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Three people are dead and at least three others are sick after a suspected outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday. The three dead were cruise passengers on the MV Hondius, said Oceanwide Expeditions, the company that operates the ship, which is currently anchored in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa. Passengers will not be allowed to disembark in Cape Verde, the country’s health minister Maria da Luz Lima told Radio Cabo Verde on Sunday. However, local health authorities have visited the ship and assessed two symptomatic crew members “requiring urgent medical care,” Oceanwide Expeditions said in its statement. (Harvey, 5/4)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Auvelity this week for the treatment of agitation in adults with Alzheimer's dementia. The extended-release tablet is the first FDA-approved medication for this condition that is not an anti-psychotic. Anti-psychotics carry serious risks including stroke, sedation and increased death in older adults, according to the FDA. Having a non-antipsychotic option may be safer for patients, experts say. (Miao and Joseph, 5/1)

By the time doctors detect pancreatic cancer, it’s often too late to treat effectively. But a new study suggests that artificial intelligence might be able to find signs of the disease before tumors are visible on a scan. An AI model developed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, detected abnormalities on patients’ CT scans up to three years before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to research published this week in the journal Gut. (Bendix, 5/2)

Specific bacteria in the gut could predict a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease years before symptoms appear, new research suggests. Led by researchers from University College London (UCL), an observational study analyzed the gut microbes of 271 patients in the U.K. who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. (Rudy, 4/30)

New Zealand infant formula maker a2 Milk Co. is recalling batches of product sold in the US after detecting a toxin linked to vomiting and diarrhea, marking its first brush with a contamination scare that has rattled the global industry. Three batches of a2 Platinum USA-label formula have been recalled after manufacturer Synlait Milk Ltd. identified cereulide, a2 said. The recall, which began on May 1, impacts just the US and not the company’s most lucrative market in China. No confirmed incidents of infant illness or harm have been reported, it said. (Withers, 5/3)

A federal investigation into a multistate outbreak of a foodborne bacterium that hospitalized three people is over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In total, the CDC identified nine people across three states who were sickened with Escherichia coli after eating cheddar cheese or drinking milk from Raw Farm, LLC, a dairy in California's Central Valley that sells unpasteurized products. (Boden, 5/1)

Second Nature Brands has issued a recall of its Keto Crunch Smart Mix on Friday after discovering the product may contain undeclared cashews, pistachios and cherries, posing a potential risk to consumers with allergies. The recall was announced on Saturday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which warned people with allergies or severe sensitivities to these ingredients could face serious or life-threatening reactions if they consume the affected product. (Marsden, 5/3)

Ukraine is intensifying drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, hitting a key Black Sea refinery four times in two weeks and setting off a days-long carcinogenic blaze that environmentalists say represents one of the country’s worst ecological disasters since the fall of the Soviet Union. A plume of black acrid smoke once again rose over Russia’s Black Sea city of Tuapse on Friday after Ukraine struck the refinery and oil terminal there overnight, the fourth in a spate of attacks that have also caused oily droplets of “black rain” to fall on residents and contaminated more than 30 miles of coastline as an oil slick spread. (Abbakumova and Belton, 5/4)