The Centers for Disease Control is warning the “eliminated” disease is becoming a threat again to the United States.
The CDC says because measles runs rampant overseas that travelers are bringing the disease back with them from foreign travel.
“A measles outbreak anywhere is a risk everywhere,” the CDC said in a press release. “The steady arrival of measles in the United States is a constant reminder that deadly diseases are testing our health security every day. Someday, it won’t be only measles at the international arrival gate; so, detecting diseases before they arrive is a wise investment in U.S. health security.”
The CDC reported that 18 children every hour around the world dies from measles.
Statistics for 2013 show 175 confirmed cases in the U.S. this year, almost three times the number of average cases each year since 2000.
Health experts are warning that the world could be facing a dementia epidemic by 2050.
Estimates from the group Alzheimer’s Disease International showed a 17 percent increase in the number of people with dementia in 2010 and warned that by 2050 as much as 70 percent of dementia patients could be in third world nations.
“If we look into the future the numbers of elderly people will rise dramatically. It’s vital that the World Health Organization makes dementia a priority, so the world is ready to face this condition,” ADI Executive Director Marc Wortmann told Reuters.
Leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized countries are due to meet in London next week for a special summit on dementia. The condition is so prominent in Britain that it costs the country 23 billion pounds a year, more than cancer, stroke or heart disease combined.
ADI officials said the number of cases by 2050 could triple from 44 million today to 135 million. They said more funds dedicated to research for a cure are necessary and the research needs to begin immediately.
Health officials in Hong Kong have announced confirmation of the country’s first case of H7N9 bird flu.
The announcement is a sign that the deadly virus is spreading beyond the borders of mainland China.
The announcement of the confirmed case comes on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that killed 300 people in Hong Kong and seriously damaged the country’s travel and retail industry.
The 36-year-old H7N9 victim reportedly traveled to Shenzhen in mainland China and had contact with poultry during his visit. Officials say the patient is in critical condition in a Hong Kong hospital.
A US Airways Express flight from Texas to Arizona ended up being more dramatic than passengers had expected when they boarded.
First responders boarded the plane upon landing in Phoenix and removed a man who was told to put on a medical mask. A spokesman for US Airways said the airline was notified after the plane left Austin the passenger’s status had been changed to “no-fly” because of medical conditions.
Passengers told Fox News they were told to get tuberculosis tests and vaccinations by a first responder who boarded the plane while it was on the tarmac. Federal and Maricopa County health officials said they had no immediate confirmation the passenger had an infectious disease.
However, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health told ABC15 passengers “faced little risk of contagion.”
Tuberculosis can be spread through the air.
Scientists say that drug-resistant “superbugs” are one of the gravest threats in the history of medicine.
The piece in the Lancet medical journal says that routine operations could become deadly in the very near future as bacteria continue to evolve to fight the drugs used to combat them. Doctors say a century of medical advances could be wiped out in a matter of years.
“I am concerned that in 20 years, if I go into hospital for a hip replacement, I could get an infection leading to major complications and possible death, simply because antibiotics no longer work as they do now,” said John Watson, England’s deputy chief medical officer.
No new antibiotic has been introduced since 1987 because drug manufacturers cannot gain a profit from researching and producing new antibiotics.
The researchers say a major part of the problem is that the general public has become dependent on antibiotics to the point that if one doctor does not prescribe them they will seek out a “second opinion” that will give them the drugs.
Scientists in Saudi Arabia believe they may have finally been able to confirm their theory that the MERS virus transmits to humans from camels.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus was discovered in a camel owned by a MERS victim according to the Saudi health ministry. DNA testing on the virus is being conducted to see if the virus is the same strain in both the camel and the human victim.
The virus causes pneumonia like symptoms but also produces very rapid and fatal kidney disease. The mortality rate for MERS is over 40 percent.
The virus is similar to the SARS virus that caused a worldwide outbreak in 2002-2003 that killed 775 people.
Three children visiting the petting zoo at a Minnesota pumpkin farm ended up with E. Coli infections according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
All three children are from the Twin Cities area and range in age from 15 months to 7 years. The Department of Health confirmed that all three have the same strain of E. Coli.
One child is still hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication that can result in kidney failure. The other two children did not require admission to a hospital.
Investigators say all the children had contact with goats or cattle. Two other cases of symptoms similar to E. Coli have been reported but not confirmed by the Department of Health.
The health department says the farm is cooperating with the investigation and has closed public access.
The associate director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end.
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan told PBS’s series Frontline that humans and livestock have been so overmedicated that bacteria have simply become resistant to the antibiotics currently on the market.
‘For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics, question mark?”‘ Dr.Srinivasan said. ‘Well, now I would say you can change the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”’
Dr. Srinivasan said that hospitals are now having patients admitted with infections that could be easily treated with antibiotics five years ago who have no effective treatment available. He also mentioned the increase in infections among places that in the past were not common places. For example, MRSA recently broke out in the locker room of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Until about a decade ago, MRSA was mainly seen in hospitals.
The blame for the increase in antibiotic resistant bugs was attributed partially to overuse and abuse of antibiotics and drug manufacturers not creating new antibiotics because they are not a profitable line of research.
Federal authorities are spinning news reports that the flesh-eating drug Krokodil has now been found in Illinois.
The DEA is refusing to acknowledge the reports of physicians regarding the drug.
“We, the DEA, are not seeing cases of it,” DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden told FoxNews.com. “Nothing’s been turned into any of our labs. As far as the DEA is concerned, we have not seen any cases.”
However, Dr. Abhin Singla, the director of addiction services at Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois, said that he has seen three patients this week who were using Krokodil.
“If you want to kill yourself, this is the way to do it,” Singla told the Herald-News.
A fourth patient has since been identified. Two have left the hospital against doctor’s orders. Officials at the hospital say the legs of the women are so gangrenous that it will take years of surgeries for one of them to walk again.
A fresh outbreak of viral encephalitis has broken out in India resulting the death of at least 15 children. The death toll from the disease this year in India has reached 358.
The disease usually strikes during monsoon season and children are usually the worst affected. At least 200 patients are reportedly still in government hospitals.
Doctors say that the infected children come between 10 and 12 districts and are mostly from the rural poor.
While Japanese encephalitis had been the dominant strain through 2005, doctors say an unidentified strain of the disease has been killing children over the 8 years. While the Japanese strain comes from mosquitoes, the new virus has an unknown origin.
A fifth of children who survive the disease suffer lifetime neurological weakness.