Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
COVID flashback: On Jan. 30, 2020, WHO declared a global health emergency
(NPR) On Jan. 30, 2020, the World Health Organization sounded the alarm about an unfamiliar and deadly new virus, declaring it a global health emergency. “Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed the emergence of a previously unknown pathogen, which has escalated into an unprecedented outbreak,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. Tedros was […]
Jan 31, 2023
Trying to crack the Nipah code: How does this deadly virus spill from bats to humans?
(NPR) It’s dusk in central Bangladesh, in a community within the district of Faridpur. A 50-year-old man sits outside his home beside a rice paddy. His name is Khokon. A fiery beard, dyed a bright orange, rings his chin. He says the procession of disease and death all started in the spring of 2004. “So […]
Jan 31, 2023
Health officials monitoring case of tuberculosis in Tacoma woman who has refused treatment
(Tacoma News) Health officials are monitoring a case of active tuberculosis in a Tacoma woman who has declined treatment, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Washington averages about 200 cases of active TB per year, with about 20 of those cases occurring in Pierce County. TB infections usually affect a person’s lungs but can also […]
Jan 31, 2023
U.S. Plans to End Public Health Emergency for Covid in May
(New York Times) The end of the emergency, planned for May 11, will bring about a complex set of policy changes and signals a new chapter in the government’s pandemic response. The move carries both symbolic weight and real-world consequences. Millions of Americans have received free Covid tests, treatments and vaccines during the pandemic, and […]
Jan 31, 2023
Study unexpectedly finds only 7 health symptoms directly related to ‘long COVID’
(University of Missouri, Columbia) In a new study, a team of University of Missouri researchers made an unexpected discovery: people experiencing long-lasting effects from COVID-19 — known as “long COVID” or post-COVID conditions — are susceptible to developing only seven health symptoms for up to a year following the infection. They are: fast-beating heart, hair […]
Jan 31, 2023
The U.S. Still Doesn’t Have Good COVID-19 Data. Here’s Why That’s a Problem
(Time Magazine) Check the COVID-19 Data Tracker from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and you’ll get a rundown of the latest case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths. Those categories might seem straightforward, but the data, say many experts, are telling us a lot less than we think they are. That’s because it’s getting increasingly […]
Jan 31, 2023
Marburg vaccine shows promising results in first-in-human study
(NIH) A newly published paper in The Lancet shows that an experimental vaccine against Marburg virus (MARV) was safe and induced an immune response in a small, first-in-human clinical trial. The vaccine, developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, could someday be an important tool […]
Jan 31, 2023
Is the Bivalent Booster Any Better Than the Original?
(MedPageToday Video) In this video, Jeremy Faust, MD, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, discusses his recent articleopens in a new tab or window diving into new studiesopens in a new tab or window on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 bivalent booster versus the monovalent booster. One thing that people are really interested in right now is this question as to whether […]
Jan 31, 2023
Planning for Mpox on a College Campus: A Model-Based Decision-Support Tool
(Annals of Internal Medicine) In spring and summer 2022, an outbreak of mpox occurred worldwide, largely confined to men who have sex with men (MSM). There was concern that mpox could break swiftly into congregate settings and populations with high levels of regular frequent physical contact, like university campus communities. Objective: To estimate the likelihood […]
Jan 31, 2023
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
(Nature) To what extent has the learning progress of school-aged children slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic? A growing number of studies address this question, but findings vary depending on context. Here we conduct a pre-registered systematic review, quality appraisal and meta-analysis of 42 studies across 15 countries to assess the magnitude of learning deficits […]
Jan 31, 2023