Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Feb. 10, 2025

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Feb. 10, 2025–Feb. 14, 2025.

The AP (2/7, Stobbe) reported, “The U.S. winter virus season is in full force, and by one measure is the most intense in 15 years.” According to the AP, “one indicator of flu activity is the percentage of doctor’s office visits driven by flu-like symptoms.” Two weeks ago, “that number was clearly higher than the peak of any winter flu season since 2009-2010, when a swine flu pandemic hit the nation, according to data posted Friday morning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Reuters (2/7, Erman) reported the CDC “said in its weekly flu surveillance report that seasonal influenza activity continues to increase across the country.” According to the “report, 7.8% of patient visits to outpatient facilities over the week ended February 1 were for influenza-like illnesses.” That figure “has risen steadily over the past two weeks, from 7% the week ended January 25 and 5.8% the week before that.”

You may also be interested in: 8 things doctors wish patients knew about flu vaccines.

MedPage Today (2/10, George) reports, “A blood test identified clinically relevant Alzheimer’s disease pathology in several clinical syndromes, a clinicopathological study showed.” Researchers found that “plasma phosphorylated tau 217 detected Alzheimer’s pathology across neurodegenerative syndromes with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.95.” Study results indicate that “the blood-based biomarker performed slightly better in Alzheimer’s-related syndromes...than in frontotemporal lobar degeneration-related syndromes.” The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.

ABC News (2/11, Kekatos, Benadjaoud) reports, “Measles cases are rising in the U.S. with infections confirmed in at least five states so far this year.” Infections “have been reported in Alaska, Georgia, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas, mostly among individuals not vaccinated for measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The federal agency “says 14 cases have been confirmed nationwide so far.” Every “case is among someone who is unvaccinated or whose status is unknown.” Meanwhile, in the western part of “Texas, an outbreak has grown to at least 24 cases according to an update published Tuesday from the Texas Department of State Health Services.”

Modern Healthcare (2/12, Turner, Subscription Publication) reports that an increasing “number of physicians are using artificial intelligence but many still don’t fully trust the technology.” A survey from the American Medical Association found that “66% of clinicians reported using AI last year, which was up from 38% in 2023.” Meanwhile, “respondents not using AI dropped dramatically from 62% in 2023 to just 33% in 2024.”

You may also be interested in: What physicians should know about AI in medicine.

Reuters (2/13, Aboulenein, Kelly) reports “Robert F. Kennedy Jr ... was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday.” Kennedy’s “confirmation paves the way for him to be sworn in to the job overseeing multiple high-profile agencies, including the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Kennedy is set to “run an HHS department that directs more than $3 trillion in health care spending. Also under HHS purview are the Medicare and Medicaid programs that provide health insurance for over 140 million Americans and the National Institutes of Health.”

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