Disease Quick Read

The second-largest Ebola outbreak in history is unfolding in the middle of a war zone urging CDC experts ask Trump to send in his experts to northeastern Congo
Global health experts are urging the Trump administration to allow U.S. government disease specialists to return to northeastern Congo to help fight the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history. The U.S. experts have been sidelined for weeks, ordered away from the region due to State Department security concerns.
Health workers have compared the area to a war zone.
Dozens of rebel groups are active and attacks by them have forced workers to halt Ebola containment for days at a time.
New statements in two top medical journals this week are calling on the U.S. to change its mind and send its experts back where they are sorely needed.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of "grave concern" as death toll soars to 209
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of "grave concern" as the death toll soars with 333 confirmed and probable cases and at least 209 people dead with the outbreak expected to last until the middle of 2019, the World Health Organisation has warned.
In a dire warning, the WHO said the current outbreak is expected to last for another six months.
A map released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows nine areas in the DRC affected by the Ebola virus.

220,000 homeless 2,200 dead thousands more missing Indonesia's quake and tsunami-battered city of Palu is facing a public health crisis
Photo downloadlengkap.com
Indonesia's quake- and the tsunami-battered city of Palu is facing a public health crisis as torrential rains threaten to spread malaria and dengue fever to the devastated region a month after the disaster, aid agencies have warned.
On Sept. 28, a magnitude 7.5 quake and a subsequent tsunami razed swaths of Palu on Sulawesi island, killing some 2,200 people and displacing more than 220,000.
Thousands more are missing, presumed dead, after entire neighbourhoods were swallowed up by liquefaction - a process where a strong quake makes the ground behave like a liquid, turning it into a kind of quicksand.

Doctors in the U.S. are bracing themselves for a surge of a deadly polio-like disease (Acute Flaccid Myelitis) which has experts baffled
Doctors in the U.S. are bracing themselves for a surge of a polio-like disease which has experts baffled.
Doctors are bracing for an upsurge in cases this fall.
Federal health officials said Monday they now have reports of 155 possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like syndrome that causes muscle weakness and paralysis.
The CDC (Centers for disease control and prevention) says its researchers still are not sure of a cause, the pattern of the reported cases strongly points to a virus, doctors say but they are still not sure.

A 29 year old New Jersey man dies after infection of the "brain-eating amoeba" Naegleria fowleri while surfing in Texas
Photo credit slideshare.net

A New Jersey resident has reportedly been infected by the "brain-eating amoeba", Naegleria fowleri while surfing in a wave pool at BSR Cable Park's Surf Resort in Waco, Texas, according to a Waco Tribune-Herald report.
The individual who died has been identified as 29-year-old Fabrizio Stabile of Ventnor.
In an email statement from the CDC's Candice Hoffmann to Outbreak News Today: CDC is assisting the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District on an investigation into a potential Naegleria fowleri exposure at an aquatic facility.



The World Health Organisation has warned this year's strain of plague could be even more virulent after an outbreak of in Madagascar
Photo culturevie.info click on the picture to enlarge
In an update on the plague situation in Madagascar, the Ministry of Health is now reporting plague has affected 8 districts in the country-Central Highlands, Ambalavao, Ambatofinandrahana, Ambositra, Ankazobe, Fandriana, Miarinarivo and Antisirabe.
In these 8 districts, 16 suspect cases have been reported in a month, including 4 fatalities.
A total of 5 of the cases have been laboratory confirmed.
Of the 5 confirmed cases, 2 were classified as bubonic plague and 3 as the pulmonary plague.

The new Ebola outbreak could be the worst ever seen because area is surrounded by Ugandan Islamist militias and can't be reached
Photo johnib.wordpress.com
The new Ebola outbreak that has infected 111 people and killed 75 in the Democratic Republic of Congo since it began four weeks ago has the 'potential to be the worst ever seen'.
The agency that responds to humanitarian crises fears it will trump the pandemic of 2014, which killed 11,000 and decimated West Africa.
Virologists have repeatedly warned the situation is ‘hard to control’ because cases are in a conflict zone, roamed by armed Islamic militias.
And yesterday, Dr Tedros Adhanom, chief of the World Health Organization ramped up the warnings over its potential rapid spread.

