Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
COVID cases are climbing in Colorado
Axios COVID-19 cases are trending up in Colorado and nationwide. A summer uptick isn’t unusual. But the latest surge is colliding with back-to-school season, when the virus could spread even more. Driving the news: Wastewater data for the week ending Aug. 2 shows the Western U.S. leading the nation in COVID levels, with peaks in Colorado, Alaska, California, Nevada and Utah, per […]
Aug 13, 2025
With a new COVID variant on the rise, which US states have the most cases?
USA Today Some states are being hit harder than others this summer as a new COVID-19 strain (XGF) continues to spread. Some regions of the U.S. are still experiencing higher rates of positive COVID tests than others, though reporting has slowed down enough nationwide that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has begun allowing more time to pass between […]
Aug 13, 2025
Brain eating amoeba found in Missouri resident after trip to Lake of the Ozarks
KSDK The deadly infection has been historically rare, but as climate change heats up waters and worsens flooding, research shows cases could become more common. A Missouri resident is in intensive care after officials confirmed they had contracted a rare and deadly infection after swimming at the Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri Department of Health […]
Aug 13, 2025
Idaho child contracts region’s first measles case in 30 years
KREM The health district says the confirmed infection was found in an unvaccinated child in Kootenai County. The case is the first in the region in more than 30 years. The Idaho Panhandle Health District (PHD) is reporting the first confirmed measles case in the region in more than 30 years. PHD says the infection […]
Aug 13, 2025
Ghana records first Mpox death as cases surge
Medical Express Ghana has recorded its first death from Mpox, health authorities confirmed Sunday, amid a sharp rise in new infections in the West African country. Twenty-three new cases have been confirmed in the past week, bringing the total number of infections to 257 since the virus was first detected in Ghana in June 2022. […]
Jul 30, 2025
Where Did Bird Flu Go?
American Scientific Bird flu was nearly everywhere in the U.S.—in chickens, cows, pet cats and even humans. Cases have gone down, but experts warn that it hasn’t disappeared. For months, bird flu was seemingly everywhere in the U.S.: news headlines reported the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus was rapidly sweeping through hundreds of herds of dairy cattle […]
Jul 30, 2025
The Invisible Toll of Bird Flu on Wildlife
Scientific American Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands. 25,669 Northern Gannets in Canada.134 harbor and gray seals along the coast of Maine.21 California Condors in the western U.S. These are just a tiny fraction of the […]
Jul 30, 2025
This is How We Fight Bird Flu If H5N1 Becomes the Next Human Pandemic
Scientific American This San Antonio, Tex., lab takes biosecurity seriously. Suit up with its scientists and go behind the scenes of the science of vaccine creation. This is the final episode of our three-part series on bird flu. Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 On Wednesday, we met scientists who are getting their hands dirty with […]
Jul 30, 2025
How Bird Flu Became a Human Pandemic Threat
Scientific American The first hints that a new strain of avian illness is emerging could be found on this beach on Delaware Bay, where migrating birds flock. Here’s what virus detectives who return there every year know right now. H5N1 bird flu has been making a lot of headlines since last year, and for good […]
Jul 30, 2025
What Would It Take for Bird Flu to Spread among Humans?
Scientific American H5N1 avian influenza has long been a concerning virus. Since its discovery in 1996 in waterfowl, bird flu has occasionally caused isolated human cases that have quite often been fatal. But last year H5N1 did something strange: it started infecting cattle. The absolute oddity of this leap may have been somewhat lost in the flood of […]
Jul 30, 2025