The World Health Organization reported that measles cases around the world rose from 7,585,900 in 2017 to 9,769,400 in 2018, while measles-related deaths increased from 124,000 to 142,300 during the same period, with most deaths involving unvaccinated children. Meanwhile, a CDC study in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed that although yearly global measles incidence and deaths dropped between 2000 and 2018 and vaccination prevented 23.2 million deaths during that period, the number of infections and deaths have increased since 2016.

CDC researchers found that 1 in 3 high-school students, or 4.7 million teens, and nearly 1 in 8 middle-school students, or 1.5 million adolescents, used a tobacco product during the past 30 days, and e-cigarettes were the tobacco product most commonly used for the sixth straight year. However, the findings in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed that about 58% of youths said they were seriously thinking about stopping tobacco use, and 57.5% had stopped tobacco product use for at least a day in an effort to quit.

Young adolescents with Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Snapchat accounts, but not girls who had Facebook and Instagram, scored significantly higher in a test measuring disordered eating thoughts, while those with more social media accounts had higher scores for disordered eating thoughts and behaviors, according to an Australian study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Researchers also found elevated prevalence of disordered eating behaviors, as well as weight and shape overevaluations, among boys with Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat and among girls with Tumblr and Snapchat.

An Australian study in Pediatrics showed that 82.6% of children who reported having non-beta-lactam antibiotic hypersensitivities had negative allergy tests. The findings should prompt formal allergy evaluation referrals for pediatric NBLA hypersensitivities to remove allergy labels among such youths, said researcher Dr. Lisa Grinlington.

Chinese researchers found that grandparents could play an important role in preventing childhood obesity as children in a family-based obesity-intervention program that included parents and grandparents had a significantly lower mean zBMI score at one year than the control group. The findings in PLOS Medicine, based on 1,641 6-year-old children, revealed that those in the intervention group were more likely to engage in physical activity and eat more fruits and vegetables, compared with those in the control group.

Average Healthy Eating Index scores for meals eaten by children ages 5 to 7 were 55.3 out of a possible 100 points, but when snacks were included in the analysis, the scores increased to 57.1, researchers reported in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Children averaged just two-thirds of a serving of fruit and just over a half-serving of vegetables daily when looking at just meals, but when snacks were included that increased to 1.08 servings for fruit and 1.29 servings of vegetables.

Patients expect the health care industry to be as responsive as service providers in other fields and would like to see health care providers offer after-hours appointments and minimize the number of days they must wait to see a physician, according to a survey by DocASAP. Ninety percent of respondents said they would try other options including telemedicine or a phone consultation if they could not get an appointment immediately.

School meals are getting healthier, but urban school districts have not focused enough time and resources on nutrition education, according to the CDC's 2018 School Health Profiles Report, released this month. The report notes that many cities have poor records when it comes to making nutrition education a requirement, such as Boston, where only 29.4% of schools require it and in San Francisco, where 41.1% of schools have such a rule.

The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a rule that could remove almost 700,000 people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by making it more difficult for states to waive program work requirements. Two additional rules proposed by the administration that would affect SNAP would change how states automatically enroll families that receive other federal aid and limit deductions made for housing and utility costs.

House leaders said the chamber will vote next week on legislation introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that would allow HHS to negotiate drug prices for up to 250 drugs per year. The House is expected to pass the measure, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has vowed to block it.