As we’ve covered many times, insects are more than annoying pests. The bugs can carry viruses, ranging from mild to deadly.
One of the most common illnesses that come from insects is Lyme disease.
Doctors and other health care workers estimate that at least 300,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. That number is only expected to climb significantly in the coming years.
Millions of Muslims travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar to perform a five-day pilgrimage called “Hajj”.
The Hajj is a compulsory event that must be experienced at least once by every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford to do so. In 2018, many took their chance to make the journey on the 19th of August.
But what health risks does the pilgrimage come with, and what can participants do to handle them?
Ebola is not a new virus to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The DRC has even dealt with the deadly virus in 2018 already, thanks to an outbreak that started in May. Just a few weeks after that set of cases ended, it appears Ebola is back in DRC.
The World Health Organization declared a new Ebola outbreak in the beginning of August. The new set of cases started 46 confirmed cases with another 27 probable cases, causing 16 deaths. As of Aug. 21, those numbers ballooned to 76 confirmed cases and 61 deaths due to the virus.
A measles outbreak in the United States and Europe is currently on pace to hit a record high this year.
According to the WHO, there have been 107 people in the United States who have contracted measles this year. Meanwhile, Europe has seen over 41,000 cases this year, leading to 37 deaths.
In the first six months of 2018, measles has been reported in 21 states. The last measles outbreak in the U.S. occurred in 2014, infecting 667 people. More than half of the people infected were Amish and were not vaccinated.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced another potential breakthrough in the fight against Zika on Thursday.
The NIH will soon begin the first-in-human trial of a live, attenuated Zika virus vaccine. The tests will take at centers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Vermont. The clinical trial is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the branch of the NIH which developed the vaccine.
Subjects will be 28 healthy, non-pregnant adults ages 18 to 50.
Cybersecurity can be extremely difficult to maintain whether you’re at home or abroad, but it’s important to remember that travel can add extra challenges which require further layers of security.
Before you leave for your trip, take some time to read and implement the safety measures below.
A new study from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveals that a particular group of common, hard-to-treat viruses can join together to create clusters. That group of viruses then becomes both extremely efficient and very difficult for the body to detect.
The research, which was published in August 2018, could permanently change what we know about viruses and infection.
Until recently scientists believed that viruses acted independently. Now we know that up to 40 of them can form into vesicles, which are essentially membrane-bound packets or spheres.
Hepatitis A may be causing outbreaks in the United States, but hepatitis B is still endemic to most regions of the world. The vaccine for the disease is even suggested before traveling to any foreign destination.
As a disease that’s found all around the world, many scientists have wondered where hepatitis B came from.
In 2018, that source is still a topic for debit in the world of science.
Vaccines have been a crucial part of the fight against infectious diseases for more than 200 years.
But, those initial vaccines were primitive compared to today’s science. Modern vaccines are now our best defense against disease throughout the world.
The Australian Academy of Science states that in the “past 20 years, vaccine technology has improved, resulting in production of vaccines against a broad range of infectious diseases.” Our recent progress creates an optimism for future vaccines, but the future is still uncertain. There are constant challenges for vaccine improvement needed every year.
We’ve long struggled to defend against dengue fever. Without a vaccine available, how can you prevent the mosquito-borne disease?
By changing the mosquitoes, apparently.
An initiative focused in the Australian town of Townsville proved that theory. The town noticed a dramatic decrease of dengue outbreaks thanks to modified mosquitoes.
