passive euthanasia for Rana. The bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala an Justice KV Vishwanathan allowed the withdrawal of life support of Rana, who has been in a coma and kept alive on tubes for breathing and nutrition after he sustained severe head injuries following a fall from a building in 2013 in Chandigarh.

The judgment is a win, however, Ashok, Rana's father said that his feelings are mixed. "As a father, this is extremely painful. But on humanitarian grounds, this is the best we can do for my son." He continued, "It is just not a matter of my son, but there are many others in such a state in the country. I think it is the grace of God who guided the Supreme Court judges... I am happy that with this judgments, many others may find a way."

Tech giant Microsoft's new artificial intelligence model GigaTIME will help reduce time and cost as well as expand access to cancer care, said CEO Satya Nadella today.

Nadella noted that its multimodal AI system has shown promise in transforming routine pathology slides into detailed spatial proteomics data -- a high-resolution map of proteins.

The advanced technology may help doctors analyze tumors faster, thus bringing hope to millions of cancer patients worldwide for a better and faster diagnosis.

Taking to social media platform X, Nadella said: “We’ve trained a multimodal AI model to turn routine pathology slides into spatial proteomics, with the potential to reduce time and cost while expanding access to cancer care”.

What is GigaTIME

GigaTIME is a multimodal AI model for translating routinely available hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology slides to virtual multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) images.

H&E is the "gold standard" technique in pathology for diagnosing cancer. The mIF images share details of proteins and their locations in cancer cells, thus advancing precision immuno-oncology research.

Developed in collaboration with Providence and the University of Washington, the team trained GigaTIME on a dataset of 40 million cells with paired H&E and mIF images across 21 protein channels.

The multimodal AI, which analyzed standard pathology slides, showed the potential to generate a “virtual population” of tumor cells. It also revealed the detailed protein activity within cancer cells.

The images also offer deeper insights into how tumors behave and disease progression, enabling doctors to cut down the time and cost of diagnosis.

“GigaTIME is about unlocking insights that were previously out of reach,” explained Carlo Bifulco, chief medical officer of Providence Genomics and medical director of cancer genomics and precision oncology at the Providence Cancer Institute, in a Microsoft Blogpost

“By analyzing the tumor microenvironment of thousands of patients, GigaTIME has the potential to accelerate discoveries that will shape the future of precision oncology and improve patient outcomes,” Bifulco added.

How GigaTIME Works

In the paper, detailed in the journal Cell, scientists from Microsoft reported that they applied GigaTIME to 14,256 cancer patients from 51 hospitals and over a thousand clinics.

The AI system generated a virtual population of around 300,000 mIF images spanning 24 cancer types and 306 cancer subtypes.

This virtual population uncovered 1,234 statistically significant associations linking mIF protein activations with key clinical attributes such as biomarkers, staging, and patient survival.

"By translating readily available H&E pathology slides into high-resolution virtual mIF data, GigaTIME provides a novel research framework for exploring precision immuno-oncology through population-scale TIME analysis and discovery," the researchers said.

"The GigaTIME model is publicly available to help accelerate clinical research in precision oncology," they added.