Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
China’s Abrupt Covid Pivot Leaves Many Without Medicines
(New York Times) Millions are desperate to get their hands on fever-reducing drugs and antivirals such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid as infections across China outpace supplies. As Covid rips through parts of China, millions of Chinese are struggling to find treatment — from the most basic cold remedies to take at home to more powerful antivirals […]
Dec 20, 2022
China COVID wave could kill one million people, models predict
(Nature) Up to one million people in China could die from COVID-19 over the next few months, according to some of the first projections since the government lifted many of its strict ‘zero-COVID-19’ measures. However, two studies find that the number of deaths could be reduced by giving most of the population a fourth vaccine […]
Dec 20, 2022
Ebola in Uganda: 23 days since confirmation of last case, Lockdown lifted in Mubende and Kassanda
(Outbreak News Today) Uganda’s Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Sudan Ebola Virus (SVD) on September 20 after a case was confirmed in Mubende district. This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda reported an outbreak of Sudan ebolavirus. According to officials, it’s been 23 days since the last confirmed case was […]
Dec 20, 2022
China’s Covid-19 Outbreak Has US Worried About New Variants
(Bloomberg) The US is concerned China’s runaway Covid-19 outbreak might spawn new mutations of the virus, as the world’s most populous country continues to grapple with the impact of loosening “Covid Zero” protocols that had kept the pandemic at bay. “When it comes to the current outbreak in China, we want to see this addressed,” […]
Dec 20, 2022
Are Subphenotypes for Long COVID Beneficial?
(MedPageToday) A recent study opens in a new tab or window published in Nature Medicine, “Data-driven identification of post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection subphenotypes” by Hao Zhang, PhD, et al. used a data-driven framework to stratify patients suffering with post-acute SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), also referred to as long COVID, into different subcategories of sequelae. The bulk of the patients in the […]
Dec 20, 2022
Coronavirus boosters cut hospitalization risk by at least 50%, CDC data shows
(Washington Post) Adults who received the updated coronavirus booster shots are better protected against severe disease than those who haven’t, cutting their risk of having to visit an emergency room or being hospitalized with covid-19 by 50 percent or more,according to new federal data. Two reports released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention give […]
Dec 20, 2022
Why is strep A surging — and how worried are scientists?
(Nature) As the days lengthen and temperatures rise each spring, British paediatricians know what to expect: an increase in group A streptococcal infections that should tail off by the summer. But an off-season outbreak of the bacterial infections this year has jumbled expectations, made scores of people ill and killed 13 children under the age […]
Dec 19, 2022
RSV wave hammers hospitals — but vaccines and treatments are coming
(Nature) In the past few months, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been sending children under the age of 5 to hospital at alarming rates in the United States and Europe. As paediatric units fill beyond capacity, and physicians contend with a ‘tripledemic’ of RSV, influenza and COVID-19, some have been calling for a state of emergency […]
Dec 19, 2022
The World Is Addicted to Chicken. So Is the Bird Flu Virus
(Bloomberg) The bird flu outbreak ravaging global poultry flocks is now the worst since records began, driving a spike in the price of eggs, threatening free-range chicken and risking long-term impacts to animal health. The avian flu season traditionally begins each October as migratory birds shed infected droppings or saliva while leaving cool areas of the Northern Hemisphere. But this year cases spread […]
Dec 19, 2022
Just How Bad Is the ‘Tripledemic’?
(NYT) After two difficult Covid winters, the current season of respiratory sickness already rivals some of the worst cold and flu seasons on record — and it started about two months early. R.S.V., or respiratory syncytial virus, has made so many young children ill this fall that weekly pediatric hospitalizations for R.S.V. are the highest recorded. Influenza, […]
Dec 16, 2022
