An international consortium study published in April 2026 found that babies who were exclusively breastfed for at least three months carry distinct DNA methylation marks in blood years later. The Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) Consortium analysed epigenetic data from 3,421 children across 11 studies in countries including Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Greece, Lithuania, Germany, South Africa and the United States. DNA methylation differences were observed at genes linked to immunity and developmental processes in samples taken at ages 5–12 and were not present in cord blood, suggesting the changes arose after birth. The research was led by ISGlobal, the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol and published in Clinical Epigenetics, with funding from bodies including the UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome and Horizon 2020. The study did not assess whether the methylation differences produce functional changes in immunity or development, and authors emphasised the need for more diverse cohorts and further work to determine long-term health effects.

A 22-year-old woman from Manchester has been told she has about 18 months to live after a lung cancer diagnosis she and doctors link to years of vaping. Kayley Boda began using reusable vapes at 15 and switched to disposable devices shortly before symptoms began. In January 2025 she started coughing up dark brown, grainy mucus and was turned away by clinicians eight times who diagnosed chest infections. After coughing blood in March 2025 she had a chest X-ray and, following seven biopsies, was told in August 2025 she had stage one lung cancer. Surgery in September 2025 to remove the lower lobe of her right lung upstaged the disease to stage three when six lymph nodes tested positive. She underwent chemotherapy and was given the all clear in February 2026, but a pleural effusion two months later revealed the cancer had returned in the lung lining. Boda is fundraising for a clinical trial in Germany and has urged others to stop vaping. Doctors say they cannot definitively prove the cause but that smoking and vaping would not have helped her condition.

President Donald Trump on April 16–17 nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, naming three senior deputies alongside her: Sean Slovenski as deputy director and COO, Dr. Jennifer Shuford as deputy director and chief medical officer, and Dr. Sara Brenner as senior counselor for public health. Schwartz, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and former deputy surgeon general in Trump’s first term, is a board‑certified preventive medicine physician with medical and public‑health credentials from Brown University and the Uniformed Services University and a law degree from the University of Maryland. The nomination must be approved by the Senate; NIH director Jay Bhattacharya is serving as acting CDC director during the likely months‑long confirmation process. The pick comes after a year of turmoil at the agency — including abrupt leadership changes, staffing and budget cuts, a shooting at CDC headquarters and controversy over vaccine policy under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Many public‑health experts and CDC staff greeted the selection with guarded optimism, seeing Schwartz as a conventional, experienced choice but warning her authority could be constrained by political interference.

A University College London study using UK primary care data found patients starting gabapentinoids — gabapentin or pregabalin — faced a higher risk of hospitalised drug poisoning, particularly in the first month of treatment and when the drugs were combined with benzodiazepines or opioids. Researchers analysed prescriptions in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum from 2010–2020, focusing on 16,827 people who experienced at least one drug poisoning hospitalization drawn from about 1.35 million people prescribed gabapentinoids. Compared with non-treatment periods, risk rose in the first four weeks (adjusted incidence rate ratio, aIRR 1.81). Co-prescription risk was notably higher: benzodiazepines with gabapentinoids had an aIRR of 3.95 (fourfold increase) and opioids with gabapentinoids an aIRR of 2.14 (doubling) for the first four weeks. The study also found drug-poisoning risk was elevated in the 90 days before gabapentinoid initiation (aIRR 2.09). The authors, noting the self-controlled case-series design cannot eliminate all time-varying confounding, urged clinicians to monitor patients closely at treatment initiation and avoid or minimise concurrent opioid or benzodiazepine prescribing.

A team of about 50 researchers led by Paul Verweij at Radboud University Medical Center has warned of a "silent surge" in drug-resistant fungi in a Nature Medicine paper published April 2026. The researchers — from 16 organisations worldwide — say resistance is rising in pathogens including Candida auris, azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus and Trichophyton indotineae. They argue that resistance often originates in the environment, driven in part by widespread agricultural use of fungicides chemically related to medical azoles, and can spread long distances via airborne spores. People with weakened immunity, such as ICU patients, transplant recipients and cancer patients, face the greatest risk; Candida auris bloodstream infections can carry high mortality. The authors set out a five-step plan calling for increased awareness, strengthened surveillance, improved infection prevention and control, optimized antifungal use, and investments in diagnostics and new drugs. They urge the inclusion of antifungal resistance in the 2026 Global Action Plan on AMR and stress the need for coordinated One Health policies linking agriculture, environment and clinical practice.

A preprint analysis and Reuters report this week found that Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, while producing larger average weight loss than Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, was linked with greater losses of lean body mass. The Massachusetts data‑analytics firm nference analysed roughly 1,800 tirzepatide users and about 6,200 semaglutide users, finding tirzepatide associated with an average 1.1% greater lean mass loss at three months and about 2.0% more after 12 months. The preprint categorised a “depletive GLP‑1 metabotype” (>20% total weight loss and >5% lean mass loss) in 10.3% of tirzepatide patients versus 6.7% on semaglutide in the first year. Higher doses, longer treatment and baseline musculoskeletal pain correlated with greater lean mass decline for both drugs. Separately, U.S. prescription data for the week ending April 10 show Eli Lilly’s newly approved oral weight‑loss pill Foundayo had about 1,390 prescriptions versus more than 113,000 for Novo’s Wegovy pill in the same period. Market commentary and investor notes circulated April 16–17 highlighted potential competitive and access implications as the two companies press in the global GLP‑1 market.