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Health officials in California and Washington, facing outbreaks of measles this past spring, asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May to validate a test that can diagnose 500 cases in eight hours. They did not hear back for two months. Officials from the West Coast Health Alliance — California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii — recounted the experience this week in a letter to Dr. Erica Schwartz, the C.D.C.’s new director, who assumed the position in August, shortly after they got the agency’s reply. According to the letter, obtained by The New York Times, the C.D.C. had told them that it had “other competing priorities” and could not dedicate time to making a high-volume test available to state labs. (Mandavilli, 10/21)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added a third measles death to its dashboard on Wednesday, but the agency would not reveal whether the death occurred in Pennsylvania or another state – which is “notable” as the agency delays reporting other measles deaths, experts say. The CDC cited privacy laws in not sharing the name of the state, but experts say there are no privacy concerns in doing so – and this information is important for the public to have as the outbreak continues accelerating, growing by 8% in one week to 4,410 confirmed cases so far this year, nearly double last year’s count. (Schreiber, 10/22)

The Pennsylvania health department issued a warning to doctors Monday about an increase in measles cases during pregnancy, along with rising concern about congenital measles, a disease rarely seen in the U.S. The department’s alert said congenital measles — a measles infection in a newborn contracted from the mother — was identified “for the first time in decades.” (Weixel, 10/21)

A person in DuPage County has the measles, health authorities announced Wednesday. The individual, who had been vaccinated, recently returned from an international trip, the DuPage County Health Department said in a news release. County health officials said it was “a rare breakthrough infection.” (Sarkauskas, 10/21)

In the United States, rabies can seem like a disease of the past, a remote risk caused by a mostly vanquished virus. But in recent months, this ancient foe has returned to the spotlight. A handful of unusual outbreaks have made headlines: rabid beavers at a Maryland state park, a cluster of goat cases at a North Carolina petting zoo. Officials in several states, including Idaho and Alabama, flagged surges in animal cases; California set an annual record for rabid bats. (Anthes, 10/21)

More people are contracting mosquito-borne West Nile virus and dying in Los Angeles and Orange counties than anywhere else in California, pushing state levels to a five-year high. The two counties combined account for at least 63% of the 378 human infections reported this year by the California Department of Public Health, making the region a hotbed for the disease transmitted by the female Southern House mosquito. The actual count is likely higher than the state’s database, which lags behind the local numbers reported by individual counties. (Fobar and Saavedra, 10/21)

Federal and Texas officials on Wednesday confirmed the first known case of the New World screwworm parasite in U.S. wildlife during the current outbreak. The discovery raises new questions about whether the flesh-eating parasite is spreading beyond livestock. (Falconer, 10/21)

Nigeria is confirming its first Ebola case as an outbreak continues to spread in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the patient is a woman who arrived on an international flight from Uganda. She was admitted to a private hospital in the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital city of Abuja is located. The woman received care for several days before a diagnosis was confirmed through laboratory testing on Tuesday. She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care, according to the ministry. (Kekatos and Jovanovic, 10/21)