Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
WHO Issues New Name for Monkeypox
(MedPageToday) Monkeypox has been renamed mpox in order reduce stigmatization and racism associated with the name, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced. While the process of changing the name of a virus would normally take a couple of years, the process was accelerated in this case. Mpox will enter ICD-10 online within days as a synonym […]
Nov 29, 2022
MRI Highlights Brain Blips Long After COVID Symptoms Have Subsided
(MedPageToday) A specialized type of MRI showed lingering brain abnormalities in patients up to 6 months after they recovered from COVID-19. Data from susceptibility-weighted MRI in 46 COVID-recovered patients and 30 healthy controls showed that the former had significantly higher susceptibility values in regions of the frontal lobe and brain stem, according to Vidur Mahajan, […]
Nov 29, 2022
Promising Research Working Toward RSV Prevention
(Univ Colorado) As the number of hospitalizations related to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) continues to climb steeply throughout Colorado, with a reported 1,139 hospitalizations since Oct. 1, clinician and researcher Eric Simões, MD, is leading two studies that he hopes will help curtail future RSV surges. Simões, a clinical professor of pediatric infectious diseases in the University of Colorado School of […]
Nov 28, 2022
Fauci: RSV cases at “critical” point, hopeful rates decline soon
(Axios) Spiking cases of (RSV) among children are currently at a critical juncture in the U.S. but will hopefully begin declining from their peak soon, outgoing NIAID director Anthony Fauci told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. (Transcript here)
Nov 28, 2022
San Francisco Bay Area children’s hospitals enacting contingency plans to deal with RSV surge
(SF Gate) As a surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases sweeps across the Bay Area, the region’s children’s hospitals are enacting contingency plans to deal with an increase in patients. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Mission Bay has erected a tent with seven additional beds, and the hospital’s Oakland location is using an annex with […]
Nov 28, 2022
Is it Covid, flu or RSV? A few hallmarks can help distinguish among the illnesses
(NBC News) Covid, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are together driving a national wave of respiratory illnesses. Around 76% of U.S. hospital inpatient beds are full, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Pediatric beds are at a similar level, though six states have 90% or more of their pediatric beds full, […]
Nov 28, 2022
Uganda to close schools early for Christmas
(BBC) It might seem like Christmas is coming early for students in Uganda as millions of them head home early for the school holidays on Friday. Yet the decision to close schools nationwide two weeks before the end of term has been taken to curb the spread of Ebola, as the country continues to battle […]
Nov 28, 2022
Uganda’s president extends Ebola epicentre’s quarantine for 21 days
(Reuters) Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has extended a quarantine placed on two districts that are the epicentre of the country’s Ebola outbreak by 21 days, adding that his government’s response to the disease was succeeding. Movement into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda will be restricted up to Dec. 17, the […]
Nov 28, 2022
COVID-19 disrupts gut microbiome
(NIH) The trillions of microbes living in the gut—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—are known collectively as the gut microbiome. Research has shown that changes in gut microbes may contribute to a variety of diseases and conditions. COVID-19 patients often have imbalances in their gut microbes that allow antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to take over. These patients also […]
Nov 22, 2022
The Monkeypox Cases That Might Have Been Missed
(NYT) Despite monkeypox fading from public attention, scientists are still learning how it spreads — including without sexual contact or any symptoms. In the monkeypox outbreak that unspooled this summer in the United States and dozens of other countries, men who have sex with men were the most at risk. But thousands of women were […]
Nov 22, 2022