Contagion, Spring 2026 Digital Edition

Click here to view our interactive Spring 2026 Issue.

Despite competing national crises drawing attention elsewhere, experts warn that the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in birds, cattle, and humans in the United States highlights critical gaps in surveillance, worker protections, and pandemic preparedness that must be addressed to prevent a future pandemic.

Histoplasmosis is a widely distributed and often underdiagnosed fungal infection that can cause severe, sometimes fatal disease—especially in immunocompromised patients—due largely to persistent diagnostic delays and limited routine testing. Here is a review of diagnostics and treatment for the fungal infection.

Editor-in-Chief Jason Gallagher, PharmD, FCCP, FIDP, FIDSA, BCPS, discusses how a coalition of major medical professional societies needed to step in to sue the federal government after sweeping changes to US vaccine policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reshaped the CDC’s vaccine advisory process. The medical organizations argued that the evidence-based foundations of public health recommendations had been compromised.