epidemiology

The emergency stage of Covid-19 is over—at least in official terms. The World Health Organization declared an end to the Covid global health emergency last week, and the US will end its federal public health emergency for Covid on Thursday. These announcements come a full year after the European Union moved to end its emergency declaration. As global and national officials roll back the widespread data tracking, cross-government coordination, and testing programs that were quintessential to the emergency phase of the…

In February, a 23-year-old Tanzanian fisherman suddenly fell ill, having just returned from a busy trading outpost in the middle of Lake Victoria. Back at home in Bukoba, a district in northwestern Tanzania, he was hit by bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. He developed a fever and began bleeding from his body openings. On March 1, he died.His family and community conducted a routine burial—not knowing this gathering would be the beginning of a deadly outbreak. Soon, some of those present began to fall ill. On March 16,…

Have you ever wondered if the data recorded by a wearable gives you insight into how your body is really performing? Research from Oura, created by data taken from the Oura Ring smart ring, shows wearables really can better inform you of your health, and even warn of oncoming infections. For its research, the team concentrated on its wearers who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, and also tracked the body’s response to the COVID-19 vaccine. The results are interesting, as they show that — despite not being medical…

If you were already stressed about increased air pollution and more frequent heat waves, well, you can add another disturbing health impact of climate change to your list: the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which is thriving in warming U.S. waters. In a study published this week in Scientific Reports, researchers found that infections by bacteria Vibrio vulnificus could double in the United States within the next 20 years. The spread of this life-threatening germis being fueled by hotter temperatures that are…

The wave of avian influenza H5N1—which so far has hit 76 countries, triggered national emergencies, and created the worst animal-disease outbreak in US history—keeps roaring through wild birds and commercial poultry. More than 140 million poultry worldwide have died from the virus or were slaughtered to keep it from spreading, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. And though they are harder to count, the die-offs among wild birds have been catastrophic. Something has to put the brakes on. In the US, where…

To figure out what exactly was causing this antiviral capability, the scientists then incubated the vesicles with the viruses and imaged them under a microscope. They found that the viruses got stuck to receptors on the vesicles’ surface—trapping them and rendering them incapable of infecting cells. In other words, the vesicles were acting as a kind of decoy. “Because the same receptors are on the vesicles as are on the cells, most of the viruses get bound to the vesicle and killed before they ever get to the cells,”…

It’s that backdrop of cases—rising to historic heights with no clear explanation why—that reinforces the alarm over scarlet fever now. The World Health Organization said last week that the health ministries of France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK have all reported further spikes in cases. On the same day, the UK Health Security Agency said the current cases are three times what they were at the same point during the 2017-18 spike. British news is full of reports of huge local case counts—35 times the…

Singh says a smart thermometer reading is particularly useful for people who have only mild symptoms and can be spared a visit to the doctor, as well as those who can’t access or afford medical care. That means the thermometers can catch people that health departments miss, and provide a more accurate picture of how a flu wave is building.University researchers collaborating with Kinsa employees have compared the company’s data with that of health departments to see how well they match, and to determine to what extent…

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser with the Washington, DC, think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, visited China in October. “When I was there, it seemed clear to me that, privately, officials understood they needed to exit zero-Covid, and that plans were in the works to do so that would be implemented after the 20th Party Congress,” he says. That took place later that month and cemented President Xi Jinping’s third term.In fact, China did relax some zero-Covid rules in early November, including softening…

Beginning in 2023, we won’t have Dr. Anthony Fauci to kick around any more. After 38 years in government service, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as the White House’s chief medical advisor, is leaving his jobs—don’t say “retiring”—and, at 82, is headed to his next adventure.It’s hard to imagine anything more adventurous than what he has been through in the past three pandemic years. The country—well, most of it—sympathized with his anguish as he tried to decode the…