The news triggered a shutdown of cattle, horse and bison imports along the southern border, as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins announced in an X post on Sunday.

"Due to the threat of New World Screwworm I am announcing the suspension of live cattle, horse, & bison imports through U.S. southern border ports of entry effective immediately," she wrote in the post. 

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"The last time this devastating pest invaded America, it took 30 years for our cattle industry to recover. This cannot happen again."

The NWS is a fly that is endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and some South American countries, according to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

While the flies themselves are found in forests and other wooded areas, they will seek hosts like cattle or horses in pastures and fields, per the above source.

A female fly lays eggs in a wound or orifice of a live, warm-blooded animal. The eggs then hatch into larvae (maggots) that burrow into the flesh, causing potentially deadly damage.

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Screwworms are named for their maggots’ behavior, as they burrow into the flesh similar to how a screw is driven into wood.

"Maggots cause extensive damage by tearing at the hosts’ tissue with sharp mouth hooks," according to the APHIS website. This can then enlarge the wound and attract more flies to lay eggs.

In rare cases, the larvae can feed on people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states.

These infestations can be very painful and can cause serious, potentially fatal damage to their hosts by causing myiasis, a parasitic infection of fly larvae in human tissue. 

Screwworms are often found in South America and the Caribbean.

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"People who travel to these areas, spend time among livestock animals, sleep outdoors and have an open wound are at greater risk of becoming infested with NWS," says the CDC.

People who are immunocompromised, very young or very old, or malnourished are also at a higher risk of infection, the above source stated.

Those who have had recent surgery are also at a higher risk, "as the flies will lay eggs on open sores," according to the CDC.

If another outbreak were to occur in the U.S., "pets, livestock, wildlife and even humans may suffer and die from screwworm myiasis," the USDA warned.

The USDA estimates that livestock producers in the southwestern U.S. lost between $50 million and $100 million annually due to NWS in the 1950s and 1960s until it was successfully eradicated.

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"Presumably, these higher losses in the Southwest were due to higher livestock populations, larger geographic area and/or greater potential for NWS to overwinter," stated the report.

While the USDA eradicated NWS in 1966, there was an outbreak contained within the Florida Keys in 2016. It affected only in the endangered deer population and was eradicated by March 2017, per APHIS.

Greg Wehner of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.

On the heels of President Donald Trump’s Monday announcement of an executive order that will slash prescription drug prices in the U.S., the spotlight is on current costs and how much Americans could save.

The president’s order calls for "most favored nations drug pricing" — which means "the lowest price paid for a drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay," he said.

"Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%," Trump said. 

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Katy Dubinsky, a New York pharmacist and founder and CEO of Vitalize, applauded the move to reduce prescription prices, noting that Trump’s order tackles a long-standing problem.

"But this will not be simple to accomplish," she told Fox News Digital. 

"The executive order doesn't reduce costs immediately," she said. "It directs government agencies to start drafting the rules, which may take months."

Here are the five most expensive prescription drugs in the U.S. by price — followed by five by volume.

Dubinsky detailed some of the most expensive prescription drugs in the country today and what conditions they treat.

1.  Lenmeldy (atidarsagene autotemcel) by Orchard Therapeutics – $4.25 million

This medication is used to treat metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), a rare genetic disorder that damages the nervous system, Dubinsky said. 

"It is given once and is supposed to stop or slow down the disease in young kids," she noted.

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2. Hemgenix (etranacogene dezaparvovec-drlb) by CSL Behring – $3.5 million

This medication is prescribed for people with hemophilia B, a bleeding disorder. 

"This one-time treatment helps the body make its own clotting factor, so patients don’t need regular infusions," said Dubinsky.

3. Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl) by Sarepta Therapeutics – $3.2 million

This prescription medication, intended for young boys, treats Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a condition that weakens muscles over time. 

"It aims to slow down how fast the disease progresses," Dubinsky said. 

4. Skysona (elivaldogene autotemcel) by Bluebird Bio – $3 million

"This medication is used for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), a serious brain disease in boys," said Dubinsky. "This therapy tries to slow the damage before symptoms get worse."

5. Zynteglo (betibeglogene autotemcel) by Bluebird Bio – $2.8 million

Zynteglo is for beta-thalassemia, a blood condition that usually requires regular transfusions. 

"This gene therapy can help patients make healthy red blood cells on their own and reduce how often they need treatment," said Dubinsky.

