Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Why has COVID been so much worse this summer? The health belief model has the answer
The Conversation If you think COVID-19 was suddenly in the news a lot over the summer, you’re probably right. Throughout August, outlets in both Canada and the United States ran headlines about high COVID levels, the summer surge of cases, timing of booster shots and reviving the use of face masks. As numerous athletes tested positive for COVID at the Olympics in Paris, […]
Sep 3, 2024
Avian Influenza A(H5N1) – Cambodia
WHO On 20 August 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified by the country’s International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) of a laboratory-confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (clade 2.3.2.1c) in a 15-year-old child in the Kingdom of Cambodia. This case is one of 10 human cases of […]
Sep 3, 2024
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
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
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
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
Children Dying of Mpox Are Not First in Line for a Vaccine
Bloomberg Children account for over 80% of fatal mpox cases in Congo, Bavarian Nordic shot is missing from pediatric vaccine plan. Children account for over 80% of mpox deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the first shots to arrive in the country won’t be given to the youngest and most vulnerable patients. A new […]
Aug 28, 2024
Africa has almost 4,000 new mpox cases in a week, but the wait for vaccines continues
AP Africa is seeing a rapid increase in mpox cases with nearly 4,000 reported in the past week, the continent’s public health body said Tuesday as it repeated a plea for long-awaited vaccines whose arrival this week in the most affected country, Congo, has been delayed. Eighty-one deaths from mpox were reported in Africa in the past […]
Aug 28, 2024