Author: Claudinne Miller
Zooming in on the structure of the lethal Ebola virus
Phys.org Six years before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Ebola outbreak in West Africa had people fearing the possibility of a global outbreak. This was the first time many had ever heard of the virus, but since it was first identified in 1976, there have actually been more than 20 serious Ebola incidents. […]
Mar 26, 2025
Man’s Two-Year Hiccups Triggered by Rare Allergy Condition
Gizmodo Talk about a bad hiccup attack. In a recent case report, doctors describe an elderly man who endured years of incurable hiccups ultimately caused by an allergic condition. Doctors in Lebanon detailed the strange medical tale in a paper published this month in the Journal of Medical Case Reports. The man’s hiccups got so bad that […]
Mar 26, 2025
Transmission dynamics of the 2022 mpox epidemic in New York City
Nature The 2022 global mpox epidemic was caused by transmission of MPXV clade IIb, lineage B.1 through sexual contact networks, with New York City (NYC) experiencing the first and largest outbreak in the United States. By performing phylogeographic analysis of MPXV genomes sampled from 757 individuals in NYC between April 2022 and April 2023, and […]
Mar 26, 2025
Influenza of avian origin confirmed in a sheep in Yorkshire
UK.gov Influenza of avian origin (H5N1) has been confirmed in a single sheep in Yorkshire. The UK’s Chief Veterinary Officer has confirmed a case of influenza of avian origin (H5N1) in a single sheep in Yorkshire following repeat positive milk testing. The case was identified following routine surveillance of co-located livestock on a premises […]
Mar 26, 2025
DRC Outbreak Linked to Malaria, Officials Confirm
News Central Africa Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed that a mysterious illness responsible for over 50 deaths earlier this year was malaria. The National Public Health Institute announced late Monday that laboratory tests identified malaria as the cause of the outbreak, which killed 52 people and affected nearly 1,000 others in Equateur province. Continue reading
Mar 26, 2025
A year later, cow flu origins are an unsettling puzzle
Science It’s still unclear how H5N1 virus jumped into U.S. cattle—and why it keeps doing so. When U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials reported one year ago today that the H5N1 avian influenza virus had infected dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas, it seemed a freak event—a rare confluence of factors that somehow allowed a […]
Mar 26, 2025
Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism
Washington Post A long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism. A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current […]
Mar 26, 2025
Texas measles outbreak grows to 327 cases with 18 confirmed infections over last 5 days: Officials
ABC News The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with 18 cases confirmed over the last five days, bringing the total to 327 cases, according to new data published Tuesday. Nearly all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department […]
Mar 25, 2025
Fungus labeled ‘urgent threat’ by CDC is spreading rapidly, hospital study finds
The Hill New cases of a dangerous, drug-resistant fungus have been identified in at least two states’ hospital systems. Candida auris, also called C. auris, was first identified in the U.S. in 2016. Since then, the number of cases have increased every year, jumping substantially in 2023 (the last year of data available from the Centers […]
Mar 25, 2025
CDC is pulling back $11B in Covid funding sent to health departments across the U.S.
NBC News “Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary,” federal health authorities wrote to funding recipients this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and […]
Mar 25, 2025