John Stanford, executive director of Incubate, a Washington-based coalition of early-stage life-science investors, shared his thoughts on the top five most expensive drugs by sales volume.

"Typically, when the government is focused on the most expensive drugs, they're focused on the metric based on sales volume rather than, for instance, a rare disease therapy with a high list price but smaller patient pool," he told Fox News Digital.

"Often, officials are focused on total drug spending by Medicare or other government programs."

1. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) by Merck — $25 billion revenue (2023)

Keytruda is an immunotherapy medication used to treat a variety of cancers, including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, liver cancer and others.

"Keytruda has become Merck's crown jewel, helping the company expand its cancer treatment portfolio with more than 1,000 active clinical trials," Stanford told Fox News Digital.

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2. Eliquis (apixaban) by Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer — $18.95 billion

Eliquis (apixaban) is an "anchor drug" for both BMS and Pfizer, according to Stanford.

Apixaban is prescribed to prevent the formation of blood clots and to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs). 

3. Ozempic (semaglutide) by Novo Nordisk — $13.93 billion

Prescribed for type 2 diabetes, the semaglutide medication Ozempic has become widely popular for its weight-loss effects and other health benefits.

"Ozempic's sales are powering Novo Nordisk's broader foray into GLP-1s for obesity, heart disease and liver conditions — all areas with high development costs and uncertain scientific outcomes," Stanford told Fox News Digital. 

"The money has gone toward scaling up production to meet demand for GLP-1s and avoid supply shortages."

4. Humira (AbbVie) — $14.4 billion (U.S. 2023 revenue)

"Humira has been one of the highest-grossing drugs in history, generating over $200 billion during its exclusivity period," Stanford said.

The injectable medication, which contains the active ingredient adalimumab, is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

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5. Biktarvy by Gilead — $11.85 billion

Biktarvy is an HIV treatment that includes the three ingredients bictegravir, emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide.

"Biktarvy isn't just a leading HIV treatment — it's the financial backbone for Gilead's move into cancer research," Stanford said.

Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a San Francisco biotechnology company, said vaccines and most generic drugs would not likely be changed by the executive order.

"Most vaccines that Americans take cost less than a hundred dollars, while generic drugs are often less than a dollar a pill," he told Fox News Digital.

What would be affected, Glanville predicted, are newer brand-name drugs still under IP exclusivity, antibody therapies, cellular therapies, gene therapies and personalized cancer vaccines.

"Some of these are excruciatingly expensive — $100,000 to $500,000 for a treatment course for a patient. However, they are also often the most effective treatments for certain cancers, autoimmune disorders or rare diseases."

The pharmaceutical industry might argue that lowering the prices on these medicines will result in a "dramatic reduction of investment" in creating such breakthroughs, said Glanville.

The industry may also argue that these medicines eventually become generic — at which point the prices drop, according to the expert.

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"From a patient’s perspective, the price of medical care in the United States is unsustainable, and extremely expensive medicine is part of that," he said. But "the insurance system and the hospital business also contribute."

"If the prices of new medicines are capped, then effort should be made to reduce the cost of clinical trials and drug GMP manufacturing. Otherwise, we will lose a lot of innovation."

Greg Norman of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.

The GFNC congratulates winners Carona Mitchell, Roselyn Thomas and Roxanne Thomas, and all participants for showing that healthy shopping can be both strategic and fun

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A new drug has shown promise in combating Parkinson’s disease while minimizing unwanted side effects.

The once-daily pill, tavapadon, was found to relieve symptoms — including stiffness, coordination, tremors and movement — for a longer period of time for patients who were also taking at least 400 mg of levodopa a day and were experiencing "motor fluctuations," which are periods of time when the medication wears off and symptoms return, according to the study.

Until now, levodopa has been the standard first-line treatment for Parkinson’s patients. 

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Levodopa — which is converted into dopamine in the brain and targets the D2/D3/D4 dopamine receptors — has been linked to side effects including sleep disorders, hallucinations, impulse control behavioral disorders, weight gain, leg swelling and blood pressure changes, according to the researchers.

In the study, tavapadon — which works by mimicking dopamine and targeting the D1/D5 receptors — was found to have the same benefits as levodopa without the adverse effects, according to Hubert H. Fernandez, MD, lead study author and director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at Cleveland Clinic.

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"It provides patients with another option to alleviate their motor fluctuations that are commonly experienced with levodopa (the best drug we have so far in Parkinson’s) in the moderate to advanced stages of the disorder," Fernandez told Fox News Digital.

