Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Which Adults Need Polio Boosters
Precision Vaccinations The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory committee is discussing how to make the current polio vaccination recommendations easier to understand. On February 23, 2023, Sarah Kidd, M.D., MPH, presented to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) proposed language for adult polio vaccinations in the U.S. The CDC’s current recommendations for […]
Mar 7, 2023
Long Covid Patients More Likely to Have Gastrointestinal Problems, Study Finds
New York Times The study, which examined patients infected early in the pandemic, found they were significantly more likely than people who didn’t get Covid to experience lingering reflux, constipation and other issues. Stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, bloating — these are symptoms frequently reported by people with long Covid. Now, a large new study reports that […]
Mar 7, 2023
Metformin found to reduce Long Covid in clinical trial
Inside Medicine A study posted on a preprint server operated by the medical journal The Lancet reports that Long Covid diagnoses were found to be lower in patients who received metformin (an inexpensive diabetes drug) compared to those who received placebo. The study has not yet been peer reviewed. Still, the findings are promising. Around 10.6% (1 in 9) […]
Mar 7, 2023
CDC Releases Important Updates on COVID
(CDC) In the acute phase, clinical manifestations and complications of COVID-19 of varying degrees have been documented including death. However, patients who recover from the acute phase of the infection can still suffer long-term effects (8). Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as “long COVID,” refers to the long-term symptoms, signs, and complications […]
Mar 7, 2023
Lion infected with covid-19 probably passed it on to two zoo workers
New Scientist A lion at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana, tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus after it started coughing and became breathless. Zoo workers who had cared for the lion later caught the infection. A lion that was infected with the coronavirus probably passed it on to two zoo employees, researchers have said […]
Mar 7, 2023
If it’s Not COVID or the Flu, What is it?
San Diego News People across San Diego County are raising concerns about a new illness going around. “I heard other people, just around the neighborhood, they were preparing teas and just making soups and things like that to help the immune system,” one San Diego resident said. Some say the illness gives them stomach issues. […]
Mar 7, 2023
After Severe COVID, Cognitive Trajectories Go One of Three Ways
MedPageToday Cognitive impairment persisted for 1 year in some patients age 50 and older. Hospital patients discharged after severe SARS-CoV-2 infection followed one of three cognitive trajectories, longitudinal data showed. Of 946 severe COVID patients age 50 and older with no previous dementia or memory complaints, 69.0% had no cognitive impairment 1 month after discharge, […]
Mar 7, 2023
Bloomberg As the pandemic drags us into a fourth year, two key questions are on researchers’ minds: What’s driving the proliferation of immune-evasive variants, and what’s causes the persistent symptoms plaguing some 140 million Covid survivors worldwide? Answers to both have been informed by two different and somewhat unsavory lines of inquiry. In the spring of […]
Mar 7, 2023
World’s Failure to Wipe Out Covid Bodes Badly for Next Pandemic
(Bloomberg) Virus elimination has fallen from grace, leaving experts divided on how best to contain infectious diseases. For much of the past century, a strategy known as elimination was the gold standard for dealing with deadly new viruses. But China’s abrupt reversal of its Covid Zero policy, which took it to an extreme, has cast doubts over […]
Feb 21, 2023
Bird flu kills sea lions and thousands of pelicans in Peru’s protected areas
(Reuters) Bird flu has killed tens of thousands of birds, mostly pelicans, and at least 716 sea lions in protected areas across Peru, the authorities said, as the H5N1 strain spreads throughout the region. Peru recorded its first case of the virus in November in birds in the north of the country. Since then it […]
Feb 21, 2023
