Outbreak

Tanya Lewis: Monkeypox, a virus that was previously endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, is now spreading around the world. So what do we know about the outbreak so far? To find out, I talked to an expert who has been studying monkeypox for more than two decades. Anne Rimoin: At the beginning, we didn't have any surveillance. Now that people are looking for monkeypox, they'’re starting to find it. Lewis: The virus is thought to spread primarily through close contact—whether that’s skin-to-skin, through contact with…

Shares of casino companies with operations in the gambling enclave of Macau fell after city officials ordered all businesses aside from essential services to shut down for a week in an attempt to tamp down a Covid-19 outbreak. Las Vegas Sands Corp. LVS -6.31% , which owns several properties in Macau through its subsidiary Sands China, SCHYY -8.29% fell $2.17, or 6.3%, to $32.21 a…

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it will reconvene its monkeypox experts to decide if the worsening outbreak now constitutes a global public health emergency – the highest level of alert.  The UN health agency's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would hold a second meeting of the emergency committee on monkeypox, with more than 6,000 cases now confirmed in 58 countries.A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the…

It has been 3 months since the United Kingdom reported severe, unexplained hepatitis was sending young children to hospitals in unusual numbers. The initial handful of cases reported in Scotland on 31 March were soon joined by dozens and then hundreds, primarily from Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. As of 22 June, the global total, from 33 countries, has swollen to 920 probable cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on 24 June. The U.S. Centers for…

Mock-up vials labeled "Monkeypox vaccine" are seen in this illustration taken, May 25, 2022. Dado Ruvic | ReutersThe U.S. will deploy nearly 300,000 monekypox vaccine doses in the coming weeks in an effort to stamp out the growing outbreak of the virus.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people who have had confirmed or presumed monkeypox exposures get vaccinated against the virus. Vaccination should occur within two weeks of exposure to the virus but the sooner the better, according to the…

The monkeypox virus has mutated at a far faster rate than would normally be expected and likely underwent a period of "accelerated evolution," a new study suggests.The virus, which has infected more than 3,500 people in 48 countries since its detection outside Africa in May, may be more infectious due to dozens of new mutations. In all, the virus carries 50 new mutations not seen in previous strains detected from 2018 to 2019, according to a new study published June 24 in the journal Nature Medicine.  Scientists usually…

Ever since monkeypox started sickening thousands of people worldwide this spring, two big questions have loomed: Why is a virus that has never managed to spread beyond a few cases outside Africa suddenly causing such a big, global outbreak? And why are the overwhelming majority of those affected men who have sex with men (MSM)? A long history of work on sexually transmitted infections and early studies of the current outbreak suggest the answers may be linked: The virus may have…

The global investigation into the 2022 monkeypox outbreak is still in its early stages and public health teams are learning more each day as case counts grow.University of Chicago infectious disease expert answers common questions about Monkeypox.Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are tracking cases of monkeypox that have been reported in numerous countries that do not normally have the disease, including the United States.As of June 10, 2022, the CDC is reporting 1472 confirmed monkeypox…

Eleven days after being bitten by one of her pet prairie dogs, a 3-year-old girl in Wisconsin on 24 May 2003 became the first person outside of Africa to be diagnosed with monkeypox. Two months later, her parents and 69 other people in the United States had suspected or confirmed cases of this disease, which is caused by a relative of the much deadlier smallpox virus. The monkeypox virus is endemic in parts of Africa, and rodents imported from Ghana had apparently infected captive…

The health regulators of United States and Canada have come together to investigate a hepatitis outbreak that may be linked to fresh organic strawberries, releasing a joint weekend statement, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Public Health Agency of Canada said illnesses in Minnesota, California and Canada occurred after people consumed FreshKampo and H-E-B brand strawberries. “Currently, the potentially affected FreshKampo and HEB products are past shelf life.…