Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
The Bird Flu Threat Keeps Growing
Wired Human cases keep ticking up, are very likely to be underreported, and offer the virus the opportunity to learn how to spread from person to person. Ongoing Outbreaks of avian influenza have decimated poultry flocks and wild birds across the United States and worldwide. The virus, known as H5N1, is also increasingly adapting to mammals […]
Jul 30, 2024
Man dies after contracting Ebola-like tick-borne disease in Spain
CNN A man has died from an Ebola-like disease named Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) after being bitten by a tick in Spain. The 74-year-old died of organ failure on Saturday in an isolation unit at the La Paz-Carlos III Hospital in the Spanish capital, Madrid, a spokesperson for the hospital told CNN on Monday. CCHF causes severe […]
Jul 30, 2024
What’s different about this summer’s FLiRT COVID wave
Salon COVID could be a staple of summer, experts say. t’s not only a so-called “brat summer,” 2024 is also turning out to be a FLiRT summer — as in the collection of COVID-19 variants driving the latest summer wave. Based on wastewater sample data, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention reports that COVID levels have increased […]
Jul 30, 2024
Five CA music festival attendees diagnosed with Valley fever
KRON News The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is urging people who attended the Lighting in a Bottle festival to see a healthcare provider if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms after five attendees were diagnosed with Valley fever, officials said. State officials say over 20,000 people attended the festival in Buena Vista Lake, and five have […]
Jul 30, 2024
The Highly Infectious FLiRT Variants Behind the Summer Covid Wave
Wired The latest dominant Covid variants have stronger infectiousness than their predecessors and the ability to evade vaccine-induced antibodies. The northern hemisphere is entering yet another Covid wave—while much of the world acts as if the pandemic were over, cases are surging again. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recorded an uptick in […]
Jul 24, 2024
Health warning issued as Hauntavirus kills four people in two US states
Daily Mail Officials have issued a health warning over an incurable rat disease after four people died from the infection this year. Hantavirus — which is fatal in 36 percent of cases — typically causes about 30 cases per year in the US, mostly in western and southwestern areas. But some states are now recording […]
Jul 24, 2024
The virus that causes polio has been found in Gaza. Here’s why that is grim news
Science On top of relentless bombings and artillery strikes, mass displacement, the collapse of the health system, and starvation, the children of Gaza now face an additional health disaster: a high risk of paralytic polio. On 16 July, the Ministry of Health of Gaza announced poliovirus had been detected in six wastewater samples collected in late […]
Jul 24, 2024
What to Know About Bird Flu and Fears of a New Pandemic
Bloomberg For influenza viruses, imperfection is a strength. They constantly mutate, producing new strains that challenge immune systems primed to fight earlier varieties. That’s what makes flu a life-long threat to humans and the animal species — mainly birds — that are vulnerable to it. Since 2020, a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza called […]
Jul 24, 2024
Scientists Show How Bird Flu Spreads Between Mammals — As H5N1 Pandemic Fears Grow
Forbes Scientists have proven how cows have spread H5N1 bird flu across the country and infected other cows, wild birds and even mammals like cats and raccoons, according to research published in Nature Wednesday, findings that suggest it may be capable of spreading effectively between people in the future as outbreaks on poultry and dairy farms spark […]
Jul 24, 2024
Experts fear polio is spreading undetected in Gaza
NBC The World Health Organization warned there is a “high risk” that the virus will spread “within Gaza and internationally if this outbreak is not responded to promptly and optimally.” Humanitarian groups and public health leaders around the world are extremely worried that polio may be spreading in Gaza, after tests found the virus in wastewater samples. […]
Jul 24, 2024