Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Health official warns of prolonged measles outbreak as cases rise in TX, NM, OK
KOMO A measles outbreak has continued to spread across Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, with 321 confirmed cases as of Tuesday — an increase of 25 cases from Friday. Texas is bearing the brunt of the outbreak, with the majority of the cases reported in the state. The Texas Department of State Health Services on Tuesday reported […]
Mar 19, 2025
Close Relative of Highly Fatal Coronavirus Discovered in Brazil’s Bats
Science Alert Brazil’s bats are harboring a vast and diverse pool of coronaviruses, a new study finds, including a newly identified strain that may pose a danger to human health in the years to come. Scientists are taking the threat seriously and will soon conduct testing in a secure lab to see if the variant […]
Mar 19, 2025
How vulnerable might humans be to bird flu? Scientists see hope in existing immunity
NPR Bird flu has ripped through the animal kingdom for the past few years now, killing countless birds and crossing into an alarming number of mammals. Yet people remain largely untouched. Even though the official tally of human cases in the U.S. is most certainly an undercount, there’s still no evidence this strain of H5N1 has spread widely among […]
Mar 19, 2025
The COVID Mistake No One Talks Enough About
The Atlantic Deaths in isolation have been treated as a painful memory, not as a problem that hospitals need to address. He was one of the few ICU patients whose face I saw in early 2021, when COVID raged through Los Angeles. As a palliative-care physician, my job was to meet, over Zoom, with the […]
Mar 18, 2025
Should You Get a Measles Vaccine Booster?
Yale Medicine As cases increase in some places, a Yale Medicine specialist reviews the groups, including some adults, who should get vaccinated. These days, most people are vaccinated against measles, a highly contagious, life-threatening respiratory virus, when they are children. But recent reports that measles is spreading in parts of the United States are prompting some […]
Mar 18, 2025
Japanese encephalitis has claimed a second life in NSW and been detected in Brisbane. What is it?
The Conversation A second man has died from Japanese encephalitis virus in New South Wales on March 6, the state’s health authorities confirmed on Friday. Aged in his 70s, the man was infected while holidaying in the Murrumbidgee region. This follows the death of another man in his 70s in Sydney last month, after holidaying in the same region […]
Mar 18, 2025
NIH-sponsored trial of Lassa vaccine opens
NIH Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease that can be fatal and that causes permanent hearing loss. A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to prevent Lassa fever has begun enrolling participants at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease that […]
Mar 18, 2025
New Indiana CWD case detected, DNR recommends hunter vigilance
The Republic A tiny spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) was recently detected in Indiana among white-tail deer. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources announced a second CWD case within the state’s borders in late February, found in Posey County. Although deer hunting season does not begin until September, the news was released to the […]
Mar 18, 2025
Texas public health official predicts the measles outbreak could take a year to contain
STAT Once eliminated in the U.S., the virus could become endemic again. The expanding measles outbreak that has spread from West Texas into New Mexico and Oklahoma could take a year to contain, a public health leader in the area where the outbreak started warned on Tuesday. Katherine Wells, director of public health for the […]
Mar 18, 2025
Measles remains a danger to health even years after an infection
NPR The measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico is now close to 300 reported cases, surpassing the total number of cases in all of the U.S. in 2024. The outbreak is happening in remote, rural areas. There have been a few isolated cases reported in 13 other states — not related to the Texas outbreak. The Centers […]
Mar 18, 2025