Russian Strikes, Cyclosporiasis Deaths, and Measles in Bangladesh
August 7, 2026
Editor's Note
On Wednesday, a Russian missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, killed 17 people and injured dozens more. The strike, which was Russia's third major aggression on the city in a week, came after Ukraine reported a record-setting number of Russian missile strikes in July.
As the Russia-Ukraine war intensifies, medical professionals in Lithuania are preparing for what they refer to as Day X, a potential military invasion by Russia. To lead this week's edition, journalist Bella May and filmmaker Samuel Wands visit Vilnius, Lithuania, where the Ministry of Health is sending the country's doctors and nurses to Ukraine to learn how to treat traumatic injuries caused by war.
The U.S. cyclosporiasis outbreak reached a grim milestone on Tuesday, when two people in Michigan were the first to die from complications caused by the parasite. That outbreak is one of several recent foodborne illness episodes in the United States, raising the question of whether those events are becoming more common. To provide insight, journalist Sam Nichols interviews Lee-Ann Jaykus, a researcher in food microbiology and safety at North Carolina State University, who highlights funding cuts and climate change as potential drivers behind the rise of foodborne illness.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is facing the world's largest measles outbreak in terms of case count. To wrap up, journalist Zakir Hossain Chowdhury describes how politics, policy gaps, and supply-chain failures depleted Bangladesh's vaccine stocks and created the conditions for measles, and other infectious diseases, to flourish.
Until next week!—Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor
After a record-breaking month for missile strikes in Ukraine, Lithuanian medical professionals are learning the basics of war medicine to prepare for a possible attack
