By Ben Leonard, Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker and Evan Peng

In this March 2019 file photo, a sign at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, N.Y., explains the local state of emergency regarding a measles outbreak. | Seth Wenig/AP Photo

Endemic leprosy in Florida, the threat of tens of thousands of measles cases in London and the increase of syphilis cases by 50 percent or more in Ireland and Portugal.

This isn’t an excerpt from a Victorian novel but is instead a sobering snapshot of the Western world in 2023, POLITICO’s Ashleigh Furlong reports.

How so? Falling childhood vaccination rates, changes in behaviors and eating habits — and, of course, climate change — contributed to a perfect storm where dangerous diseases, thought to be relegated to a bygone era, returned to countries that had practically eliminated them.

Additionally, bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to our antibiotics, meaning one of the most transformational medicines of the past 100 years is now under threat.

Here are five diseases that have made a robust comeback:

1. Measles. Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and the U.K. have lost their measles-free status. Just two months into 2023, there were already 900 cases of measles, a potentially deadly viral illness known for its rash, in the European region — exceeding the total number for 2022. 
2. Syphilis. The most recent annual epidemiological survey from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that cases of the potentially fatal bacterial infection typically spread through sex are on an upward trajectory across the EU.
3. Gout. Cases of this severe form of arthritis linked to eating rich, sugary foods are increasing worldwide, with the U.S. and Canada having the highest increases in prevalence.
4. Leprosy. A new case report indicates that leprosy may have become endemic in Florida. The number of reported cases of the bacterial disease, which damages skin and nerves and can cause blindness, has more than doubled in the past decade in southeastern states.
5. Malaria. In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert about several locally acquired cases of malaria in Florida and Texas. The potentially fatal disease causes flu-like symptoms and is spread by infected mosquitoes.

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Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. | Erin Schumaker

This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care.

The deadly wildfires that devastated Hawaii last week also disrupted research projects across Maui, Science reports. Growing houses at the University of Hawaii's Olinda Rare Plant Facility were torn apart by high winds and Lahaina harbor, a whaling science hub, is empty and covered with charred debris.

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Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Kelly Hooper talks with Katherine Ellen Foley, who explains what's behind the growing bipartisan support for bolstering research on using psychedelic drug therapy to treat mental health issues like PTSD, anxiety and depression.

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Bottles of the generic prescription pain medication Buprenorphine are seen in a pharmacy. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The prescribing of buprenorphine, an effective opioid use disorder treatment, has jumped significantly in the emergency room but is still underused, a new analysis from the research arm of a major electronic health records firm found.

Epic Research examined data from more than 800,000 emergency department visits between January 2015 and June 2023.

The findings:

— Buprenorphine was prescribed in 7.6 percent of opioid use disorder visits and 1.6 percent of overdose visits in June 2023, up from about 0.1 percent in both overdose and general opioid use disorder ER visits in January 2015.

— The rise in prescribing rate picked up speed after Congress revamped requirements for prescribing the drug at the end of last year.

Still, prescribing rates remain relatively low, and the researchers said it “remains to be seen whether the increase in buprenorphine prescriptions will be maintained over time.”

The big picture: Public health experts and treatment advocates see the drug as one of the top tools they have to tackle the opioid crisis, but some barriers to prescribing remain, including Drug Enforcement Administration rules, awareness, stigma and insurance requirements.

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