Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Measles is spreading. Here’s how to stay safe.
Washington Post As measles spreads in the United States, we unpack how to stay safe – and why public health experts are so concerned by the confusing, contradictory federal response. The United States is experiencing a rise in measles, the most contagious virus in the world. Many of us have questions: Is my child protected? […]
Apr 15, 2025
US measles cases are undercounted, experts say, but real numbers are proving hard to pin down
CNN During a Cabinet meeting last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed what is now the second-worst measles outbreak in the US since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Kennedy has claimed repeatedly that measles cases have “plateaued,” despite contradictory data from his own agencies. On Tuesday, the […]
Apr 15, 2025
The US has three measles-related deaths and hundreds of cases. Here’s what to know
AP Texas surpassed 500 measles cases Tuesday, just days after a third person died from a measles-related illness. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024. Texas is reporting the majority of them with 505. The cases include two young elementary school-aged children who were not vaccinated and died from measles-related […]
Apr 9, 2025
A Call for Closer Kidney Monitoring After COVID-19 Hospitalization
Physicians Weekly Patients experienced a greater annual decline in kidney function after COVID-19 infection compared with after pneumonia due to other infections, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers found that the magnitude of accelerated kidney function decline was steepest in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. “We, therefore, propose that people who were hospitalized […]
Apr 9, 2025
Once-rare fungal diseases are killing millions in an unprepared world
Dallas Morning News An estimated 6.5 million people develop invasive fungal infections each year. When most people think of dangerous infections, they picture bacteria or viruses. But for infectious disease specialists like Peter Chin-Hong, one of the most insidious threats lurking in hospitals and clinics today is fungal. Chin-Hong’s case list is long: a healthy 29-year-old marathon […]
Apr 9, 2025
Avian flu in raw milk found to be broadly sensitive to heat
Cornell Chronicle In March 2024, when the first cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza were identified in dairy cows in Texas, Cornell researchers – led by Diego Diel, associate professor of virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) – immediately began assessing how long the virus survived in the raw milk of infected cows. At the same […]
Apr 9, 2025
USDA to lose bird flu response employees, source says
Reuters Several U.S. Department of Agriculture employees who worked on the agency’s bird flu response will leave at the end of April, straining the federal capacity to monitor the spread of the virus, according to a source familiar with the situation. The USDA on April 1 gave employees seven days to decide whether to take financial incentives […]
Apr 9, 2025
New ‘surprising’ case of mpox variant clade lb detected in England
Retuers Britain’s health security agency said on Monday another case of the mpox variant clade lb had been detected in England in a person who had no reported travel history or link with previously confirmed cases in the country. The case was diagnosed in March and all contacts have been followed up and no further […]
Apr 9, 2025
An animal source of mpox emerges — and it’s a squirrel
Nature Researchers solve the mystery of a disease outbreak through long-term surveillance of wildlife in Africa. One of the great mysteries of the monkeypox virus has been pinpointing its ‘reservoir’ hosts — the animals that carry and spread the virus without becoming sick from it. Now, an international team of scientists suggests that it has an answer: […]
Apr 9, 2025
Tuberculosis Is Back in the Spotlight. Does the U.S. Even Care?
MedPage Today This is a column about tuberculosis (TB), the world’s single, most deadly-yet-curable infection that killed one in seven Americansopens in a new tab or window as recently as the 1880s. That said, it was not until 8 decades later that patients who received long courses of treatment were reliably cured. And even though rich countries […]
Apr 9, 2025