Coronavirus Vaccines on Fast Track as WHO Declares Global Public Health Emergency
A novel strain of a coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019 and, by the middle of January, thousands of Chinese citizens were sick. According to Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Engineering, as of Jan. 30, 2020 there were 217 deaths among 9,776 confirmed coronavirus […]
“Little Women” Movie Spurs Interest in Scarlet Fever
Little Women, the 19th century coming of age movie directed by Greta Gerwig currently showing in theaters nationwide, has moviegoers searching for information about scarlet fever. Beth, the youngest of the four March sisters, dies of complications of the infection at the climax of the movie. Scarlet fever is a bacterial infection caused by the […]
Ticks, Mammal Vaccine Ingredients and Alpha-gal Allergy
Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), the delayed, potentially fatal red meat allergy acquired through tick bites, has increased dramatically in the United States, and cases have also been reported in Sweden, Germany and Australia.1 As of 2013, more than 5,000 people in the Southwest U.S. have been diagnosed with the condition.2 In 2007, Scott Commins, MD, an […]
Autism Rate in New Jersey Up 43 Percent
A study by Rutgers University has found that the rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) four-year-old children in New Jersey rose by 43 percent from 2010 to 2014, to an estimated rate of 1 in 35 children—the highest of any state in the United States. According to the research, which was published earlier this year […]
Higher Humidity in Buildings Can Help Lower Infections
Harvard Medical School graduate and pediatric oncologist Stephanie Taylor, MD once took care of children with cancer at a teaching hospital. She wondered why many of her young patients contracted infections, such as influenza, despite the hospital’s heavy emphasis on prevention. Taylor began to suspect increased susceptibility to contracting infections might have something to do […]
Vitamin A Shipped to Samoa
Health officials in Samoa, assisted by international health organizations, have struggled to manage a surge in measles and apparent deaths from measles on the impoverished island since the first laboratory confirmed cases were reported in September 2019. A state of emergency was declared on November 15, and by December 11, 4995 measles cases had been recorded, […]