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Doctor Wanted: Small town in Florida offers big perks to attract a physician
CBSN
HAVANA, Fla. — For a rural community, this town of 1,750 people has been more fortunate than most. A family doctor has practiced here for the last 30 years.
But that ended in December when Mark Newberry retired. To attract a new doctor, Havana leaders took out want ads in local newspapers, posted notices on social media, and sweetened the pot with a rent-free medical office equipped with an X-ray, an ultrasound machine and a bone density scanner — all owned by the town.
Local leaders hope the recruitment campaign will help attract candidates amid a nationwide shortage of doctors.
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The U.S. confirmed at least a dozen deaths from whooping cough last year, according to preliminary figures released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That marks the most fatalities from the bacterial infection since a 2017 surge of the illness, which is also known as pertussis.
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As vaccination rates decline, widespread outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio could reemerge
Health officials in western Texas are trying to contain a measles outbreak among mostly school-aged children, with at least 15 confirmed cases. It's the latest outbreak of a disease that had been virtually eliminated in the U.S., and it comes as vaccination rates are declining — jeopardizing the country's herd immunity from widespread outbreaks.