Specialty Focus 7/29/26: Ecocide in Ukraine + Measles cases in US reach 35-year high

July 29, 2026 | Volume XV | Issue 30

The FDA and peptides

TIME reports:

In a highly unusual move, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee voted against FDA staff’s own advice in a meeting on July 23 and 24, recommending that six peptides be added to a list that will allow certain specialty pharmacies to dispense them. Currently, those peptides are in a legal gray area. The committee voted against adding to the list one of the peptides being considered, emideltide.

Here’s what to know.

Ecocide in Ukraine

Olena Kozar

If you had traveled to Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion, you might have camped in the tranquil forests of Hetman National Park, a 90-square-mile wilderness along the Vorskla River in the northeastern part of the country. Tall pines and oak canopies filtered the light; birds and insects moved through the river bends and wetlands. By the end of February 2022, the whole area was under military occupation. Today, walking through those woods is forbidden. Artillery fire and landmines make the area too dangerous. The forest now stands empty and charred.

Hetman National Park was an early front in a war that has brought mass death and suffering to Ukraine. Tens of thousands have been killed, far more wounded, millions displaced, and entire cities and families shattered. Against that overwhelming human toll, the park marks a second kind of loss, harder to undo...

Type 1 diabetes family history is still misunderstood

Shara Bialo, MD writes for KevinMD:

As a pediatric endocrinologist, I often meet families on one of the hardest days of their lives: a T1D diagnosis. I watch as the shock sets in. I hear their worries, their concern for the future, and the questions that arise when I mention that family history can increase the risk of developing the disease by up to 15-fold. “What does this mean for our family? Could this happen to my other children? What should we do next?”

Measles cases in US reach 35-year high as vaccine skepticism runs rampant

The Hill

The number of measles cases across the U.S. has surpassed last year’s annual total, hitting the highest number of cases recorded in more than three decades, according to Johns Hopkins University.

View video HERE.

Last Word

Publisher of Week in Review, Specialty Focus, FHIweekly & Game Changers