"This global, multi-center, pivotal trial showed that patients placed on tavapadon had significantly more ‘on time’ and less ‘off time’ compared to those who received placebo — and that the drug was well-tolerated by patients."

In the study, the researchers measured patients’ impulse control behavior disorders, excessive daytime sleepiness, blood pressure changes and weight changes, and found that the adverse effects linked to tavapadon were no different from those who received a placebo.

"Of course, this is a short-term study, and we need to wait for our long-term study to be really confident that our preliminary observations remain true," Fernandez noted. "Nonetheless, we are very encouraged."

The researchers presented the results of the TEMPO 3 trial at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) earlier this month in San Diego.

For those who were recently diagnosed and are having less severe motor symptoms, Fernandez suggested that a once-daily dose of tavapadon could potentially replace the three-times-a-day dosing of levodopa.

"Should they require levodopa at some point, they will need a lower dose and less frequency, which then reduces their likelihood of developing motor fluctuations and dyskinesia and other side effects," he noted in a press release.

For those with more advanced Parkinson’s, tavapadon could be paired with levodopa. 

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"So regardless of when it’s used, whether in the very beginning or as an adjunctive therapy to levodopa, we think it’s a gain overall," Fernandez added.

Recent research has found that Parkinson's cases are expected to surge by 2050, affecting up to 25 million people globally.

The biggest increase will affect people aged 80 and older, with cases in that age group projected to increase by 196% by 2050, they noted. 

As results of the long-term trial are pending, AbbVie, the maker of tavapadon, will soon file an application to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of the drug.

"The FDA will then review the application — from there, they can either approve it for use, ask more questions that may not be clear, or request another study or an extension to verify some results," Fernandez said.

"We are hopeful that this new generation of dopamine agonist — being more selective in its dopamine receptor stimulation, and given only once daily — will be a significant improvement in the symptomatic treatment of PD symptoms in the early, middle and advanced stages of the disease," he added. 

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Dr. Mary Ann Picone, medical director of the MS Center at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, was not involved in the study but called the results "very interesting and encouraging as a new tool for improving quality of life for patients with Parkinson's disease."

"One of the major limitations of the long-term use of dopamine is wearing-off phenomena and the need to dose it more frequently," Picone told Fox News Digital. 

"The use of dopamine agonists helps to prolong the long-term benefit of dopamine. Decreased benefit of dopamine can lead to ‘freezing,’ or episodes where patients have increased stiffness and difficulty moving."

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"This new therapy would target different receptors and allow for more ‘on’ time, but without the involuntary dyskinesia (uncontrolled movements) that … can interfere with function."

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Thirteen years after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, a California woman is more vibrant than ever — and she has just embarked on a walk across America to showcase the power of action in healthy aging.

Judy Benjamin, PhD, now 80 years old, set off on Saturday, April 5, on a 3,000-mile journey across the country. 

Over five months, she will walk from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine, Florida.

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"People wonder why would I put myself through this," Benjamin said during an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital the evening before her walk began. "I really want to share with others not to be discouraged." (See the video at the top of this piece.) 

"Life is here to enjoy, and age is a number, but you don't have to be identified and characterized by that number."

Benjamin was 67 when she first learned of her early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. 

It wasn’t a surprise, as she comes from a long line of relatives who were affected by that form of dementia. Her mother, one of 13 children, was 63 when she was diagnosed, and nine of her uncles also got it.

"So obviously it was very scary for me," Benjamin said during an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital the evening before her walk began. 

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After her mother passed away, Benjamin — who had a high-pressure job at the time — started getting symptoms.

"I was working overseas and started to get really worried because I couldn't remember things — even my own phone number or locker combination," she recalled. "I got lost driving, when I'm always really good about direction."

Benjamin also started to struggle to remember her grandchildren’s names, and even had trouble reading a newspaper article.

"I knew that it was going downhill really quickly, and I was extremely depressed and distressed about that," she recalled.

Brain scans showed that Benjamin had a lot of amyloid plaque, as well as some damage to the right and left parietal areas of her brain. 

"I started to get really panicked," she said.

A close friend recommended a doctor in California, Dr. Dale Bredesen, who was doing some innovative research on treating Alzheimer's.

"He explained his theory that Alzheimer's is not caused by one thing — it’s a number of different assaults on the brain, which causes it to become inflamed," she said. "And he said it was different for everybody. Some people are more affected by some things than others."

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Bredesen worked with Benjamin to help her reduce the inflammation through a number of steps.

