Diseases & Outbreaks News and Discussions

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Climate Change Drives Another Outbreak: In California, It’s a Spike in Valley Fever Cases
by Natalie Hanson
October 6, 2022

Introduction:
BERKELEY, Calif. (Courthouse News) — California researchers say climate change is driving a statewide spike in Valley fever throughout the Southwest as the region experiences swings between extreme drought and warming temperatures to unexpectedly high precipitation.

Valley fever, scientifically known as coccidioidomycosis, is an infectious disease that affects residents of the Southwest. People can contract it by breathing in dust that contains spores of the Coccidioides fungus, which grows in soil and can be stirred up by strong winds, digging or other disturbances.

In a study published Wednesday in Lancet Planetary Health, a group of scientists report how California’s recent droughts have helped drive transmissions of the pathogen. California is experiencing the highest recorded level of Valley fever and experts are starting to study how much of a role the state’s changing climate plays in the future spread of this and other diseases.

Scientists analyzed more than 81,000 coccidioidomycosis surveillance records from state and local agencies collected over 20 years. They found multiyear cycles of dry conditions followed by a wet winter can amplify Valley fever transmission. Arid counties like Kern and Kings see the most fluctuation in precipitation, while wetter coastal counties like Monterey and Ventura see the most fluctuations in temperature. Scientists say this could explain why rates have skyrocketed more dramatically in wetter, cooler counties.

“We know that the extreme precipitation deficit that has plagued California in recent decades is one of the greatest environmental challenges in the western U.S.,” said Jennifer Head, assistant environmental health science researcher at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, who led the research.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/climate ... er-cases/
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wjfox wrote: Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:49 pm
The strain that is spreading is of the Sudan variety for which there is no known vaccine. :( Hard lockdowns and travel bans are the only way to stem its spread at this point.
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Why This Ebola Outbreak in Uganda Might Be More Worrisome Than Others
by Matt Filed
October 7, 2022

Introduction:
(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) Experts and government officials in Uganda and around the world are watching nervously as a rare strain of Ebola causes a widening outbreak in the East African country. The death toll from the highly lethal virus has grown to perhaps 30 people since the first confirmed case in early September, when a man fell ill in the Mubende district in central Uganda. A subsequent investigation revealed a cluster of deaths in the month before the 25-year-old died, according to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Unlike the strain of the virus that killed more than 11,000 people between 2014 and 2016 in several West African countries, the so-called Sudan strain causing the Ugandan outbreak has no approved vaccines or treatments. It’s caused several outbreaks before, including one that killed 17 people in Uganda in 2012. With the confirmed and probable cases now above 60, experts are worried about where this outbreak will end up. “It’s definitely concerning,” an expert told Nature. “The slope of that curve is pretty sharp.” Several experimental shots are in development and trials could begin this month in Uganda, according to the journal.

This isn’t Uganda’s first bout with Ebola, and previous preparation, officials say, is already bolstering the country’s response, including the setting up of treatment centers and mobile testing facilities. Still, though, officials say that the country needs more help, as the outbreak continues to spread. “Uganda is responding well & is improving every day,” Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the WHO representative to the country, said in a post on a WHO twitter feed. “The country needs more support from partners to improve response efforts.”

As the outbreak a decade ago showed, Ebola can spread far and wide and sicken an enormous number of people. The West African Ebola outbreak primarily affected Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, but the disease turned up in several other countries, including the United States. To reduce the chances of that happening again, the US government is requiring passengers who’ve spent time recently in Uganda to travel through one of five designated US airports for screening. That may stop Ebola from reaching the United States, but some say more international resources are needed in Uganda.
Read more here: https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/why-th ... t-heading
Last edited by caltrek on Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Gates Foundation pledges $1.2B to eradicate polio globally
Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide.

The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is trying to end the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said in a statement Sunday.

The money also will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The announcement was made Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin.

The foundation says in a statement on its website that it has contributed nearly $5 billion to the polio eradication initiative. The initiative is trying to integrate polio campaigns into broader health services, while it scales up use of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-busin ... osition_08
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So far, this flu season is more severe than it has been in 13 years
Source: Washington Post
Influenza is hitting the United States unusually early and hard, already hospitalizing a record number of people at this point in the season in more than a decade and underscoring the potential for a perilous winter of respiratory viruses, according to federal health data released Friday.

While flu season is usually between October and May, peaking in December and January, it’s arrived about six weeks earlier this year with uncharacteristically high illness. There have already been at least 880,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza illness, 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 flu-related deaths nationally, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One pediatric death has also been reported.

Not since the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic has there been such a high burden of flu, a metric the CDC uses to estimate a season’s severity based on laboratory-confirmed cases, doctor visits, hospitalizations and deaths.

“It’s unusual, but we’re coming out of an unusual covid pandemic that has really affected influenza and other respiratory viruses that are circulating,” said Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist who heads the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... -2022-cdc/
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WHO: Tuberculosis cases rise for the first time in years
Source: AP

GENEVA (AP) — The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report Thursday by the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency said more than 10 million people worldwide were sickened by tuberculosis in 2021, a 4.5% rise from the year before. About 1.6 million people died, it said. WHO said about 450,000 cases involved people infected with drug-resistant TB, 3% more than in 2020.

Dr. Mel Spigelman, president of the non-profit TB Alliance, said more than a decade of progress was lost when COVID-19 emerged in 2020.

“Despite gains in areas like preventative therapy, we are still behind in just about every pledge and goal regarding TB,” Spigelman said.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-pande ... 956303cbc1
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