Sunday, 14 June 2026 edition — The Vital Record

In brief

• Devices & Diagnostics FDA Classifies J&J Cerenovus Brain Coil Recall as Class I After Patient Death and Four Injuries A higher-than-expected failure-to-detach rate in CEREPAK embolic coils has been linked to hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, prompting the FDA's most serious recall tier.
• Public Health CDC Opens Emergency Operations Center as Screwworm Infestations Spread Across Texas and New Mexico Federal agencies are deploying millions of sterile flies a week after six confirmed animal cases mark the parasite's return to U.S. soil for the first time since a landmark 1966 eradication program.
• Research A Small Placebo-Controlled Trial Links Pramipexole to Reduced Anhedonia in Mood Disorders A single-center RCT (n=85) finds the Parkinson's drug pramipexole, added to existing treatment, was associated with significantly lower anhedonia scores — but researchers caution the findings are preliminary.
• FDA & Regulatory BD Recalls Two Lots of ChloraPrep and FREPP Skin-Prep Applicators Over Aspergillus Fungal Contamination Lot 4032183 of ChloraPrep 1 mL and Lot 4073005 of FREPP 1.5 mL were shipped nationwide between March and June 2024; fungal contamination poses serious infection risk, particularly for immunocompromised patients.
• Clinical Trials Investigational RNA Drug Zilebesiran Enters Phase 3 MACE Trial in 11,000 Patients With Uncontrolled Hypertension The ZENITH trial, sponsored by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, will test whether zilebesiran — a silencing RNA that targets the root of the blood-pressure cascade — reduces heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death in high-risk patients already on standard therapy.
• Digital Health & AI AI Pathology Models Pass Lab Tests But Stumble Across Hospitals, New Benchmark Finds PathoROB evaluated 23 foundation models across 34 medical centers and found none achieved consistent robustness on all three measures — a result the authors say argues for pre-deployment testing before clinical adoption.