Anti-vaccination stronghold in N.C. hit with state’s worst chickenpox outbreak in 2 decades - November 19, 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/19/anti-vaccination-stronghold-nc-hit-with-states-worst-chickenpox-outbreak-decades/

Cases of chickenpox have been multiplying at the Asheville Waldorf School, which serves children from nursery school to sixth grade in Asheville, N.C. About a dozen infections grew to 28 at the beginning of the month. By Friday, there were 36, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

The outbreak ranks as the state’s worst since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than 20 years ago. Since then, the two-dose course has succeeded in limiting the highly contagious disease that once affected 90 percent of Americans — a public health breakthrough.

The school is a symbol of the small but strong movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

unfortunately many of those anti-vax parents won't be around to watch their children suffer terribly from shingles in about 50-60 years.

Romaine lettuce is not safe to eat, CDC warns U.S. consumers

Romaine lettuce is unsafe to eat in any form, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a food safety alert in response to a new outbreak of illnesses caused by a particularly dangerous type of E. coli bacteria.

The CDC told consumers to throw away any romaine lettuce they may already have purchased. Restaurants should not serve it, stores should not sell it, and people should not buy it, no matter where or when the lettuce was grown. It doesn’t matter if it is chopped, whole head or part of a mix.

The World Health Organization says a worrying number of the newest Ebola cases amid Congo's ongoing outbreak are in patients not usually known to catch the disease: babies.

In an update published this week, the U.N. health agency reported 36 new confirmed cases of Ebola, including seven in newborn babies and infants younger than 2 years old. Six cases were reported in children aged between 2 and 17 and one case was in a pregnant woman.


Ebola in Congo now infecting newborn babies, UN says


Thanks Guys.

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Dangerous Infection Tied To Hospitals Now Becoming Common Outside Them

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/25/657861409/dangerous-infection-tied-to-hospitals-now-becoming-common-outside-them

NPR

Named from the Greek kloster, for spindle, a class of bacteria known as Clostridia abounds in nature.

Staining deep violet under the microscope, they appear as slender rods with a bulge at one end, like a tadpole or maple seed. They thrive in soil, marine sediments and humans. They live on our skin and in our intestines.

And sometimes, they can kill you.

Most strains are harmless, but tetanus, botulism and gangrene are caused by clostridial species. Vaccination, sanitation and improved medical care have made these infections less common, but one variety has been difficult to contain.

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Update on the romaine lettuce story.
Only romaine lettuce from certain parts of California is unsafe to eat, FDA says; new labeling will be added soon

CDC Confirms 116 Cases Of Polio-Like AFM Illness In 31 States

A mysterious polio-like illness that is sickening and in some cases paralyzing children is on the rise with at least 116 confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis so far this year, federal health officials said.

The latest number of confirmed AFM cases, spread across 31 states, is slightly more than double the number reported in October by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released its latest findings on Monday.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/acute-flaccid-myelitis-cases-rise_us_5bfd4990e4b0eb6d9313cc04

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The Ebola Outbreak In Congo Just Became The Second Largest Ever 1

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the second largest in history, according to figures from the World Health Organization. Since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1, 426 people are suspected or confirmed to have been infected with the deadly hemorrhagic virus, which has killed at least 242.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ebola-democratic-republic-congo-outbreak-second-largest_us_5bfdf54be4b0d23c21379bd7

This story is really sad. :-(

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Measles cases spiked 30 percent in 2017, due entirely to poor vaccination rates, the World Health Organization reported Thursday.

More than 6.7 million people, mostly young children, caught measles in 2017, the WHO reported. And 110,000 died from the virus.


Measles cases up 30 percent worldwide, WHO says

Vaccines work!

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Measles threat looms in Philippines as trust in vaccines declines -health officials

MANILA - Health experts on Monday warned against a possible outbreak of measles in the Philippines, as a disease long under control is fueled by patchy immunization programs and declining trust in vaccines.
Measles cases jumped nearly fivefold to 17,300 in the 11 months to November versus last year's figure, mostly in conflict areas in the south, said doctors and officials of the World Health Organization (WHO).

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/03/18/measles-threat-looms-in-philippines-as-trust-in-vaccines-declines-health-officials

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Nobody needs an expert to tell us that French fries are unhealthy, but professor Eric Rimm at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is trying to ruin them for us anyway.

There really is no healthy amount to be had, according to Rimm, who calls fries a “starch bomb.” But — if you must — he suggests just six measly spud sticks.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/04/eat-more-than-6-french-fries-and-risk-your-life-expert-says/


LOL

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5.1 million pounds of beef added to recall due to salmonella

(CNN) JBS Tolleson Inc. is recalling more than 5.1 million pounds of raw beef products that may be tainted with salmonella, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Tuesday.
The recalled beef was produced and packaged between July 26 and September 7, according to the service. The products have been distributed nationwide and include the brands Kroger, Laura's Lean and JBS generic.

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Had a message on my answering machine this afternoon from Kroger telling me to return any ground beef I bought there in September. I already ate it. Oops.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

In a nearly 5,000-year-old tomb in Sweden, researchers have discovered the oldest-known strain of the notorious bacterium Yersinia pestis — the microbe responsible for humanity's perhaps most-feared contagion: the plague.

The finding suggests that the germ may have devastated settlements across Europe at the end of the Stone Age in what may have been the first major pandemic of human history. It could also rewrite some of what we know of ancient European history.

https://www.livescience.com/64246-ancient-plague-swedish-tomb.html

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Ebola spreads to major Congo city as vaccines a concern
By CARLEY PETESCH and CARA ANNAtoday
https://www.apnews.com/86fd89fa73594ed0aa098c6c5a063300

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The second-largest Ebola outbreak in history has spread to a major city in eastern Congo, as health experts worry whether the stock of an experimental vaccine will stand up to the demands of an epidemic with no end in sight.

Butembo, with more than 1 million residents, is now reporting cases of the deadly hemorrhagic fever. That complicates Ebola containment work already challenged by rebel attacks elsewhere that have made tracking the virus almost impossible in some isolated villages.

:((((

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CDC Issues Neti Pot Warning After Woman Contracts Fatal Brain Disease

Doctors with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning neti pot users on how to use them safely and properly after a woman in Seattle died from a brain-eating amoeba after using one to treat a sinus infection.

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Those neti pots have always sounded like dirty things to me, anyway.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Record count reported for mysterious paralyzing illness

NEW YORK (AP) — This year has seen a record number of cases of a mysterious paralyzing illness in children, U.S. health officials said Monday.

It’s still not clear what’s causing the kids to lose the ability to move their face, neck, back, arms or legs. The symptoms tend to occur about a week after the children had a fever and respiratory illness.

@Gordon

I tried using the nedi pot once, did not like it. Went to the Dr., anyway and got an antibiotic.

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DRC Ebola cases approach 500 as infections continue

New cases in multiple locations

Of the 13 new cases, 3 are in Mabalako, one of the initial hot spots that has seen a recent resurgence of Ebola activity. Four patients are from Katwa, an area just east of Butembo, and 2 are in Beni, the outbreak's main epicenter. Four more locations each reported 1 case: Mambasa, Kyondo, Butembo, and Vuhovi.

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Rep.-elect Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is walking back comments at a town hall in which he promoted the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism and said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have “fraudulently managed” data on the topic.

Green, a physician who last month won the House seat being vacated by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), made the remarks Tuesday night in response to a question from a town hall attendee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-elect-mark-green-walks-back-claim-that-vaccines-cause-autism/2018/12/12/9f43d1b4-fe62-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?utm_term=.2b1b8d71917c

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