"Catastrophic" health crisis threatening many lives as nearly 20,000 people have been admitted to Iraq hospitals from polluted drinking water
Photo axisoflogic.com
Basra's health authorities said on Wednesday that more than 17,000 people have been admitted to hospitals over illnesses contracted from polluted drinking water.
There has been a surge in illnesses blamed on the lack of clean drinking water in the southern oil-rich province residents and politicians say it is a symptom of the breakdown in public services caused by corruption and years of neglect by the central government in Baghdad.
"Over 17,000 patients have been admitted to local hospitals - 2,600 are suffering from diarrhoea and the rest are suffering from issues related to stomach pains," Alaa Hashim, Basra's Health Ministry spokesman, told The National.

A cat in Big Horn Wyoming has been confirmed to have been infected with the plague a year after it was found in prairie dogs
A cat in Big Horn has been confirmed to have been infected with the plague, the state Department of Health announced [Wed 29 Aug 2018].
There are no known human cases in that area or in Wyoming as a whole.
There hasn't been a confirmed case since 2008, according to a department press release.
The cat "is known to wander outdoors," the release said.
The case comes a little over a year after the plague was found in prairie dogs in the Thunder Basin National Grassland, the 1st time the disease popped up there in more than 15 years

The new Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has claimed 50 lives in August with 91 cases of haemorrhagic fever reported in the region
Photo buzznigeria.com
The Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has now claimed 50 lives since the beginning of the month, the authorities said on Monday, as the government announced free treatment against the disease for the next three months.
The health ministry said that the death toll had been increased as of Sunday following a new victim in Mabalako-Mangina, close to Beni, the epicentre of the outbreak in the North Kivu province.
In all, "91 cases of haemorrhagic fever were reported in the region, 64 of which had been confirmed and 27 were seen as probable," the ministry said.

The first confirmed human case of the plague identified in the state of Idaho since 1992 as a child recovers from the disease
A child in southern Idaho's Elmore County is recovering from the bacterial disease of plague, the first confirmed human case of plague identified in the state since 1992.
Epidemiologists with the Central District Health Department said today it is not known whether the child was exposed to plague in Idaho or during a recent trip to Oregon.
Plague has historically been found in wildlife in both states.
The case serves as a reminder to recreationists in southern Idaho that plague is dangerous to people and pets, but with proper awareness, precautions, and prompt treatment when needed, plague should not discourage you from enjoying the Idaho outdoors.

Congo's health ministry announced six new confirmed Ebola cases and two new suspected cases as authorities struggle to confine the disease
Photo nationalgossipblog.com
Congo's health ministry announced six new confirmed Ebola cases and two new suspected cases Tuesday as vaccinations entered the second day in an effort to contain the deadly virus in a city of more than 1 million.
Dozens of health workers in the northwestern provincial capital, Mbandaka, have received vaccinations amid expectations that some will be deployed to the rural epicentre of the epidemic. Front-line workers are especially at risk of contracting the virus, which spreads in contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, including the dead.


"A major game-changer in the Ebola outbreak" as virus has spread to a city of more than 1 million! 14 confirmed Ebola cases more expected
Congo's latest Ebola outbreak does not yet warrant being declared a global health emergency, the World Health Organization announced Friday, as health officials rushed to contain the often deadly virus that has spread to a city of more than 1 million.
The vast, impoverished country now has 14 confirmed Ebola cases, with dozens of others probable or suspected.
WHO officials, speaking after an experts' meeting on the outbreak, said vaccinations could begin as early as Sunday in a key test of an experimental vaccine.
The health agency called the risk to the public in Congo "very high" and the regional risk high, with the global risk low.
The Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic are nearby and are among nine neighbouring countries alerted.
WHO said there should be no international travel or trade restrictions.


