Author: Claudinne Miller
United States: COVID national emergency ends after Congress acts
AP The U.S. national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic ended Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years — weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency. The national emergency allowed the government to take sweeping steps to respond […]
Apr 11, 2023
COVID caused brain damage in 2 infants infected during pregnancy -US study
Reuters Researchers at the University of Miami reported on Thursday what they believe are the first two confirmed cases in which the SARS-CoV-2 virus crossed a mother’s placenta and caused brain damage in the infants they were carrying. (Related paper in Pediatrics from University of Miami) Doctors previously had suspected this was possible, but until […]
Apr 7, 2023
A comprehensive analysis of gene expression profiling data in COVID-19 patients for discovery of specific and differential blood biomarker signatures
Nature COVID-19 is a newly recognized illness with a predominantly respiratory presentation. Although initial analyses have identified groups of candidate gene biomarkers for the diagnosis of COVID-19, they have yet to identify clinically applicable biomarkers, so we need disease-specific diagnostic biomarkers in biofluid and differential diagnosis in comparison with other infectious diseases. This can further […]
Apr 6, 2023
A new flu is spilling over from cows to people in the U.S. How worried should we be?
NPR In 2011, a farmer in Oklahoma had a bunch of sick pigs. The animals had what looked like the flu. “Just like a person with respiratory disease, the pigs had labored breathing, maybe a runny nose, cough and potentially a fever,” says virologist Benjamin Hause. At the time, Hause was working at the company […]
Apr 6, 2023
FROM BAD TO WORSE
Science The victims are varied, from thousands of sea lions off the coast of Peru to mink farmed for fur in Spain to grizzly bears in Montana and harbor seals in Maine. For months, the avian influenza virus that has been decimating birds across the world has also sickened and killed a menagerie of mammals, raising fears […]
Apr 6, 2023
Marburg Virus Disease Outbreaks inEquatorial Guinea and Tanzania
CDC SummaryThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is issuing this Health Alert Network (HAN) HealthAdvisory to inform clinicians and public health departments in the United States about two confirmedoutbreaks of Marburg virus disease (MVD)—one in Equatorial Guinea and one in Tanzania. Currently,there is no evidence to suggest that these two outbreaks are related; […]
Apr 6, 2023
Avian flu is devastating seabird colonies across North Atlantic ocean
CBC Seabird scientist Bill Montevecchi explains how avian flu made its way to Newfoundland and what can be done. Where did avian flu come from? Avian Influenza (HPAI H5Nx) variants were first detected in 1996 among domestic fowl in Asia. The influenza then radiated in poultry through Russia to Europe, Africa, and North America. Since 2005, […]
Apr 4, 2023
Nevada leads in superbug fungus infections
Nevada Local News Federal public health officials have identified southern Nevada as the place in the U.S. with the highest number of cases of a potentially lethal fungus that is resistant to common antibiotics and can be a major risk for hospital and nursing home patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked and […]
Apr 4, 2023
Duke-NUS’ influenza expert assesses how worried we should be about H5N1
Duke The current outbreak of a highly contagious strain of H5N1 avian influenza has been called the worst in history. By January 2023, poultry farmers in the US had slaughtered almost 60 million birds infected or at risk of being infected with H5N1, with a similar number being culled in Europe while in Japan, farmers set […]
Apr 4, 2023
Pfizer, Moderna and more look to combine COVID and flu vaccine markets
Fierce Pharma When Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna swooped in to save the day with pandemic mRNA vaccines, few people—if any—were thinking about the long-term structure of the COVID-19 vaccine market. Now, as vaccination rates decline and government contracts dry up, that future is becoming clearer. While COVID-19 took a back seat to other topics during […]
Apr 4, 2023