[Health] The Infectious Diseases Thread

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Tue Jun 13, 2023 9:25 pm

Some people can carry infections without showing any symptoms.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Tue Jun 13, 2023 10:31 pm

Presumably the bacteria is not a problem in your mouth but can become a problem once it's running around in your blood and tissues.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 12:27 am

Didn't realize any of that. I always thought the flesh-eating bacteria always affected people regardless of anything else.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 9:15 am

It's kind of like how the bacteria in your bowels is perfectly safe, as long as you don't stuff it in your mouth or smear it on a punji stick for someone to step on.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 9:28 am

Read more here. The other thing to remember is that if he licked his friend, it probably would have been fine - the skin is a great barrier. But biting him? That made it potentially dangerous.

A good reminder:

Also, don't bite people (without consent).

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 12:56 pm

Even with consent is medically dicey.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 2:29 pm

But what if I'm hungry? Like, if I'm really hungry, and the fridge is clear across the house?

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 2:58 pm

In that case, infection by a flesh-eating bacteria is the least the of the bitee's problems.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jun 16, 2023 12:16 pm

This is pretty crazy:

Peru's embattled health minister announced her resignation late on Thursday during a speech in Congress, in the midst of a dengue outbreak already responsible for record-breaking deaths and infections.

...

The death toll from the viral outbreak has risen to 248, while reported cases have surpassed 146,000, according to official data.

Over the past week, deaths are up 24%, as cases jumped by more than 12%.

Of note:

The outbreak is likely to worsen as torrential rains from El Nino climate phenomenon lead to surging populations of mosquitoes, which transmit dengue.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Jun 19, 2023 11:20 am

South African taps run dry after power shortages

South Africa's recent electricity woes - with regular lengthy scheduled blackouts - have had a knock-on effect on the supply of water.

"All of our stations, they need electricity, they need power. You have to pump water everywhere where it is needed," says Sipho Mosai, the head of state-owned Rand Water, one of the country's main water providers.
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The lack of electricity has exacerbated issues created by poorly maintained infrastructure, which has led to vast leaks as well as sewage problems, and a supply of water that cannot meet demand.
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This has also meant that sewage plants are not cleaning the water in the way that they should.
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In just a few weeks in Hammanskraal, a township outside Pretoria, 29 people were killed by cholera that had been found in the water supply there. The outbreak has been linked to substandard water purification practices.
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But not having clean drinking water is not unique to Hammanskraal - a recent report by the department of water affairs and sanitation found that of the 155 treatment systems sampled, 41% came back showing bad microbial water quality compliance.

The problem can be found across the country. In the Eastern Cape's quaint arts town of Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, residents have for years been forced to contend with unsafe drinking water, with recurring bouts of E.coli contamination.

em2nought · Post by **em2nought** » Mon Jun 19, 2023 11:25 am

You can't drink the water from the tap in Thailand. There are placards in every hotel bathroom. I imagine the same goes for many other countries.

Here's someone's nifty idea to deal with all those bottles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvA84xKBxw4

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:22 pm

i picked up some upper-respiratory virus in London last week (not covid - tested three times and all negative). thing is with this one, it's the longest-lasting sore throat i've ever had. it was particularly bad the first couple days, but (on approximately day five of illness) it still is a twinge of pain when i swallow. also am coughing up phlegm, which doesn't sound like a strep throat symptom.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Jul 03, 2023 11:41 pm

A Rare Domestic Resurgence of Malaria Is Circulating in the US

AT LEAST FOUR people in Florida and one in Texas have been diagnosed with malaria that they must have caught near where they live—because, according to health officials, none of them traveled outside the US or their own states. The very unusual discovery has left infectious disease specialists wondering: Who else might be ill, and will local doctors recognize what’s wrong?

Malaria isn’t completely unprecedented in the US: About 2,000 residents contract it every year, but almost always because they traveled to a place where it’s endemic, were bitten by an infected mosquito there, and fell ill once they came home. Locally acquired malaria is extremely rare. It arises from a chain of transmission that probably starts with a US mosquito biting a tourist, migrant, or refugee who has been in an endemic country and is carrying the infection in their blood. Then the insect passes it along by biting someone else. That hasn’t occurred in the US since 2003.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jul 06, 2023 4:20 pm

I know I keep saying it, but I really think it's time for me to find a new field:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reducing funding to states for child vaccination programs, according to an agency email obtained by KFF Health News.

The funding cut “is a significant change to your budget,” said the email to immunization managers, dated June 27 and signed by two CDC officials.
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The immunization managers who received the message are public health officials who direct state, territorial, and local programs to promote vaccinations against a variety of infectious diseases, such as measles and chickenpox.

The reduction comes from a federal immunization grant — totaling about $680 million in the latest year — that supports vaccination programs for children, according to the Association of Immunization Managers.

“There will be no easy solution for this,” said the CDC email. “We know that this change will require some tough decisions.”

