Public Health: Disease, Epidemic & Pandemic Threat (merged thread)

[AdamG]

In the summer of 1918, as the Great War raged and American doughboys fell on Europe’s killing fields, the City of Brotherly Love organized a grand spectacle. To bolster morale and support the war effort, a procession for the ages brought together marching bands, Boy Scouts, women’s auxiliaries, and uniformed troops to promote Liberty Loans –government bonds issued to pay for the war. The day would be capped off with a concert led by the “March King” himself –John Philip Sousa.

Within 72 hours of the parade, every bed in Philadelphia’s 31 hospitals was filled. In the week ending October 5, some 2,600 people in Philadelphia had died from the flu or its complications. A week later, that number rose to more than 4,500. With many of the city’s health professionals pressed into military service, Philadelphia was unprepared for this deluge of death.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...flu-180970372/

[AdamG]

LOS ANGELES — Health officials on Friday reported a typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County and say it has reached "epidemic levels" in the city of Pasadena. Twenty cases have been reported in Pasadena, most in the last two months, health officials told NBC News, noting that a normal year there would typically only see five infections. The city of Long Beach, Calif., has 12 cases so far in 2018 — double the normal annual number, said Emily Holman, the city's infectious disease response coordinator.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...s-area-n917271

[AdamG]

More possible cases of a rare, polio-like virus have been reported, health officials say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been investigating more than 360 possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis dating back to 2014. The disorder, which mainly affects children, can paralyze a child's arms and legs. The average age of AFM patients is 4 years old, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Tuesday.

Brittany Fowler of the Maryland Department of Health told USA TODAY that there have been five possible cases of AFM in the state, all in children under 18. The Minnesota Department of Health announced six cases were reported in children under 10. The CDC has confirmed 62 cases in 22 states. The CDC said the cause of most AFM cases is unknown, but a few cases have been linked to other viruses. Symptoms are similar to poliovirus, West Nile virus and adenoviruses, which makes it difficult for doctors to diagnose.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...nt/1656548002/

[AdamG]

The picture we have of the 1918 flu pandemic is vastly more detailed today than it was 20 years ago, let alone 50 or 100 years ago. But it’s nowhere near complete. Pathologist Jeffery Taubenberger of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – the man who in 2005, with his colleague Ann Reid, published the genetic sequence of the virus responsible for the pandemic – said at a recent conference there were still many unanswered outstanding questions.

Researchers all over the world are working hard to answer them. But what they have already uncovered might surprise you.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2018...e-20th-century

[AdamG]

Cases of measles in Europe have hit a record high, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 41,000 people have been infected in the first six months of 2018, leading to 37 deaths. Last year there were 23,927 cases and the year before 5,273. Experts blame this surge in infections on a drop in the number of people being vaccinated.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45246049

[AdamG]

Health officials reported 17 new cases and 10 deaths in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making this the nation's third largest outbreak of the virus, according to an update from University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease and Research and Policy in Minneapolis.

Eleven of the new Ebola cases occurred in the city of Beni. The remaining six occurred in the nearby city of Butembo. As of Oct. 28, the World Health Organization confirmed 274 total Ebola cases and 174 deaths linked to the outbreak.

The Congo has experienced ten Ebola outbreaks, including the current one. This outbreak has now surpassed the 2007 Ebola outbreak in the Congo's Luebo region, which caused265 cases and 187 deaths.

On Oct. 28, health workers conducted Ebola response training with 8,000 young people in Butembo and Benito "increase the awareness actions for young people who are often at the root of resistance because of a lack of knowledge of the disease and its danger," Congo officials said, according to CIDRAP.

As of Oct. 29, 24,142 Congolese people have received an Ebola vaccine, including 12,464 people in Beni and 1,295 people in Butembo.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.co...270-cases.html