"So I wrote down what he recommended, and I flew back home and I started implementing it to the letter — I changed my whole lifestyle," she shared.

Some of those lifestyle changes involved optimizing her sleep, ensuring healthy indoor air, incorporating meditation to reduce stress and starting an exercise routine.  

"I also totally changed my diet," Benjamin shared. "I stopped drinking diet soda, stopped eating sugar, and started eating more whole foods and natural foods — like vegetables and fruit."

"It’s super important to follow all of the instructions to do what you need to do, and not be casual about it."

Gradually, she said, things started to change. 

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"It wasn’t overnight; it’s not a magic bullet," she said. "But I realized one day that I could remember my grandchildren's names again."

After seeing firsthand the positive effects of her new lifestyle, Benjamin felt compelled to help others. She ultimately became a national board-certified health and wellness coach, specializing in brain health and neurology.

Benjamin said she has been doing longer walks to prepare for her 3,000-mile walk.

"I think there's really no way to train for a 3,000-mile walk, except walk as much as you can," she said. "I think walking is the most natural thing that a human being can do. I mean, we were born to walk."

"I just have to be careful to keep hydrated."

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Benjamin will be joined on her cross-country walk by a "great support team" as well as a film crew who will gather footage for an upcoming documentary.

"I do have an RV with a very comfortable bed, shower and cooking facilities," she said. "Whenever possible, if there's a nice hotel or motel, we'll stop, but in the long, remote stretches, we'll be sleeping in the RV."

She is also supported by several wellness sponsors, including Apollo Health and CareScout, a provider of long-term care and aging solutions. 

The goal is to shoot for 20 miles per day, depending on the weather and terrain.

"I will plan on stopping one day a week to rest my body, maybe take a sauna or just kick back," she said.

"It's pretty much me as an individual, but I am encouraging people to come and join me and walk with me."

Today, at 80, Benjamin said she feels younger than she did before her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

"I'm very energetic and healthy — I have great flexibility and I do have confidence that I will continue to be healthy," she told Fox News Digital. 

That said, she added, life is "kind of like a crapshoot."

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"Anything can happen — I'm very aware of that, but all my numbers are great. My blood work, my bone studies, everything is in such good shape that I'm not really worried. I don't spend much time on the negative."

Benjamin hopes that her walk will serve as motivation for others to embrace healthier, more active lifestyles for better brain function.

"When I received my diagnosis, I had a choice — I could let it define me, or I could take action," she said. 

"I want people to see that, no matter your age or circumstances, there are steps you can take to live a healthier, more vibrant life. This walk is about proving that possibility."

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People can follow Benjamin’s journey at Judywalks.com, @judywalksamerica on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube; and on CareScout’s Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

Love Talks initiative addressed critical social issues, including sexual health and intimate partner violence, offering both informative and inspiring insights, counselling and testing

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High cholesterol has long gotten a bad rap for causing poor heart health — but a new study suggests that the low-carb ketogenic diet may not be linked to cardiovascular disease.

The study, led by The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in collaboration with researchers across multiple institutes, assessed 100 participants following a long-term keto diet who developed elevated levels of LDL cholesterol (known as the "bad" type).

Other than the elevated cholesterol, all participants were "metabolically healthy" and had followed the key diet for an average of five years, according to an April 7 press release.

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They all qualified as LMHR (lean mass hyper-responder), which indicates people who adopt a carbohydrate-restricted diet and experience a significant rise in cholesterol.

Using advanced cardiac imaging, the researchers found that traditional cholesterol markers (ApoB and LDL-C) were not associated with changes in plaque levels in the heart’s arteries or with baseline heart disease over a one-year period.

Instead, existing plaque levels seemed to be a better predictor of future plaque accumulation.

"This population of people — metabolically healthy with elevated LDL due to being in ketosis — are not automatically at increased cardiac risk simply because their LDL is elevated," Bret Scher, MD, medical director of Baszucki Group, which provided funding for the study, told Fox News Digital.

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"Therefore, we should likely shift away from LDL and ApoB and toward vascular imaging with CAC or CTA for better risk prediction and informing how or if to treat someone's cardiac risk factors," added the California-based doctor.

The study findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances.

Previous studies have also shown that people qualifying as LMHR have similar levels of coronary plaque to otherwise comparable groups that have normal LDL levels, "underscoring that ketogenic diet-induced LDL increases may not indicate a higher risk of coronary plaque," the researcher said.

