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A largely unnoticed surge of rare but deadly fungi is accelerating around the world, helped by the Covid-19 pandemic and a warming planet that appears to be training them to survive at higher and higher temperatures. While the pandemic’s grisly scenes of packed intensive care units and rows of patients on intubators have largely faded from public view, its legacy in the form of driving fungal spread is only now being understood by doctors and scientists. (Hong and Shrivastava, 11/3)

ome health officials say mpox cases in Congo appear to be “stabilizing” — a possible sign that the main epidemic for which the World Health Organization made a global emergency declaration in August might be on the decline. In recent weeks, Congo has reported about 200 to 300 lab-confirmed mpox cases every week, according to WHO. That’s down from nearly 400 cases a week in July. The decline is also apparent in Kamituga, the mining city in the eastern part of Congo where the new, more infectious variant of mpox first emerged. (Cheng and Alonga, 11/3)

Nearly 94,000 children in Gaza City received a second dose of polio vaccine this weekend in an effort that was delayed by intense Israeli bombardment and mass evacuation orders in northern Gaza, the Gazan health ministry said. The second phase of the vaccination campaign was originally set to begin on Oct. 23 across the north of the territory, but it was postponed because of a lack of assurances about pauses in the fighting and bombardment to ensure the safety of health workers, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said in a statement on Friday. (Yazbek, 11/3)

Afghanistan and Pakistan reported more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases this week, part of a notable uptick in activity in the two countries where WPV1 is still endemic, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said in its latest weekly update, as vaccination efforts are poised to resume in Gaza. (Schnirring, 11/1)