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:24 pm

I got my COVID booster today. My arm is sore. its not my mouse arm. Its my keyboard arm.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:41 pm

I have a bad feeling this is going to continue to expand:

The Florida Department of Health has reported two more locally acquired cases of malaria in Sarasota County.

The two additional cases were reported the week of June 25 to July 1, according to a report released on Thursday. Sarasota County’s total is now at six locally acquired cases.

Malaria is transmitted through infected mosquitoes. Both Sarasota and Manatee counties have been under a mosquito-borne illness alert since June 19.

Residents throughout the state should take precautions by applying bug spray, avoiding areas with high mosquito populations and wearing long pants and shirts when possible - especially during sunrise and sunset when mosquitos are most active.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:21 pm

Ontario's top doctor says rise in tick-borne illnesses linked to climate change

Ontario's top doctor expects to see a growing number of cases of three types of tick-borne illness in the province, in addition to Lyme disease — a spread he says is directly linked to climate change.

A new regulation that takes effect this weekend requires health-care providers in Ontario to report cases of anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Powassan virus to their local medical officers of health.

There have been anecdotal reports and publications about the three illnesses being found in Ontario in recent years, but the province now needs to start formally tracking them, said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.

"We can now count and track when these illnesses are occurring, map it for a risk map and be able to inform the public when these diseases become more prevalent," he said in an interview.

"It's absolutely expected that we'll have greater incidence over the next several years because this is a known wave of infections that we've seen migrate up the coastline of northeast North America and anticipate them affecting Ontarians."

I'm sure the malaria will get here in due time.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:35 pm

Ooof. I didn't realize Canada was already potentially seeing cases of those illnesses. There was a study published earlier this week that found ticks with Bourbon Virus were found in NJ - a virus that has been seemingly spreading East (from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas) and North. We have the right tick to carry it (Lone Star), but there has been a suggestion climate changes have been somehow increasing the viral range (probably through secondary carriers or other transmission routes we don't understand).

I'd expect lots and lots of tick-related education to become normal in your part of the world. Let me rephrase, I'm hoping there's lots of tick-related education that's going to become normal in your part of the world.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:42 pm

I expect that the tick-related education will take the form of something like "In the tickocalypse, the only safe place is the workplace! Be safe, don't work from home!"

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:46 pm

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jul 08, 2023 12:42 pm

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:03 pm

Around 90% of Texas beaches infested with poop, study says

Those looking for a place to swim that isn't the equivalent to taking a dip in a public toilet should head to South Padre, the report said.
...
In 2022, 55 of 61 Texas beaches tested by environmental regulators were found to be unsafe due to high levels of fecal contamination in the water on at least one occasion, according to Safe for Swimming?, an annual report issued by the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center.

Most of the contaminated beaches were located in the Corpus Christi and Galveston areas, according to the analysis.

To determine which beaches were awash with excrement, Environment Texas checked how often fecal bacteria levels at various beaches exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Beach Action Value,” associated with an estimated illness rate of 32 out of 1,000 swimmers.
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Those high contamination levels in ocean water are largely caused by polluted runoff — think cow poop flowing into streams and rivers following heavy rain — and by sewage overflows from aging waterworks. As of press time, both Houston and Corpus Christi are under federal decrees to upgrade their sewer systems due to thousands of clean water violations since 2016, according to the report.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:38 pm

It wouldn't be a problem if they'd link to the national sewage grid.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 2:16 pm

Update on H5N1 (Bird Flu), from Poland:

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has crossed the species barrier to infect large numbers of domestic cats for the first time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

On Monday the Geneva based health watchdog, which has been monitoring the spread of H5N1 around the world in recent months, said it had confirmed that 29 cats in Poland had tested positive for the virus.

“This is the first report of high numbers of cats infected with avian influenza A(H5N1) spread over a wide geographical area within any country”, said the WHO.

Fourteen cats are reported to have been euthanised, and a further 11 died.

“Some cats developed severe symptoms including difficulty in breathing, bloody diarrhoea, and neurological signs, with rapid deterioration and death in some cases.

“In total, 20 cats had neurological signs, 19 had respiratory signs, and 17 had both neurological and respiratory signs”.

If your memory is tickling or your confused as to why this is newsworthy, perhaps it's because you remember growing concern over the last ~20 years as the virus makes periodic jumps into humans. Thankfully it doesn't spread easily between people because the current case fatality rate is north of 50% (i.e. over half the people that get it, die).

Also in the article:

The World Organisation for Animal Health said that the wide geographical distribution of cases suggests that the primary mode of spread in these cases is not cat-to-cat transmission but instead linked to a common source.

However, experts have also highlighted that the virus extracted from the cats in Poland exhibits two mutations that facilitate better transmission in mammals.

Media reports from Poland cite the director of the National Veterinary Institute in Puławy stating that, “they have detected two mutations that indicate that the A(H5N1) virus is evolving to multiply more easily in mammals”.

