WHO: No Dengue Vax Without Prior Diagnostic Test

Vaccinations against dengue should only be given following a diagnostic test to determine that the patient has been exposed to the disease, according to recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The update follows the interim recommendations by the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) that the vaccine should not be used in people without prior exposure to dengue, and that point-of-care testing should be done prior to vaccination.

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What's New?

Based on new information, CDC is expanding its warning to consumers to cover all types of romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. This warning now includes whole heads and hearts of romaine lettuce, in addition to chopped romaine and salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
Do not buy or eat romaine lettuce at a grocery store or restaurant unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region.
Unless the source of the product is known, consumers anywhere in the United States who have any store-bought romaine lettuce at home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick. Product labels often do not identify growing regions; so, throw out any romaine lettuce if you’re uncertain about where it was grown. This includes whole heads and hearts of romaine, chopped romaine, and salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce. If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region.
The expanded warning is based on information from newly reported illnesses in Alaska. Ill people in Alaska reported eating lettuce from whole heads of romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region.


Multistate Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Infections Linked to Romaine Lettuce

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Health officials in Indiana are urging residents to get vaccinated and take other steps to protect themselves from hepatitis A if they plan to travel to states that are experiencing outbreaks of the disease.

Kentucky and Michigan have reported significant outbreaks of hepatitis A, a highly contagious viral infection of the liver. Kentucky has more than 300 cases, the majority of which have occurred in the Louisville area, and Michigan has more than 800 cases, including 25 deaths.




Indiana reports increase in hepatitis A cases, vaccinations urged for travelers to other states

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Dangerous E. coli outbreak from romaine lettuce expands, with 19 states affected

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/04/25/dangerous-e-coli-outbreak-from-romaine-lettuce-expands-with-19-states-affected/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ed4e1fec7e5c

An additional 31 people have fallen ill from E. coli-contaminated romaine lettuce, bringing the tally to 84 cases across 19 states from an outbreak whose source is still under investigation.

Of those sickened, 42 have been hospitalized, a higher rate than usually seen in E. coli cases, and nine of those patients have developed kidney failure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday. No deaths have been reported.

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Bill Gates launches $12M challenge for universal flu vaccine

April 27 (UPI) -- Billionaire Bill Gates has announced a $12 million Grand Challenge to fund research of universal flu vaccines in preparation for the next flu pandemic.

Gates, who founded Microsoft, announced at the New England Journal of Medicine's annual Shattuck Lecture in Boston that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Google co-founder Larry Page and his wife, Lucy, will provide the seed money.

"The goal is to encourage bold thinking by the world's best scientists across disciplines, including those new to the field," Gates told attendees.

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It's Melinda Gates that would have the credit!

The measles continue to spread in Europe, because in many countries vaccination coverage is too low. The European Commission has now decided to strengthen its efforts to support the Member States.

The European Commission wants to increase the coverage of measles vaccine in the Member States to 95%. The Commission published a communication on intensifying vaccine cooperation and a proposal for a Council Recommendation of 26 April 2018.


The European Commission wants to increase the coverage of measles vaccine to 95 percent

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Bill Gates calls on U.S. to lead fight against a pandemic that could kill 33 million

Bill Gates says the U.S. government is falling short in preparing the nation and the world for the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic occurring in our lifetimes.”

In an interview this week, the billionaire philanthropist said he has raised the issue of pandemic preparedness with President Trump since the 2016 presidential election. In his most recent meeting last month, Gates said he laid out the increasing risk of a bioterrorism attack and stressed the importance of U.S. funding for advanced research on new therapeutics, including a universal flu vaccine, which would protect against all or most strains of influenza.

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Farewell, carefree days of summer.

The number of people getting diseases transmitted by mosquito, tick and flea bites has more than tripled in the United States in recent years, federal health officials reported on Tuesday. Since 2004, at least nine such diseases have been discovered or newly introduced here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not suggest that Americans drop plans for softball games or hammock snoozes. But officials emphasized that it’s increasingly important for everyone — especially children — to be protected from outdoor pests with bug repellent.


Tick and Mosquito Infections Spreading Rapidly, C.D.C. Finds

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CDC reports 1 dead in E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce

Health officials reported the first death linked to a multi-state E. coli outbreak that’s been pinned to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tallied 121 illnesses across 25 states, with 52 hospitalizations including 14 cases of kidney failure.

The agency’s update indicated an uptick of 23 additional illnesses since April 27, and now include cases in Kentucky, Massachusetts and Utah. The agency did not release any additional information about the fatality, and directed questions to the California Department of Public Health.

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In 2016, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to lead the national “Moonshot” initiative to eliminate cancer. Today, Biden continues those efforts with the “Biden Cancer Initiative,” a non-profit with a goal to double the rate of progress in preventing, detecting, diagnosing and treating cancer.

