Tracking rates of childhood vaccination across the United States, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday shows concerning trends, persisting gaps, and missed opportunities to use one of the greatest tools modern medicine offers to prevent disease and protect public health.

The Department of Health and Human Services declaration that the impending landfall of Hurricane Michael on Florida’s panhandle poses a public health emergency is one of a series of steps that will be critical to addressing the medical needs and infectious disease impacts that accompany catastrophic storms and their aftermaths.

Clinicians prescribed antibiotics without an infection-related diagnosis nearly half of the time and one in five prescriptions were provided without an in-person visit, according to research being presented at IDWeek 2018. The study, which is the first to look at overall outpatient antibiotic prescribing, analyzed more than half a million prescriptions from 514 outpatient clinics.

Therapy dogs help ease stress in young patients with cancer, but can spread methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), putting vulnerable kids at risk for a serious infection. Cleaning the dogs with special antibacterial shampoo and wipes reduces MRSA carriage and helps keep the kids safe, suggests a first-of-its-kind study presented at IDWeek 2018.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a vital treatment that helps prevent a pregnant woman from passing HIV to her baby, but one type of ART medication may increase the risk the child will develop a neurological condition, according to new research being presented at IDWeek 2018.