Recent Blog Articles
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
PTSD: How is treatment changing?
Virtual mental health care visits: Making them work for you
How healthy is sugar alcohol?
A bird flu primer: What to know and do
New urine test may help some men with elevated PSA avoid biopsy
Dupuytren's contracture of the hand
Why play? Early games build bonds and brain
Moving from couch to 5K
How — and why — to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals
Infectious diseases Archive
Articles
Protecting your children against Enterovirus D68
Enterovirus D68 is a respiratory infection that has been spreading across the country and making some children quite ill. It is especially problematic for kids with asthma or other respiratory issues. Enterovirus D68 can start out looking like a garden variety cold but lead to serious trouble breathing. What’s a parent to do? The same things he or she would normally do during cold and flu season: hand washing, staying away from people who are sick, regularly cleaning common surfaces like doorknobs, not sharing cups and utensils, and coughing or sneezing into the elbow, not the hands. Those who have children with asthma need to be extra vigilant about their child’s asthma care routine. Most upper respiratory infections are the simple cold. Still, it’s important to stay alert for signs of breathing difficulties.
Not quite a threat yet, but MERS merits watching
In 2012, after the CDC declared SARS presented a threat to the public’s health and safety, public health and infectious disease experts took note of a new viral respiratory disease that was also caused by a coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). So far, roughly one-third of the people with confirmed cases of MERS have died. Until recently, most cases of MERS occurred in countries in the Arabian Peninsula. But this month, two cases of MERS have been confirmed in the United States. At the most recent meeting of WHO’s Emergency Committee members expressed growing concern about MERS, but since there is currently “no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission” the situation doesn’t yet meet the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Drug-resistant bacteria a growing health problem
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria sicken more than two million Americans each year and account for at least 23,000 deaths. The main cause? Overuse of antibiotics. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013, details the health and financial costs of antibiotic resistance in the United States. In terms of health, antibiotic resistance should be in the CDC’s top 15 causes of death. It also adds as much as $20 billion in direct health-care costs. And the problem could get worse before it gets better. Antibiotic resistance is a problem because commonly used antibiotics will become less able to treat common infections. The CDC identified three types of bacteria as urgent hazards: Clostridium difficile, Enterobacteriaceae, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Decreasing the use of antibiotics and preventing infection in the first place are two key steps to halting the problem.
Lyme disease 10 times more common than thought
The 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year are just the tip of the iceberg. According to a new CDC estimate, more than 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with the tick-borne disease each year. The new number was presented at the 2013 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases, being held in Boston. Although the disease has been diagnosed in almost every state, most cases reported to the CDC are in the Northeast and upper Midwest—96% of cases come from 13 states. The new estimate comes from a multi-pronged approach: gathering case reports from doctors, sifting through health insurance claims, analyzing data from clinical laboratories (which do the tests necessary to diagnose Lyme disease), and surveying the public for self-reported Lyme disease.
Recent Blog Articles
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
PTSD: How is treatment changing?
Virtual mental health care visits: Making them work for you
How healthy is sugar alcohol?
A bird flu primer: What to know and do
New urine test may help some men with elevated PSA avoid biopsy
Dupuytren's contracture of the hand
Why play? Early games build bonds and brain
Moving from couch to 5K
How — and why — to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals
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