In late March, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it had detected cases of bird flu in dairy cattle. Initially discovered in dairy farms in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico, there are now 36 confirmed outbreaks in dairy herds in nine states. Although the H5N1 virus circulates widely in wild birds, it is now … Read more
Descrease article font size Increase article font size President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020. U.S. government officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, … Read more
If you have a dog or cat, chances are you’ve given your pet a flavored chewable tablet for tick prevention at some point. What if you could take a similar pill to protect yourself from getting Lyme disease? Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is developing such a pill for humans—minus the tasty flavoring—that could provide protection against the … Read more
Florida health officials on Sunday announced an investigation into a cluster of measles cases at an elementary school in the Fort Lauderdale area with a low vaccination rate, a scenario health experts fear will become more and more common amid slipping vaccination rates nationwide. On Friday, Broward County Public School reported a confirmed case of … Read more
This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last week, a long, narrow section of the Earth’s atmosphere funneled trillions of gallons of water eastward from the Pacific tropics and unleashed it on California. This weather event, known as an atmospheric river, broke rainfall records, dumped more than a … Read more
Alaskapox, a virus first identified in 2015, has recently claimed the life of an elderly Alaskan man, marking the first known human fatality linked with this pathogen, according to officials. The man, from the Kenai Peninsula (just south of Anchorage), was hospitalized in November due to a worsening infection that impacted the range of motion … Read more
The high number of cases in the UK also reflects the difficulty of eradicating an outbreak, says Jo Middleton, a research fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who is involved in scabies research in the UK and around the globe. Bedding and furniture need to be completely decontaminated, while medicines like permethrin are not … Read more
