The yellow fever outbreak currently sweeping the jungles of Brazil could be the next Zika virus in the United States, health officials say. The Latin American country has seen an increase in the disease over the past few weeks in some of its rural areas. [1]
Health officials with the Pan American Health Organization have confirmed 371 cases of yellow fever, including 241 deaths. The group is investigating hundreds of other potential cases.
(ANTIMEDIA) America’s ongoing opioid crisis is no secret. With thousands dying from prescription painkiller overdoses each year — nearly as many as traffic deaths — even the U.S. government has been forced to take action. As awareness of the epidemic continues to grow, further hazards of the pharmaceutical class of drugs are being revealed — including potentially higher numbers of deaths caused by their use.
It seems like every time you turn on your TV, there is a vaccine ad promising to protect you from everything from HPV to shingles, to pneumonia to the flu. Vaccine controversy as a whole aside, I’m here to report how some scientists at the University of Aberdeen say they have come up with a mathematical method to prevent epidemics which actually involves vaccinating fewer people. [1]
A United Nations (U.N.) expert says that when the world’s poor go shopping for food, they are often forced to choose between what they can afford and what is nutritious, calling the problem a human rights concern. [1]
On October 13, officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned that bacteria may have contaminated special devices used during open heart surgery, putting more than half a million heart surgery patients at risk. [1]
Source: The Seattle Times
It’s a disease you don’t hear about everyday: leprosy. It was a big deal in biblical times, but you probably don’t personally know someone who has experienced it. However, the painful and unsightly skin disorder is making a reappearance in California – in school children.
Needless to say, parents are on-edge.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns in a new report that people who wear contact lenses and don’t care for them properly risk developing serious infections.
About 41 million Americans wear contact lenses, and people get so used to having them in their eyes, they either forget about them or don’t believe they’re at risk for injury and infection if they don’t use them as directed.
A National Institutes of Health (NIH) official says the end of the Zika virus could still be a year or 2 away, and that Gulf Coast states, besides Florida, are most vulnerable to the spread of the disease.
Anthony Fauci, the director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s “This Week”:
“I would not be surprised if we see cases in Texas and Louisiana, particularly now where you have the situation with flooding in Louisiana. There are going to be a lot of problems getting rid of standing water.” [1]
Two Texas men have recently been diagnosed with contracting a flesh eating bacteria, a life- and limb-threatening disease that enters your body through contaminated water. While many citizens are concerned about the bacteria, which is known as Vibrio, Texas officials say that it is likely safe to go into the water despite the recent diagnoses.
The bacteria enters your body through open wounds. It can also be contracted through eating raw or contaminated seafood.
So far this summer, 4 people along the Gulf Coast have been infected with a flesh-eating bacteria called vibrio vulnificus. The bacteria are often found in warm, shallow water. The infected individuals all became infected after spending time at the beach.
