Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Kent County sees first measles case in over a decade, exposure locations and dates listed
Chicago News Kent County hasn’t seen a case of seen a case of the measles since 2013, until now. The Kent County Health Department said on Tuesday that in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, they confirmed a case of measles in a Kent County resident. The case in Kent County […]
Apr 2, 2025
Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care
The Atlantic Access to clinics has only gotten patchier as attention to the disease has faded. My house was dark. Tinfoil covered the windows. The only light I could tolerate came from dimmable red bulbs. Ten weeks before, I had tested positive for COVID. On week three of my infection, I went to the emergency room […]
Apr 2, 2025
I Study Measles. I’m Terrified We’re Headed for an Epidemic.
NYT Opinion By Michael Mina Dr. Mina is an epidemiologist and immunologist who has studied measles. We used to think of measles outbreaks in the United States as isolated events: short-lived and confined to close-knit communities with low vaccination rates. A flare here, a bubble there. But as those bubbles grow and converge, the United States could be […]
Apr 2, 2025
What are the long-term effects of measles in kids and adults?
MedNewsToday As the initial measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico has grown and spread to 378 people in 18 statesTrusted Source, many people, and especially parents have been worried about the long-term health effects of measles infection. Measles is seen as relatively short-lived viral disease, although the acute symptoms can take around 7–18 days to show. What’s […]
Apr 1, 2025
12 months and 70 cases since the first human bird flu infection: Are we any safer?
ABC News One year ago, the first bird flu infection in a human in the United States was reported in a Texas dairy worker, just weeks after the virus had been found in cattle for the first time ever. While the virus has spread in birds for decades, in recent years it has started to […]
Apr 1, 2025
Mpox poses an ever-increasing epidemic and pandemic risk
Nature The human interaction with mpox has changed across its entire endemic range, revealing the endemic and pandemic risk of monkeypox virus and the current knowledge gaps on its biology that hamper virus control. Humans are an ecological niche for orthopoxviruses (OPXV) such as mpox, a niche originally filled by smallpox (variola virus; VARV). Since […]
Apr 1, 2025
Bird flu could be on the cusp of transmitting between humans − but there are ways to slow down viral evolution
The Conversation Disease forecasts are like weather forecasts: We cannot predict the finer details of a particular outbreak or a particular storm, but we can often identify when these threats are emerging and prepare accordingly. The viruses that cause avian influenza are potential threats to global health. Recent animal outbreaks from a subtype called H5N1 have been […]
Apr 1, 2025
Fungal diseases ‘growing increasingly resistant to treatment,’ WHO says
CBC Some fungal diseases in humans no longer respond to medicines, which increases the risk of severe illness and death as well disease spread, according to a new report. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) published what it calls its first-ever report on the lack of tests and treatments for fungal infections. Yeasts, moulds and mushrooms are […]
Apr 1, 2025
Texas measles outbreak hits 422 cases with 22 new infections confirmed over last 5 days
ABC News The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow, with 22 new cases confirmed over the last five days, bringing the total to 422 in the state, according to data published Tuesday. Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department […]
Apr 1, 2025
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