Some countries have pledged to donate doses of mpox vaccines to combat an outbreak of the disease in Africa, after the World Health Organization declared it a global public health emergency in August for the second time in two years. Such donations are meant to address the huge inequity that left African nations with no...
Scientists are warning of a new tick-borne disease called Wetland virus (WELV) that was recently discovered in China. A member of the orthonairovirus genus of viruses, WELV previously infected a man in Inner Mongolia, China, in 2019, but it was not identified until this new study, which was published in the New England Journal of...
A patient in Missouri was hospitalized with bird flu despite having no known contact with animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the positive case of avian influenza A (H5) on Friday. The patient, who had underlying medical conditions, was successfully treated with antiviral medications at the hospital and has since been...
Three senior citizens have died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease — a form of pneumonia that can spread via water — at an assisted living facility in Albany, New York, according to reports. The Albany CountyDepartment of Health was first notified of a “cluster of cases” at Peregrine Senior Living on Aug. 30, according to a...
A rare, potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease has sparked concern in the Northeastern U.S. Last week, a man from Hampstead, New Hampshire, died after testing positive for Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). The man “was hospitalized due to severe central nervous system disease, and has passed away due to [the] illness,” according to a statement from the...
A disease transmitted by mosquitoes — the Oropouche virus, also known as sloth fever — has been detected in the United States. Travelers returning to the U.S. from Cuba contracted the virus in recent months, as reported by The Associated Press. No fatalities have been reported. The Oropouche virus is endemic in the Amazon basin...
New Hampshire health officials said Tuesday that a person who tested positive for the mosquito-borne infection eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) has died. An adult from Hampstead, New Hampshire, who tested positive for EEEV infection, “was hospitalized due to severe central nervous system disease, and has passed away due to their illness,” the New Hampshire...
As mpox (formerly monkeypox) has been declared a global public health emergency, some are wondering whether the virus poses the risk of a COVID-like pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on Aug. 14, based on a surge of cases in the Democratic Republic...
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical advisor to the president, was diagnosed with West Nile virus earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for Fauci. Fauci, 83 — who was the face of the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic in 2020 —...
Four Massachusetts towns — Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster — have enacted a voluntary evening lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease. The decision comes after the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed the first human case of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) since 2020 in Worcester County....