It killed almost 14,000 people in 2014 Ebola is back thought to be the cause of 19 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo
It killed almost 14,000 people in 2014 it could be making a come back
Congo has confirmed two cases of Ebola in the northwestern town of Bikoro, a government health official said on Tuesday, and one of them added that at least 10 more cases were suspected.
Jean Jack Muyembe, head of the national institute for biological research in the Democratic Republic of Congo, confirmed the two cases and said 10 more were suspected.
A source at the ministry of health also said that two cases had been confirmed.
Local health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever and 17 deaths in the affected area before an Ebola outbreak was confirmed on Tuesday, the health ministry said.
Medical teams dispatched to the zone took five samples from suspected active cases and two tested positive for the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, the ministry said in a statement.


Malaria is spreading rapidly in crisis-hit Venezuela at an incredible 69% from the year before and 5 times higher than 2013
According to some sources, Venezuela was the most murderous place on Earth in 2015 but a new killer is spreading through the South American country which is in a state of collapse.
Malaria is spreading rapidly in crisis-hit Venezuela, with more than an estimated 406,000 cases in 2017, up roughly 69 percent from a year before, the largest increase worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic and social crisis are carrying the mosquito-borne disease into Brazil and other parts of Latin America, the U.N. agency said, urging authorities to provide free screening and treatment regardless of their legal status to avoid further spread.
"In the Americas, it's not just Venezuela.


Australia's mysterious flesh-eating ulcer 'epidemic' is a mystery and experts don't know how to stop it and is spreading at unprecedented levels
Photo Credit THE MEDICAL JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIA A mysterious and 'nasty' flesh-eating bug is spreading at unprecedented levels in Victoria, and experts don't know how to stop it.
Researchers are appealing for government funding so they can figure out how to contain the bacteria, which causes a disease called Buruli ulcer.
Most commonly found in tropical Africa and usually associated with stagnant water, it can have devastating impacts on sufferers, including long-term disability and deformity.
Cases have been reported in the Daintree and, less commonly, the Northern Territory, NSW and Western Australia.
But most are from Victoria where there's a worsening epidemic, including 182 new cases in 2016, 275 in 2017 and 30 so far in 2018.




5 laboratory primates tested positive for bacteria that cause tuberculosis without showing outward symptoms: Human caretaker also tested positive
Photo picsolds.com
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases - a tenant agency on Fort Detrick in Frederick - is investigating after five laboratory primates tested positive for the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis - a bacterial disease that primarily affects the lungs - can cause chest pain, persistent coughing and coughing up blood.
It's rarely fatal among patients in the United States but does require at least a six-month treatment regimen of four antibiotic drugs.
The disease was found among a group of cynomolgus macaques, also known as crab-eating macaques - an important species to biomedical research.




The plague is back! After the worst outbreak in 50 years last year and 7 countries confirming outbreaks New Mexico is the latest to confirm the disease
The New Mexico Department of Health is warning residents the first case of plague this year has been contracted by a dog in Santa Fe County.
NMDOH is performing an investigation of the dog owner's home to assess the risk of the disease potentially spreading.
"They will go door-to-door to neighbors near the case to inform them about plague found in the area and provide information to residents on reducing their risk," said Department of Health Secretary Lynn Gallagher in a press release.
There were 28 animal cases last year.
Four New Mexico humans who contracted plague in 2017 survived the sickness.




Untreatable with first choice antibiotics! World's "worst-ever" case of super-gonorrhoea SPREADING in the UK: Resistant gonorrhoea is of huge concern
It's been described as the world's "worst-ever" case of super-gonorrhoea.
And just as AIDS caused millions of deaths since the 80's, super-gonorrhoea could be the next killer spreading rapidly around the world as Doctors cannot cure the disease with first choice antibiotics.
A man in the UK picked up the infection earlier in the year after a sexual encounter with a woman in South East Asia.
Two other cases are suspected in West Midlands and the south-east, Public Health England (PHE) said.
Public Health England says it is the first time the infection cannot be cured with first choice antibiotics.
According to the BBC, Doctors have long been warning this could happen.