One of the focuses of the initiative is on clinical trials, and making them more accessible to all patients. Greg Simon, President of the Biden Cancer Initiative and cancer survivor, noted the challenges they need to overcome to make the transformative solutions needed to end cancer as it is known today.


Biden Cancer Initiative encourages data sharing, tries to put an end to cancer

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FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Health officials investigating a case of measles in central California say others may have been exposed to the disease.

Fresno County authorities say the person may have exposed others during a visit Monday to an urgent care center and to a hospital emergency room on Wednesday in Clovis.

The Fresno Bee reports Saturday that the infected individual traveled out of state, where the infection occurred. Symptoms developed after the person returned to California.

Officials with JF Urgent Care Center and Clovis Community Medical Center are attempting to contact patients who were potentially exposed.

Measles is highly contagious. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and rashes.


Measles Case Reported in Central California

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Drug Epidemic Ensnares 25-Year-Old Pill for Nerve Pain

WASHINGTON (AP) – The story line sounds familiar: a popular pain drug becomes a new way to get high as prescribing by doctors soars.

But the latest drug raising red flags is not part of the opioid family at the center of the nation's drug epidemic. It's a 25-year-old generic pill long seen as a low risk way to treat seizures, nerve pain and other ailments.

The drug, called gabapentin, is one of the most prescribed medications in the U.S., ranking ninth over the last year, according to prescription tracker GoodRx. Researchers attribute the recent surge to tighter restrictions on opioid painkillers, which have left doctors searching for alternatives for their patients.

Those same forces are changing the drugs that Americans abuse, according to experts.

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Uptick in vector-borne illnesses in US and what it means to you



Illnesses caused by disease-infected ticks, mosquitoes and fleas have tripled in the U.S. in recent years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lyme disease is the most common illness attributed to ticks.

"It's the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere and in North America, in the U.S. specifically," says Dr. Bobbi Pritt, a parasitic diseases expert at Mayo Clinic. "By vector-borne, we mean something that can transmit an infectious organism, be it a bacterium, a virus or a parasite, to a human. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. It's also caused by Borrelia mayonii which we helped to identify here at Mayo Clinic. It is one of our big concerns, but it's not the only concern."

"There are other tick-borne diseases like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus, Borrelia miyamotoi infection, and those are just diseases transmitted by the blacklegged tick, formerly known as the deer tick," says Pritt. "We have other ticks that will transmit the disease-causing agents of ehrlichiosis. Now, there are new viruses such as Bourbon virus and Heartland virus. And there is also Rocky Mountain spotted fever."

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Ebola 'kills 17 people' in the Democratic Republic of Congo raising fears of an epidemic


At least 17 people are today feared to have died from a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Health officials in the African nation have confirmed two people have the virus - but there has been 21 suspected cases in total - raising fears of an epidemic.

It comes just three years after the Ebola pandemic that killed at least 11,000 people across six countries, including a sole fatality in the US.

Ebola is already considered one of the most lethal pathogens in existence, and the new outbreak has been branded a 'public health emergency'.

Experts fear it could have an 'international impact', considering how quickly the virus decimated West Africa between 2014 and 2016.

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Mass vaccinations will not prevent Ebolavirus outbreaks, new research shows


Prophylactic mass vaccination programmes are not a realistic option in the battle to prevent new Ebolavirus outbreaks, a University of Kent-led research team has shown.

The findings come as the World Health Organisation has announced a new Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Kongo.

The team analysed the prospects for various Ebolavirus vaccines and found that, for the foreseable future at least, Ebolavirus outbreak control depends on surveillance and the isolation of cases.

The researchers' analysis revealed that very high proportions of potentially affected populations would need to be protected by vaccination to establish herd immunity, i.e. the level of immunity that prevents virus transmission within a population.

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Congo confirms first death in latest Ebola outbreak

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo announced on Thursday the first confirmed death in a new outbreak of Ebola virus and said 11 other people were now confirmed to be infected, including three medical staff.
At least 17 people have died since inhabitants of a village in the country’s northwest began showing symptoms resembling Ebola in December, according to the World Health Organization. However, those cases were not confirmed through testing.

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Ebola: Nigeria begins screening of travelers from high risk countries

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)Nigeria's airports, seaports and land borders have been placed on high alert after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola this week.

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Time to eradicate HTLV-1, World Health Organisation is warned.

A coalition of the world’s foremost scientists, activists and researchers has written to the World Health Organisation to plead for action to combat the cancer-causing retrovirus HTLV-1, while the federal government is being urged to “show leadership” in dealing with the spread of the virus in central Australia.

In an extraordinary move, 60 representatives from 26 countries have signed the letter, telling WHO it is “time to eradicate HTLV-1” and conceding that “our global community has been slow to respond to the HTLV-1 predicament”.

Cheers.

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/braenderup-04-18/index.html

Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Braenderup Infections Linked to Rose Acre Farms Shell Eggs