Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Bird Flu Samples From Very Ill Patient Had ‘Concerning’ Mutations
NYT Tiny genetic alterations could help the bird flu virus enter cells in the upper respiratory tract, the C.D.C. said. But there is no sign that mutations are widespread in nature. After someone in southwest Louisiana was hospitalized with a severe case of bird flu, the first such illness reported in the United States, health […]
Jan 2, 2025
CDC Says It’s Searching for These Pandemic Red Flags
Newsweek he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed it is monitoring for a number of red flags that suggest bird flu could become the world’s next pandemic. The first severe human bird flu case in the United States was reported in Louisiana earlier this month. Genetic analysis found the virus had mutated, making it more easily transmissible […]
Jan 2, 2025
Highly Infectious Tularemia Cases Increasing
Newsmax Cases of a bacterial infection called “rabbit fever” have been increasing during the past decade. Cases of tularemia increased by 56% during the 2010s compared to the previous decade, researchers report in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Half of all the nearly 2,500 reported cases between 2011 and 2022 came from four states: […]
Jan 2, 2025
Bird flu suspected in Ohio, dead birds found in several counties
Cleveland.com The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife is working with other agencies to monitor the suspected presence of bird flu, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, in the state. In recent months, the virus has been detected in several states, according to the division. Continue reading
Jan 2, 2025
A fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan workers. The CDC still isn’t sure why it happened
Lansing Journal A common soil fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan paper mill workers, and killed one, in what health officials called the largest such outbreak in U.S. history, but the exact cause remains elusive, they said this week. The Centers for Disease Control said a 2022-23 outbreak of blastomycosis at Escanaba’s Billerud Paper infected […]
Jan 2, 2025
Norovirus, Covid And RSV Are Surging This Winter. Here’s What To Know.
Forbes Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control shows spikes in norovirus, Covid-19 and RSV across the U.S.—a resurgence that’s potentially unlike the usual annual winter spread of these illnesses, which have been less active in recent months. Norovirus is a contagious virus that typically presents as projectile vomiting and diarrhea after ingesting contaminated food or […]
Jan 2, 2025
5 things we know and still don’t know about COVID, 5 years after it appeared
AP Five years ago, a cluster of people in Wuhan, China, fell sick with a virus never before seen in the world. The germ didn’t have a name, nor did the illness it would cause. It wound up setting off a pandemic that exposed deep inequities in the global health system and reshaped public opinion […]
Jan 2, 2025
We must revisit the covid-19 pandemic to prepare for future outbreaks
New Scientist Yes, it really has been five years. On 7 January 2020, we published an article with the headline “Doctors scramble to identify mysterious illness emerging in China”. By then, at least 59 people had been infected with what we now know to be SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind covid-19. The rest is – well, has now […]
Jan 2, 2025
Canadian Teen Recovers From Severe H5N1 Bird Flu Infection
MedPageToday A 13-year-old Canadian girl recovered after being hospitalized in critical condition with H5N1 avian influenza, researchers reported. The girl was hospitalized on Nov. 7 and transferred to BC Children’s Hospital the next day, where she was intubated and put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and treated with three different antivirals, David Goldfarb, MD, of […]
Jan 1, 2025
NIH officials assess threat of H5N1
NIH Balancing enhanced vigilance and “business as usual.” Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1) remains a low risk to the general public, and public health experts in the United States believe that available treatments and vaccines, as well as those in development, are sufficient to prevent severe disease. However, the National Institutes […]
Jan 1, 2025