Tiny Beetle Devastating Forests In Worst Outbreak Ever! 100,000 trees falling across the US every DAY and a billion dead in Colorado alone
It's a worrying situation with almost 50 million falling every year across the US.
As California suffered the biggest wildfire in its history last year a new report claimed 30 million trees died in the last 13 months bringing the total to a staggering 129 million since 2014.
In Colorada, it's worse nearly one in every 14 standing trees is dead with an astonishing estimated 834 million dead trees.
Despite being smaller than a grain of rice, mountain pine beetles are causing big problems for pine forests across North America.
Bark beetle colonies feed and reproduce on the inner bark of ponderosa and limber pines, wreaking deadly havoc on the tree's ability to circulate nutrients and absorb water.



Shellfish contaminated with Hepatitis E found in Scottish supermarkets for the first time after a huge spike in laboratory-diagnosed cases
Shellfish contaminated with a bug that can cause vomiting, fever and potentially deadly liver failure in the most serious cases have been found on sale in Scottish supermarkets for the first time.
Blue mussels and an oyster harvested from Scottish waters tested positive for the hepatitis E virus. They had been purchased from four supermarkets in the Glasgow area and a fishmonger on the east coast.
It comes in the wake of a surge in the number of people struck down with the virus, with the number of laboratory-diagnosed cases in Scotland climbing from 13 in 2011 to 206 in 2016.
The latest results follow an analysis of 310 shellfish samples collected by researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).
They found traces of Hepatitis E in eight blue mussels and one oyster.



Just five days after falling off his bike, little eight-year-old Liam Flanagan dies from deadly Flesh-eating bacteria in Portland US
Sara Hebard said her 8-year-old son Liam Flanagan just fell off his bike and cut his leg near the family's Pilot Rock farm, but that would eventually became infected by a flesh-eating bacteria that caused the boy's death. (photo courtesy Sara Hebard)
Eight-year-old Liam Flanagan was riding his bike down a hill in a Pilot Rock, Ore., on Jan. 13 when he crashed and cut his leg.
The boy was taken to the hospital and received seven stitches on his upper thigh.
But three days later, he complained his leg was still hurting while he was at school, his mother, Sara Hebard told NBC News.
He said the pain was getting worse in his groin area.




Aussie flu virus H3N2 killing around 100 people per week in the US while flu fatalities have soared by 77 percent in just one week in England
While the impact of flu varies, it places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year.
CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010. Credit CDC.

It's exactly 100 years since the Spanish flu infected 500 million and killed an estimated 100 million people around the world.



100 years ago Spanish flu infected 500 million and killed an estimated 100 million people: Australian flu fatalities soar 77% in one week in England
It's exactly 100 years since the Spanish flu infected 500 million and killed an estimated 100 million people around the world.
Fast forward to 2018 and experts are worried another monster pandemic is emerging called "The Australian Flu!"
And the caveat is, this season's flu vaccines are no match for this new virus.





China is the 7th country this year to confirm a Bubonic plague outbreak after biggest outbreak in 50 years in Madagascar killed more than 200 people
China is the latest country this year to discover the Bubonic plague after a person died of the disease.
Subei County in northwest China's Gansu Province on Wednesday lifted a quarantine for plague after local health officials said they believe they have controlled the disease from spreading.
A person in Subei showing symptoms of plague died on Dec. 12.







Madagascar plague confirmed, probable and suspected cases jumps to 2,119 as WHO insist the plague is declining on the island
On November 6th 1,947 confirmed probable and suspected cases of plague was officially recorded on Madagascar.
On the 17th of November, the total has grown to 2,111 cases however WHO, World Health Organisation claims that the plague is declining.
Since [Tue 1 Aug 2017], Madagascar has been experiencing a large outbreak of plague.