A wave of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is killing an extraordinary amount of sugar cane field workers in Central America. It’s so prevalent that communities are gaining nicknames like “The Island of Widows” as a result of the death tolls.
Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, a town roughly the size of Palo Alto, California, has seen the death rates from CKD increase five-fold in the last 20 years. It’s a pattern that has the extremely painful disease rising through El Salvador and Nicaragua. Continue reading →
The 2012 outbreak of West Nile Virus is only 20 cases away from topping 2006, the second worst year on record.
The Centers for Disease Control has officially confirmed 4,249 cases of West Nile virus this year. The number of deaths from the virus has risen to 168.
The record is 9,862 CDC confirmed cases in 2003. Continue reading →
An outbreak of a rare form of meningitis has expanded to nine states and now has infected at least 105.
Eight people have died from tainted injections of methylprednisone obtained from the New England Compounding Center. As many as 13,000 patients could have been exposed to the contaminated drugs since May 21, much earlier than previously suspected by the Centers for Disease Control. Continue reading →
An illness similar to the SARS virus that killed hundreds in 2003 has been discovered in a man being treated in London.
The 49-year-old man was rushed from Qatar to London after being the second person confirmed with the coronavirus. The first case was a Saudi Arabian who died from the disease. Continue reading →
An Ebola outbreak in Congo has killed 31 people and is threatening major towns, according to the World Health Organization.
An epidemic has been officially declared. The death toll has doubled in the last week. Continue reading →
After reports this Summer of three people contracting the potentially deadly hantavirus while camping in Colorado, now a seven-year-old girl has been infected with bubonic plague after a Colorado camping trip.
Sierra Jane Downing thought she had the flu until her parents discovered she had a 107-degree fever after suffering a seizure at home. Doctors were unable at first to discover the cause before testing for the extremely rare bubonic plague. This is the first confirmed case in Colorado in 2006. Continue reading →
The US death toll from West Nile virus has jumped almost one third in a one-week period. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 87 people have now been confirmed to have died from the disease.
The number of cases confirmed by the CDC has also jumped in the past week from 1,590 to 1,993. It is now officially the largest outbreak of West Nile virus in the United States since 1999. Continue reading →
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that cases of West Nile virus rose 40 percent last week and are on pace to hit the record levels of 2002 and 2003.
The CDC says 1,590 cases have now been confirmed with 66 deaths. Half the cases have been in Texas. Continue reading →
A little over a week after announcing that one of two vacationers had died from contracting hantavirus at Yosemite National Park, a second fatality has been confirmed by government officials.
Officials from Yosemite National Park officials have confirmed that over 1,700 visitors were put at risk for the potentially fatal disease after conditions in various rental cabins allowed infected rodents to breed and grow. Continue reading →
The director of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases for the CDC is warning that the United States could see the worst outbreak of West Nile Virus in history.
The virus is responsible for 41 deaths in the US and over 1,100 people infected. The CDC states that increase is alarming considering that only 25 cases had been reported last month. The only states that do not have cases reported are Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont. Continue reading →