MONDAY, Dec. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- It was a year in health news that will be hard to forget.
As blockbuster weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s made a sizable dent in the obesity epidemic, study after study revealed other ways in which these powerful medications can improve health.
At the same time, multiple viruses posed new threats: Bird flu spread widely through U.S. dairy herds, infecting workers who were in close contact with the animals, while a more severe strain of mpox surfaced in Africa and big spikes were seen in U.S. cases of dengue fever and the measles.
Simultaneously, social and political forces clashed in the public health arena, with abortion pills coming under heavy attack from conservative Republican states and the incoming presidential administration promising to upend U.S. health policy on several long-held tenets of public health.
Here, HealthDay shares the most compelling health stories of 2024:
Weight-loss drugs
It would be hard to overstate the impact that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy and Mounjaro/Zepbound have had on the obesity epidemic: For the first time in a decade, the country's obesity rate declined slightly, Harvard University researchers reported in December.
Even as these medications proved their mettle against weight loss, evidence mounted that the drugs also reduce the odds for a host of health issues including heart disease, kidney problems, fatty liver disease, arthritis and asthma. Not only that, some studies showed the treatments hold promise for treating alcoholism and drug abuse.
Such compelling data prompted the Biden administration in November to move to have Medicare and Medicaid cover the cost of these pricey drugs -- which can run up to $1,300 a month.
The medications are also addressing future obesity rates, as they have been prescribed for younger people more and more often: Research showed the number of American teens and young adults who've been prescribed one of the new GLP-1 drugs has soared nearly seven-fold.
Are these the new statins? The last year suggests they could change the health landscape as much as those cholesterol-lowering medications did when they were first introduced in the late 1980s.
However, the news was not all good on the health front last year as bird flu spread in dairy herds and other viruses took a greater hold around the globe.
Bird flu
After spreading in wild birds and poultry for several years, the bird flu virus (H5N1) was first detected in dairy cow herds last March. Since then, it has spread to over 900 herds in 16 states. Not long after the outbreak began, human bird flu infections began to surface in workers who had been in close contact with infected animals. As of December, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 66 human cases of H5N1 infection nationwide. Importantly, some of these cases have included people who had no known contact with infected animals.
California was hit particularly hard by the outbreak, with 645 affected dairies by mid-December. In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a public health emergency to better battle the outbreak.
While experts still maintain the virus cannot yet spread easily among people, each infection in dairy cows increases the risk of the virus mutating into a form more transmissible between humans. Since raw milk can contain live virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in December that it would mandate testing of the nation's mik supply for the presence of H5N1.
But such measures might not be enough, since researchers have discovered other animals could be carriers of the bird flu virus, including cats, pigs and even alpacas.
As health officials advise Americans to get their seasonal flu shot because it can offer some cross-protection against bird flu, scientists have been hard at work developing an mRNA vaccine for bird flu using technology perfected during the pandemic.
But bird flu wasn't the only virus vexing health officials last year: mpox, dengue and measles posed their own threats.
Mpox, dengue and measles
In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox public health emergency after a more severe and transmissible strain of mpox emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries. Quickly, isolated cases began cropping up in Europe and the first case of infection with this more severe strain of mpox was reported in California in November.
Meanwhile, as scientists race to develop a an mRNA-based mpox vaccine, the smallpox vaccine Jyennos has been used against mpox because it offers some cross-protection, although that protection wanes in a year and boosters are needed.
Other viruses reared their heads as well in 2024: Puerto Rico, Los Angeles and the Florida Keys all reported spikes in dengue cases as warmer temperatures made transmission of the mosquito-borne disease more likely. In June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a national alert about the jump in dengue infections.
Even a well-known virus tamed years ago has surged again as childhood vaccination rates lag. In July, U.S. health officials reported that measles cases in this country had tripled compared to the same period a year ago, with most of the cases seen in children under the age of 5.
This year, social and political forces also clashed over public health issues.
Abortion pill under attack
Perhaps the most contentious battle has been waged over access to the abortion pill, a medical treatment that has become more widely used ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion. As many conservative states turned to full or partial abortion bans, one study clocked a ten-fold increase in women getting abortion pills online.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge that would have curbed access to the abortion pill. But in December, Texas sued a New York doctor for prescribing the abortion pill online for a Dallas woman who subsequently experienced complications.
Meanwhile, CVS and Walgreens announced in March they would start selling the abortion pill in some states, and research published in May showed that over 8,000 women living in states with partial or full abortion bans are getting the pills by mail each month from states without such restrictions.
What will happen to access to the abortion pill in 2025 is anyone's guess, but the issue is likely to continue to serve as a flashpoint on both sides of the aisle.
But it won't be the only political fight waged over health issues in the coming year, as the incoming Trump administration prepares to challenge decades of evidence on the effectiveness of childhood vaccines and fluoridated water, among other things.
Trump administration to upend healthcare
Shortly after winning the 2024 election, President-elect Trump announced he had nominated vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying he would let Kennedy "go wild on health."
What could that mean?
Kennedy has claimed that COVID vaccines caused more harm than good -- a claim not borne out by science, most experts say.
He's also touted the long-discredited notion that childhood vaccines can cause autism. In December, Trump said Kennedy was free to revisit any potential link between autism and childhood vaccines.
Kennedy is also a supporter of the safety of raw milk and an opponent of fluoride in drinking water, something that has been a mainstay of dental health for decades.
A group of Nobel laureates quickly took issue with Kennedy's nomination, sending a letter to the U.S. Senate asking that the nomination be scuttled.
Other picks for key health posts in the U.S. government, some of who have opposed vaccines or vaccine mandates, have also raised concerns among public health advocates.
How this will all play out in 2025 remains to be seen, but it's safe to say that 2025 could turn into a challenging year for public health officials.