Author: Claudinne Miller
Iowa: Mpox detected at Fort Dodge Correctional Facility
KCRG The Iowa Department of Corrections says mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been detected at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility. Mpox is an infectious viral disease that can spread between humans and animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it spreads primarily through skin-to-skin contact. The Iowa DOC’s chief of staff sent […]
Sep 3, 2024
Detection and spread of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5N1 in the Antarctic Region
Nature Until recent events, the Antarctic was the only major geographical region in which high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) had never previously been detected. Here we report on the detection of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 HPAIV in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, respectively. We initially detected H5N1 HPAIV […]
Sep 3, 2024
Measles cases are up and childhood vaccinations are down
NPR For about three weeks in 2000, there were zero measles cases in the United States. It was declared eradicated. Fast forward to 2024, and measles cases are surging, especially in Oregon where the state is facing the worst outbreak since the early 1990s. This is happening as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]
Sep 3, 2024
Mpox patients lack medicine, food, in east DR Congo hospital
Reuters Dozens of feverish patients lay on thin mattresses on the floor of a makeshift mpox isolation ward in east Democratic Republic of Congo, as overstretched hospital workers grappled with drug shortages and lack of space to accommodate the influx. Congo is the epicentre of an mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared to […]
Sep 3, 2024
Drought fueling spread of fungus that’s making people sick across California: Study
The HIll Climate changed-induced drought conditions have been driving the dispersal of a dangerous airborne fungus across California in recent years, a new study has found. Cases of the flu-like disease coccidioidomycosis — also known as “Valley fever” — have risen dramatically over the past two decades, tripling from 2014 to 2018 and again from […]
Sep 3, 2024
Why Mpox Vaccines Aren’t Flowing to Africans in Desperate Need
NYT Drugmakers have supplies ready to ship that are necessary to stop a potential pandemic. But W.H.O. regulations have slowed access. There are no vaccines for mpox available in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of a global health emergency declared last week, even though the country first asked for the shots two years […]
Sep 3, 2024
How Does Mpox Spread, and Who Is Most at Risk?
NYT This month, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency. The virus, formerly known as monkeypox, is spreading quickly in parts of Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak there has been fueled by a new version of the virus that has also been discovered in Sweden and Thailand. The fast-evolving situation has led to anxiety and […]
Sep 3, 2024
Very Demure, Very Mindful
The only appropriate definition of Demure in the brief history of demure memes. This is Jane Bennet, the beloved sister of Elizabeth Bennet. If you have never met the Bennets, watch the original 1995 BBC series Pride & Prejudice.
Aug 28, 2024
FDA Could Soon Limit Use of Only Drug for COVID Prevention
MedPageToday Pemivibart may have reduced activity against growing variant KP.3.1.1, agency warns. Pemivibart (Pemgarda) should only be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients when the combined national frequency of SARS-CoV-2 variants with substantially reduced susceptibility to the drug is less than or equal to 90%, the FDA announced on Monday. The agency […]
Aug 28, 2024
Avian flu has infected dairy cows in more than a dozen states – a microbiologist explains how the virus is spreading
The Conversation The current strain of avian flu, H5N1, is responsible for the culling of millions of domestic birds and has sickened more than a dozen farmworkers in 2024, most recently in Colorado. The Conversation U.S. asked immunologist and microbiologist Jenna Guthmiller from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to explain the historical roots of H5N1, its mode of […]
Aug 28, 2024