• COVID-19: Hospitalization rates remain elevated and stable. 
• Influenza: Hospitalization rates remain low and stable.  
• RSV: Hospitalization rates remain low and stable. 

Flu and RSV season is just around the corner, but Minnesota Department of Health's data, updated through the week ending Sept. 14, is still showing close to zero hospitalizations for each.   

• Syphilis: Through Aug. 20 there have been 924 confirmed cases of syphilis in the state. Unless the case rate picks up, Minnesota is on track for fewer cases this year than the past three years, but ahead of 2019 and 2020. 
• Pertussis or Whooping Cough: 826 cases reported in Minnesota so far this year. This is a steep rise, after only 61 cases in 2023, although the state routinely saw at least 500 cases, and sometimes more than 1,000 cases in the years 2008 to 2017.  Whooping cough was very rare in Minnesota from 1960 through the early 1990s.  
• Varicella and zoster (chicken pox and shingles): Minnesota's case count so far this year stands at 121 . The state has seen less than 250 cases in each of the past four years, after seeing at least 325 cases each year from 2015 to 2019. 
• Measles: The state's count of measles cases is 59  so far this year, only the fourth time the state has seen a double-digit count this century and already the second highest count over that span. 
• Tuberculosis: The health department has reported 58 cases in the state through the first six months of this year. This appears to be on track or less than  an average of 140 cases in Minnesota per year 2018 to 2022. 
• Mpox: Fourteen cases reported so far this year, following 20 last year, down from 234 in the 2022 outbreak. 

Another strain of flu present in domesticated animals – known as bird flu, highly pathogenic avian influenza, or more specifically H5N1 – had been spreading rapidly this year . Cases have been detected in cows and goats nationally as well as here in Minnesota, with a few cases showing up among people in other states working on dairy farms. 

As reported by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy , Public health officials continue to monitor whether H5N1 could further mutate into a disease transmissible human-to-human, especially in light of the sickness of two Missouri health care workers following their work with a patient with H5N1. That patient had no known exposure to cows or other sick patients.   
The spread of H5N1 among animals appears to be slowing, with  no new cases reported by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health in the state's many chicken and turkey flocks since July.  

Minnesota Department of Health recently reported that two children caught a different animal flu strain, H3N2v,  either directly or indirectly through exposure to pigs at the state fair. Both recovered and the department does not expect further spread.  

• At least 1 Minneapolis school reports measles case, district stresses up-to-date vaccinations  (MPR News)
• Minnesota Poll: Only small fraction of Minnesotans say they’ve used cannabis recently despite legalization (MPR News) 
• Whooping cough cases spike in the U.S., after people missed vaccinations during pandemic (NPR) 
• What to know about getting the flu shot (MPR News) 
• Vaccine hesitancy concerns physicians amid Minnesota measles outbreak (MPR News) 

In addition to the "elevated and stable" COVID-19 hospitalization rate , the Minnesota Department of Health is reporting an increased number of deaths  caused at least in part by COVID-19. After being in the single digits through most of June and July the health department has reported 20 or more deaths in four of the last seven weeks, including in the preliminary data for the week ending Sept. 14, which is likely to rise as additional information comes in.