Dr. Nick Norwitz, a study leader and independent researcher at the University of Oxford, noted that this is the first study to isolate very high LDL and ApoB as risk factors for heart disease. 

"All other human studies have included populations with metabolic dysfunction or individuals with congenital genetic causes of high LDL," he told Fox News Digital.

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The results seem to contradict what most clinicians would have predicted and what doctors are taught in medical training, according to Norwitz. 

"While these data do not prove the conventional understanding is ‘wrong,’ per se, they do suggest the conventional model has a large blind spot."

According to Norwitz, cardiac imaging, including a CAC score, has "far more value" than cholesterol levels in predicting plaque progression.

"Thus, CAC scores can be used to risk-stratify patients and help individualize care," he told Fox News Digital.

Scher noted that "ketogenic therapy" can be effective in treating certain metabolic-related conditions, but some people are afraid of continuing a keto diet because of their cholesterol. 

"This study provides support that they do not necessarily need to stop the diet or treat their cholesterol — rather, they can work with their healthcare team for a more individualized and appropriate cardiac workup," he advised.

Dr. Ken Berry, a family physician and diabetes specialist in Tennessee, was not involved in the research but shared his thoughts on what he described as a "groundbreaking" study.

"The study found no association between LDL-C, ApoB and progression of coronary plaque over one year using high-resolution CT angiography," he said to Fox News Digital.

"Instead, the strongest predictor of plaque progression was pre-existing plaque, not cholesterol levels — leading researchers to conclude that ‘plaque begets plaque, ApoB does not.’"

This is the first prospective trial of its kind in a unique population often labeled ‘high-risk’ by traditional guidelines, Berry said, raising important questions about how cardiovascular risk is assessed in the context of low-carb, high-fat diets.

"The obvious implication is that if very high ApoB levels is not a good predictor of heart attack risk in this specific group of people, then is it a good predictor in any group of people?" he said.

"Or is it, as I suspect, just the latest popular lab test being used to scare people away from eating a proper human diet rich in saturated fat?"

Dr. Bradley Serwer, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, a Cincinnati-based company that offers cardiovascular and anesthesiology services to hospitals nationwide, reviewed the study and pointed out some potential limitations.

"The study’s limited scope, involving a low-risk population over a short duration, renders it challenging to generalize findings to a broader, more vulnerable population," Serwer told Fox News Digital.

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"While the study’s objective was to propose a hypothesis regarding dietary cholesterol’s role, it does not provide definitive evidence for or against its significance."

The cardiologist does, however, agree with the authors’ conclusions that "improved risk stratification tools" are essential for identifying individuals at higher risk of coronary artery disease.

"As physicians, our primary responsibility lies in evaluating each patient on an individual basis and collaborating with them through shared decision-making to develop the most appropriate long-term care plan," he added.

Michelle Routhenstein, a New York City registered dietitian who specializes in heart disease, noted that plaque formation is a multistep process that can take years to progress.

"The environment of the artery needs to be conducive to plaque formation," Routhenstein, who was not part of the study, told Fox News Digital. 

"For example, individuals with high blood pressure, a subgroup that was excluded from the study, are more prone to endothelial damage that can cause apoB to deposit more readily in the artery wall."

"If someone already has plaque in the arteries and sustains an elevated level of LDL and apoB, then it can develop into more plaque, as seen in this study."

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"However, if someone is metabolically healthy, has no plaque at baseline, and has elevated apoB and LDL levels alone, then the environment may not necessarily cause plaque to form over a one-year period."

Routhenstein pointed to prior research showing that high LDL and apoB over years of someone’s life, typically coupled with inflammation, insulin resistance and/or oxidative stress, can increase the risk of plaque development.

"It is important to note that many people who are implementing a ketogenic diet and are ignoring high LDL and apoB levels typically do not know they have soft plaque brewing," she added.

"Therefore, advising them to ignore LDL and apoB levels can be harmful — especially in a world where heart disease is so prevalent and remains the leading cause of death globally."

Scher said he hopes that more researchers will become inspired to further this study and apply it to different populations. 

"But for now, I hope doctors will embrace this research and treat this specific population of people differently from the rest of their patients, understanding the unique physiologic state of ketosis and the metabolic benefits it provides," he said.

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In addition to more studies assessing risk in this population, Norwitz said the team hopes to further investigate the mechanisms of the lean mass hyper-responder (LMHR) phenotype.

"This is a remarkable group of humans demonstrating remarkable physiology," he added.