Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
How Does Mpox Spread, and Who Is Most at Risk?
NYT This month, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency. The virus, formerly known as monkeypox, is spreading quickly in parts of Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak there has been fueled by a new version of the virus that has also been discovered in Sweden and Thailand. The fast-evolving situation has led to anxiety and […]
Sep 3, 2024
The Conversation The current strain of avian flu, H5N1, is responsible for the culling of millions of domestic birds and has sickened more than a dozen farmworkers in 2024, most recently in Colorado. The Conversation U.S. asked immunologist and microbiologist Jenna Guthmiller from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to explain the historical roots of H5N1, its mode of […]
Aug 28, 2024
Children Dying of Mpox Are Not First in Line for a Vaccine
Bloomberg Children account for over 80% of fatal mpox cases in Congo, Bavarian Nordic shot is missing from pediatric vaccine plan. Children account for over 80% of mpox deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the first shots to arrive in the country won’t be given to the youngest and most vulnerable patients. A new […]
Aug 28, 2024
Africa has almost 4,000 new mpox cases in a week, but the wait for vaccines continues
AP Africa is seeing a rapid increase in mpox cases with nearly 4,000 reported in the past week, the continent’s public health body said Tuesday as it repeated a plea for long-awaited vaccines whose arrival this week in the most affected country, Congo, has been delayed. Eighty-one deaths from mpox were reported in Africa in the past […]
Aug 28, 2024
Promising Mpox Drug Fails in Trials as Virus Spreads
Wired AS MPOX CONTINUES to spread in Central Africa, a promising antiviral drug to treat the infection has failed to improve patients’ symptoms in a trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak. In the trial, the drug tecovirimat, also known as TPOXX, did not alleviate the characteristic blisterlike rash seen in […]
Aug 28, 2024
Extreme heat and rain are fueling rising cases of mosquito-borne diseases
Science News When it rains, it pours. And when it pours, mosquitoes pop up. A series of storms slammed the northeastern United States on August 18, unleashing torrents of rain and causing flash floods across parts of New York and Connecticut. In Oxford, Conn., a potentially record-breaking rainfall of roughly 38 centimeters (15 inches) fell in […]
Aug 28, 2024
What to Know About the Rare Mosquito-Borne Illness Eastern Equine Encephalitis
NYT The disease has caused one death in New Hampshire and the virus has also been identified in humans in neighboring states, health officials said. One person has died in New Hampshire after contracting the mosquito-borne virus Eastern equine encephalitis, and two others in the Northeast have been infected this summer with the rare disease. […]
Aug 28, 2024
The Hill Health experts are urging families and schools administers to take active steps in preventing the spread of COVID-19 amid potential fall and winter spikes in cases. Weekly COVID-19 deaths have been on the rise since June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker. Rising COVID-19 cases seem to be […]
Aug 27, 2024
Valley Fever in California: Symptoms, Protecting Yourself and Why Cases Are Way Up
KQED Cases of valley fever — a lung infection that can cause severe sickness in some people — are rising across California. And state health officials said they’re seeing an increasing number of cases of the disease reported outside the Central Valley and Central Coast areas where valley fever is traditionally most common — including cases in Bay Area […]
Aug 27, 2024
Fauci contracted West Nile. How risky are mosquitoes in the D.C. region?
Washington Post Anthony S. Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious-disease expert, was hospitalized last month with the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. On Monday, Maryland announced its first confirmed case of the diseasethis year. And the biting insects seem to be everywhere in the Washington region. Attention on West Nile, the most common disease spread by mosquitoes, is […]
Aug 27, 2024