Author: Claudinne Miller
California: 27 elephant seals test positive for bird flu in Bay Area outbreak
KRON More than two dozen elephant seals have tested positive for avian influenza since the outbreak at Año Nuevo State Park on the San Mateo County coast began in February, according to an update from UC Davis released Monday. One sea otter and two California sea lions have also tested positive after being found dead […]
Mar 18, 2026
Understanding endemic Rift Valley Fever (RVF) transmission in distinct African regions
Wellcome.org This research investigates the endemic dynamics of Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) in East (Kenya), West (Senegal), and Southern Africa (South Africa), challenging the view of RVFV as an epidemic disease. We propose that RVF exists along a spectrum from epidemic to endemic transmission, influenced by landscape ecology, climate, and socioeconomic factors. The project […]
Mar 18, 2026
Unvaccinated 17-year-old dies of measles, Health Ministry says
Times of Israel The Health Ministry reports that an unvaccinated 17-year-old boy died of measles last night. The boy suffered from underlying conditions. When hospitalized two and a half weeks ago, he was diagnosed with measles. This is Israel’s 17th death from measles since the current outbreak began last May. Of the other 16 deaths, […]
Mar 18, 2026
Why we don’t talk about COVID anymore
Axios Six years ago this week, COVID-19 dominated daily life. Schools closed, headlines tracked cases, and Ohio reported its first deaths and postponed a primary election. Why it matters: Today, the pandemic that killed over 1 million Americans and reshaped society has largely faded from public conversation. Driving the news: Associate professor Marian Moser Jones and other researchers have interviewed over […]
Mar 18, 2026
More serious mpox strain detected in NYC for first time
CBS News The first case of mpox clade I has been detected in New York City, health officials said Friday. Of the two types of mpox, clade I is known to cause more severe disease and death. It’s the 12th clade I mpox diagnosis in the U.S. The city’s Health Department said the person who tested […]
Mar 18, 2026
The first known case of a severe strain of the mpox virus detected in NYC
Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, explains the risks and differences from prior mpox outbreaks.
Mar 18, 2026
UK industry welcomes new turkey vaccine trial in bird flu battle
Poultry World In a landmark move for the UK poultry sector, a new field trial to test highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) vaccines in turkeys has begun in England. The launch at the beginning of March marks what many in the industry say is a pivotal moment in the long-running battle against a disease that […]
Mar 18, 2026
We study pandemics, and the resurgence of measles is a grim sign of what’s coming
The Conversation In the three decades between 1993 and 2024, measles in the U.S. was relatively rare – a few hundred cases each year, at most. But suddenly, the disease has become so entrenched in American life that it sometimes fails to make headlines when a new outbreak erupts. As of March 2026, measles has […]
Mar 18, 2026
NZ’s 9th COVID‑19 wave: why infections are rising – and how booster shots still help
The Conversation Six years after COVID-19 first reached New Zealand, the country is experiencing its ninth wave of infections. But the virus we are living with today behaves very differently from the one that caused the global emergency in 2020–22. Large outbreaks can still occur, but thanks to widespread immunity built through vaccination and infection, COVID […]
Mar 18, 2026
COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show
Scientific American We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say. COVID may have killed significantly more people in the U.S. in the first two years of the pandemic than official records indicate, with as many as one overlooked death for every five recorded ones. That brings the total to nearly one million deaths just in 2020 and […]
Mar 18, 2026