Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases
Tick- and Mosquito-Borne Diseases Are Increasing Dramatically (
Scientific American) People celebrate the arrival of summer every year, but it comes with a downside: an annual population explosion of disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes. Recent findings from the CDC reveal a staggering threefold increase in reported cases of what we broadly term "vector-borne diseases" --or illnesses transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, lice, ticks and the like--between 2004 and 2016 in the US. Making matters worse, 9 new pathogens emerged for the first time in the US during this same period.
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Domestic Preparedness & Response
Florida Red Tide: Gov. Scott Issues an Emergency Order (
Outbreak News Today) Governor Scott said, "As Southwest Florida and the Tampa Bay area continues to feel the devastating impacts of red tide, we will continue taking an aggressive approach by using all available resources to help our local communities. Today, I am issuing an emergency declaration to provide significant funding and resources to the communities experiencing red tide so we can combat its terrible impacts."
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After FEMA's Soul Searching on Puerto Rico, No More Excuses (
USA Today) Last week, the Puerto Rican government finally acknowledged what has long been suspected: The death toll from Hurricane Maria was far higher than the initial count. In a draft report to Congress, the government put the toll at 1,427--more than 20 times above the official tally of 64. Most of those lives were lost in the weeks or months following the storm, when the federal and local governments and utilities failed to restore power, water and cellphone operation.
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Global Health & Security
India Aims for the World's Biggest Health Care Overhaul (
goats and soda) In the marble halls of Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, patients are greeted by chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling French windows. There are autism and Alzheimer's clinics, genetic testing, clinical trials of new drugs and private rooms. Spinal injuries are treated in a special robotics rehabilitation unit, where patients are hooked up to robots to exercise their limbs. And visitors can grab a Starbucks latte in the lobby. At Sion hospital, 9 miles away, Shaheen Khan, 39, was brought in for gallstones in June. After waiting for 8 days in a facility so crowded that patients share mattresses on the floor, she was told to go home and they'd call her when a bed opened up. She's now been waiting 6 weeks to hear back.
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How Congo Beat the Last Ebola Outbreak (
Foreign Affairs) On July 24, the WHO announced the end of an Ebola outbreak in the DRC's Equateur Province that had infected 54 people and killed 33. Eight days later, the Congolese government reported that the virus had struck again, some 1,500 miles away, in North Kivu, an active conflict zone. As health officials race to assess the complexity of this new threat, the rare occurrence of back-to-back outbreaks underscores the growing danger that infectious diseases like Ebola pose to humanity.
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How Hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca Could Help Prevent Next Global Health Pandemic (
Newsweek) Since early July, Muslims from around the world have been arriving in Saudi Arabia for the hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca and one of the world's largest recurring mass gatherings. Along with the pilgrims arriving from over 180 countries--an estimated 2 million by the time the annual ritual ends in late August--are 25,000 health workers to monitor their health.
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Government Affairs & National Security
CDC Issues New Guidance for Couples Trying to Conceive Following Exposure to Zika (
Contagion Live) The new recommendations, published in the latest issue of the CDC's
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, suggest that men who have or have possibly been exposed to Zika wait at least 3 months after symptom onset or last possible Zika virus exposure before engaging in unprotected sex. Furthermore, the guidance suggests that couples who are not trying to conceive use condoms or abstain from sex for 3 months after last Zika exposure or symptom onset to minimize the risk of sexually transmitting the virus.
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Medicine & Public Health
Acute Viral Encephalitis (
NEJM) Encephalitis is a syndrome characterized by altered mental status and various combinations of acute fever, seizures, neurologic deficits, cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, and neuroimaging and electroencephalographic abnormalities. The syndrome has many causes; the most commonly identified causes are neurotropic viruses. The general principles of diagnosis and treatment of viral encephalitis are presented in this review.
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21st Century Threats
Conference on Disarmament Hears Statements on the United Nations Secretary-General's Disarmament Agenda, Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, and Other Issues (
UNOG) Walid Doudech, Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, proposed that the Conference pursue the debate on its mandate and on the United Nations Secretary-General's Agenda for Disarmament. He also presented draft decision CD/WP.609 to the Conference, which proposed the establishment of an informal working group to discuss issues raised in the United Nations Secretary-General's agenda for disarmament that were pertinent to the mandate of the Conference. The President said this was an attempt to create new dynamic work and would allow the Conference on Disarmament to examine all possible avenues which could lead it to a programme of work.
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Hacking the Electric Grid is Damned Hard (
FiveThiryEight) The nightmare is easy enough to imagine. Nefarious baddies sit in a dark room, illuminated by the green glow of a computer screen. Meanwhile, technicians watch in horror from somewhere in the Midwest as they lose control of their electrical systems. And, suddenly, hundreds of thousands, even millions of Americans are plunged into darkness.
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