Current risk for humans is still low, but when have viruses ever caused problems for us anyway?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 3:45 pm

FDA Approves New Drug to Prevent RSV in Babies and Toddlers

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Beyfortus (nirsevimab-alip) for the prevention of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease in neonates and infants born during or entering their first RSV season, and in children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second RSV season.
...
Beyfortus is a monoclonal antibody with activity against RSV. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses. One dose of Beyfortus, administered as a single intramuscular injection prior to or during RSV season, may provide protection during the RSV season.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:41 pm

I saw a news story the other day about how summer colds are running rampant now. When in the Philippines, my wife first got sick, got better after a course of OTC Amoxicillin, but then me and my son got it. Last week I had a doctor appointment, and while he thought given the time line is was probably useless, he nevertheless prescribed me Amoxicillin. I contacted my son's doctor, asking if he might do the same but had to bring him in. He suggested an antihistamine, but also thought that maybe he initially got a cold, and while recovering, contracted another one.

Whatever the case, we've both improved. Just to be safe, I did a Covid test and it was negative. My daughter continues to be immune to everything (she's the only one in the family never to have had Covid).

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:47 pm

They prescribed Amoxicillan for a cold??? Egads!

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:52 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:47 pm They prescribed Amoxicillan for a cold??? Egads!

More for the chance it might be a respiratory infection. My only real symptom was a deep chest cough with occasional mucus. Same with my son. My doc said if that was the case, it probably ran its course and I was just coughing up residuals, but because my wife said it worked for her, he'd humor her and prescribe it. I still have occasional coughing spells, but not so often. I too was more interested in humoring my wife, who despite being a healthcare professional still ascribes to old wives tales regarding colds.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:12 pm

"Summer colds"

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:20 pm

It was my theory all along, but contracting it in a foreign land leads me to err on the side of caution. Wife and doctor both mentioned the possibility of "walking pneumonia" such a diagnosis would have been dismissed in younger days but has to be given some credence now.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:27 pm

Sorry, I was reacting to the news story (which I'm anecdotally hearing lots of), not whatever plague is currently ripping through you house.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:45 am

Why syphilis is rising around the world

In April, the US released its latest data on sexually transmitted infections (STI). Cases of syphilis saw the largest increase, with cases surging 32% between 2020 and 2021 to reach the highest number of reported incidences in 70 years. The epidemic is also showing no signs of slowing, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned. And it has pointed to some "alarming" new trends driving this sudden spike in the disease.

Congenital syphilis – where a mother passes the infection to her child during pregnancy, often after contracting it from their partner – has risen particularly sharply, with cases soaring in the US by 32% between 2020-2021. The disease can cause stillbirths, infant deaths and life-long health problems.
...
And it is not something just happening in the US. There were 7.1 million new cases of syphilis globally in 2020 according to World Health Organization data. In 2022, the UK saw syphilis cases reach their highest level since 1948.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:03 pm

Yeah, I saw that too. Trends have not been great and seemingly getting worse. Unrelated, but I'm going to put this here because of the scope:

Even as the nation is faced with blistering heat waves this summer, Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is already thinking ahead to cold and flu season this winter.

“We’re going to have three bugs out there, three viruses: Covid, of course, flu and RSV,” Cohen said in an interview. “We need to make sure the American people understand all three and what they can do to protect themselves.”

Spread of all three respiratory viruses is currently low, but the CDC has begun to detect slight increases in positive Covid tests and Covid-related emergency department visits. And the decline in Covid hospitalizations has stalled.

I know all the cool kids have moved on, but winter is coming...

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:06 pm

And of course I need to mention the poor soul in Houston:

A single flea bite has caused a Houston man to contract a serious disease that led to the amputation of both of his hands, and parts of his feet.

Michael Kohlhof, a handyman and pet-sitter, was in San Antonio helping his mother recuperate from a surgery when he woke up with numbness in his feet.

“We thought it was the flu,” his mother, J’Leene Hardaway, explains in a GoFundMe set up to help pay for her son’s expenses.

Once at the hospital, Kohlhof’s condition quickly deteriorated: The 35-year-old man went into septic shock, and by the next day, was on a ventilator, dialysis, antibiotics, beta-blockers, and more medications as his mother writes “his organs were failing.”

See? Not just a problem in California!

Also, if you want to see why I am the way I am, just scroll down to the bottom of the People article and view the "Related Article" titles...

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:09 pm

Helps if you actually told us it was typhus.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:09 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:06 pm
Also, if you want to see why I am the way I am, just scroll down to the bottom of the People article and view the "Related Article" titles...

Aaron Carter Drowned in Bathtub After Taking Xanax and Huffing Compressed Air: Coroner ?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:28 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:09 pm Helps if you actually told us it was typhus.

My bad! Thought it was in the part I quoted. I was too distracted by dirty, scary wild iguanas.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:23 pm

Plague confirmed in Wyoming pets, has potential to spread to humans

While no human illnesses are associated with the current Fremont County situation, the WDH reported a human case of pneumonic plague in a Fremont County individual with exposure to sick pet cats in September 2021.

gilraen · Post by **gilraen** » Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:32 pm

Colorado already had a human case of plague this year. It's not actually as rare as one might think.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:36 pm

Indeed. Check the map.