Tag • #infectious diseases

chevron_right

Brazil to release millions of anti-dengue mosquitoes as death toll from outbreak mounts

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 15 March - 10:00

Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria that inhibit spread of disease to be introduced in six cities after successful pilot scheme

A dengue-fighting strategy that involves releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes will be rolled out to six Brazilian cities in the coming months as the country battles a severe outbreak of dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Factors such as hotter and wetter weather caused by the climate crisis and the circulation of previously absent subtypes of the virus are fuelling an explosion of dengue in Brazil, which has recorded 1.6m probable cases since January – the same number reported for all of last year – and 491 deaths, with a further 889 deaths under investigation, as of 14 March.

chevron_right

Mystery in Japan as dangerous streptococcal infections soar to record levels

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 15 March - 01:05

Health officials racing to identify cause of rise in streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which has a 30% fatality rate

Experts warn that a rare but dangerous bacterial infection is spreading at a record rate in Japan, with officials struggling to identify the cause.

The number of cases in 2024 is expected to exceed last year’s record numbers, while concern is growing that the harshest and potentially deadly form of group A streptococcal disease – streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) – will continue to spread, after the presence of highly virulent and infectious strains were confirmed in Japan.

chevron_right

Time to stop using term ‘long Covid’ for symptoms like those after flu, study finds

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 15 March - 00:17

Queensland research’s lead author says thinking longer-term Covid symptoms are unique can create hypervigilance and impede recovery

Long Covid may be no different from other post-viral syndromes such as those experienced after flu, according to new research from Queensland Health.

The lead author of the study, the state’s chief health officer Dr John Gerrard, said it was “time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’” because they imply there is something unique about the longer-term symptoms associated with the virus, and in some cases create hypervigilance for them which can impede recovery.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

chevron_right

Bird flu: access to Ernest Shackleton’s grave ‘blocked by dead seals’

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 14 March - 05:00

Exclusive: The H5N1 virus reached the region late last year and is killing wildlife, with witnesses spotting numerous seal corpses on South Georgia island

The grave of the explorer Ernest Shackleton on South Georgia island has become inaccessible to visitorsdue to bodies of “dead seals blocking the way”, as increasing numbers of animals are killed by bird flu’s spread through the Antarctic .

The H5N1 virus has spread to 10 species of birds and mammals since it arrived in the region last October , with five king penguins and five gentoo penguins the latest to test positive on the sub-Antarctic islands . Those confirmations follow reports of mass die-offs of elephant seals at the end of last year.

chevron_right

Covid vaccines cut risk of virus-related heart failure and blood clots, study finds

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 12 March - 23:30

Researchers say jabs substantially reduce for up to a year the chances of serious cardiovascular complications

Covid vaccinations substantially reduce the risk of heart failure and potentially dangerous blood clots linked to the infection for up to a year, according to a large study.

Researchers analysed health records from more than 20 million people across the UK, Spain and Estonia and found consistent evidence that the jabs protected against serious cardiovascular complications of the disease.

chevron_right

Two very rare Covid vaccine side-effects detected in global study of 99 million

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 22 February - 14:00

Results confirm how uncommon known complications are as researchers confirm benefits from vaccines still ‘vastly outweigh the risks’

Two new but exceptionally rare Covid-19 vaccine side effects – a neurological disorder and inflammation of the spinal cord – have been detected by researchers in the largest vaccine safety study to date.

The study of more than 99 million people from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland also confirmed how rare known vaccine complications are, with researchers confirming that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines still “vastly outweigh the risks”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

chevron_right

Covid death toll in US likely 16% higher than official tally, study says

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 21 February - 15:00

Researchers think undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing

The Covid death toll in the US is likely at least 16% higher than the official tally, according to a new study , and researchers believe the cause of the undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing.

The second year of the pandemic also had nearly as many uncounted excess deaths as the first, the study found.

chevron_right

“Very sick” pet cat gave Oregon resident case of bubonic plague

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 February - 20:57 · 1 minute

Enlarge / A cat, but not the one with plague. (credit: Getty | Silas Stein )

An Oregon resident contracted bubonic plague from their "very sick" pet cat, marking the first time since 2015 that someone in the state has been stricken with the Black Death bacterium, according to local health officials.

Plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis , circulates cryptically in the US in various types of rodents and their fleas. It causes an average of seven human cases a year, with a range of 1 to 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cases tend to cluster in two regions, the CDC notes: a hotspot that spans northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado, and another region spanning California, far western Nevada, and southern Oregon.

The new case in Oregon occurred in the central county of Deschutes. It was fortunately caught early before the infection developed into a more severe, systemic bloodstream infection (septicemic plague). However, according to a local official who spoke with NBC News, some doctors felt the person had developed a cough while being treated at the hospital. This could indicate progression toward pneumonic plague, a more life-threatening and more readily contagious variety of the plague that spreads via respiratory droplets. Nevertheless, the person's case reportedly responded well to antibiotic treatment, and the person is recovering.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

chevron_right

Contact-tracing software could accurately gauge COVID-19 risk

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 20 December - 19:29 · 1 minute

A woman wearing a face mask and checking her phone.

Enlarge (credit: Maridav )

It’s summer 2021. You rent a house in the countryside with a bunch of friends for someone’s birthday. The weather’s gorgeous that weekend, so mostly you’re all outside—pool, firepit, hammock, etc.—but you do all sleep in the same house. And then on Tuesday, you get an alert on your phone that you’ve been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. How likely are you to now have it?

To answer that question, a group of statisticians, data scientists, computer scientists, and epidemiologists in the UK analyzed 7 million people who were notified that they were exposed to COVID-19 by the NHS COVID-19 app in England and Wales between April 2021 and February 2022. They wanted to know if—and how—these app notifications correlated to actual disease transmission. Analyses like this can help ensure that an app designed for the next pathogen could retain efficacy while minimizing social and economic burdens. And it can tell us more about the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Over 20 million quarantine requests

The NHS COVID-19 app was active on 13 to 18 million smartphones per day over 2021. It used Bluetooth signals to estimate the proximity between those smartphones while maintaining privacy and then alerted people who spent 15 minutes or more at a distance of 2 meters or less from a confirmed case. This led to over 20 million such alerts, each of which came with a request to quarantine—quite a burden.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments