Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Lasers, Inflatable Dancers and the Fight to Fend Off Avian Flu
NYT Some poultry growers are turning to innovative tactics to protect their flocks, deploying deterrents like drones, air horns, balloons and decoy predators. Loren Brey, a poultry grower in Minnesota, walked onto the farm where his egg-laying turkeys nest in November to discover a handful of hens, dead from the highly pathogenic avian flu. Within […]
Apr 24, 2024
Man dies after 613-day COVID-19 infection that underwent 50 mutations
Scripps News Through the 613 days of infection, the virus evolved into a “novel immune-evasive variant” that had mutated over 50 times. A new report by Dutch scientists revealed a very peculiar case: On Feb. 2022, a 72-year-old man with a compromised immune system was admitted to Amsterdam University Medical Center with a COVID-19 infection. The virus in […]
Apr 24, 2024
Chronic wasting disease feared in deaths of 2 hunters who ate deer meat
USA Today The recent report of two hunters who developed neurological diseases after eating infected deer meat has scientists concerned that ‘zombie deer disease’ could pass to humans as mad cow disease did. Two hunters who ate meat from deer known to have chronic wasting disease − or “zombie deer disease” − developed similar neurological conditions and died, raising […]
Apr 24, 2024
First measles case confirmed in West Virginia since 2009
WV News A patient of WVU Medicine in Monongalia County has tested positive for measles. WVU Medicine announced Monday that a patient tested positive after visiting an outpatient clinic last week and is recovering at their home. The U.S. has seen an uptick in measles cases in 2024, but this is the first case confirmed in West […]
Apr 24, 2024
MSN The CDC is reporting an uptick in mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, cases across the United States. So far this year, they’ve reported almost 600 positive cases of mpox, which is nearly double the amount of cases reported in 2023. Dr. Wes Stubblefield with the Alabama Department of Public Health said mpox is a […]
Apr 16, 2024
4 Years In, a Sobering Look at Long COVID Progress
Medscape Four years ago in the spring of 2020, physicians and patients coined the term “long COVID” to describe a form of the viral infection from which recovery seemed impossible. (And the old nickname “long-haulers” seems so quaint now.) What started as a pandemic that killed nearly 3 million people globally in 2020 alone would turn into a […]
Apr 16, 2024
Nigeria: Accelerated research against Lassa fever, which killed 20 people in one week
Actual News Magazine Lassa fever looks a bit like Ebola fever, with fairly severe symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and bleeding. It can kill up to 20% of patients and becomes fatal 10 days after the first symptoms appear, especially if it is not treated. It is found in Africa, in Nigeria […]
Apr 16, 2024
Avian flu infects another commercial poultry farm in Michigan
MI Live As Michigan grapples with the bird flu spreading to cows, it has infected another commercial poultry farm. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced Tuesday, April 16 the highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected at a commercial facility in Newaygo County. This is the seventh time the deadly flu has infected […]
Apr 16, 2024
Upper Respiratory Tract Disease in a Dog Infected by a Highly Pathogenic Avian A/H5N1 Virus
Emerging Viral Zoonoses In summer 2023, during an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in cats in Poland, a 16-year-old dog was presented to the veterinary clinic with persistent, debilitating, dry cough, submandibular lymphadenomegaly, mild serous nasal discharge, and left apical heart murmur. A preliminary diagnosis of kennel cough was made and the treatment […]
Apr 16, 2024
Federal officials are tracking the outbreak of avian influenza in dairy cattle
NPR Audio at the link – Scientists are monitoring the spread of bird flu in dairy cattle and other mammals to see how the virus is changing. So far, there are no alarming signs that it poses a new risk to humans.
Apr 10, 2024