The College of Urgent Care Medicine is committed to ensuring Urgent Care clinicians are ready to identify and respond to emerging infectious disease threats. As part of this mission, the Clinical Response Committee has developed a curated set of resources on Ebola virus disease and Cyclospora infection — covering both readiness and response. You can access these resources here.
How Generative AI Should Transform Clinical Decision Support
AI’s real value in clinical decision support isn’t chatbots or note-drafting — it’s pulling together scattered context (like a patient’s past concerns about a med, noted only in a portal message) that structured EHR data misses. The authors push for a hybrid setup: simple rules and NLP for clear-cut criteria, AI only for synthesizing messy, unstructured info, with everything source-linked so clinicians can check it. They warn against AI just adding more alerts or requiring more chatting — the goal is less clicking, not more. Clinical implications: Clinicians should verify AI-generated summaries, especially for medication history or prior treatment decisions. Stay alert even when the tool is usually reliable, since that’s when errors slip through unnoticed. Full Access: JAMA
NYC Legionnaire’s outbreak 82 illnesses, 5 deaths
A Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on New York City’s Upper East Side has resulted in at least 82 illnesses and five deaths. Health officials believe the source has been eliminated. The disease can be spread through contaminated water droplets from sources such as cooling towers and plumbing systems. Clinical implications: Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria, which can be inhaled through vapor and mist. Outbreaks tend to peak in the summer, when cooling towers (used in air conditioning) are in frequent use. Full Access: CIDRAP
U.S. Measles Cases Surpass Last Year’s Total
As of July 16, 2026, 2,260 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026 and marking the highest count in 35 years There have been 34 new outbreaks reported in 2026, and 93% of confirmed cases (2,108 of 2,260) are outbreak-associated (741 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,367 from outbreaks that started in 2025). Clinical implications: It’s the latest sign that the virus is rebounding in areas with low vaccine coverage, threatening the United States’ measles elimination status which is due to be reviewed in November. The majority of cases are in unvaccinated people. Full Access: CDC
Estimating Optimal Levels of WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) Antibiotic Use in 186 Countries, Territories, and Areas on the Basis of Clinical Infection and Resistance Burden
This study modeled optimal antibiotic use across 186 countries by weighing infection burden against resistance data, then compared those targets to real-world prescribing. The takeaway: the UN’s goal of 70% Access-category use is a sound global benchmark, but most countries are missing it in a specific way — 72% of countries used more total antibiotics than needed, and 99% overused Watch-category antibiotics relative to what their infection and resistance burden actually justified. Poorer countries needed proportionally more Watch and Reserve drugs than wealthier ones, showing the 70% target can’t be applied identically everywhere. Clinical implications: For Urgent Care, this reinforces that Watch antibiotics (broader-spectrum drugs like fluoroquinolones or macrolides) are being reached for far more often than resistance data supports, a habit worth actively resisting. When a first-line Access drug (e.g., amoxicillin, doxycycline) is clinically adequate, prescribing it preserves Watch/Reserve efficacy for cases that truly need it. Full Access: The Lancet