Plague

SEATTLE and LONDON (January 18, 2022) – Today the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome each pledged US$150 million for a total of US$300 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global partnership launched five years ago this week by the governments of Norway and India, the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and the World Economic Forum. The pledges come ahead of a global replenishment conference in March to support CEPI's visionary five-year plan to better prepare for, prevent, and equitably respond to future epidemics and pandemics. "As the world responds to the challenge of a rapidly evolving virus, the need to deliver new, lifesaving tools has never been more urgent," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. "Our work over the past 20 years has taught us that early investment in research and development can save lives and prevent worst-case scenarios. Five years ago, following the Ebola and Zika epidemics, our ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Oswego Health Expands Primary Care Services In Oswego    Oswego Daily News

Sept. 23, 2022 – People who wear reusable contact lenses are about four times more likely to get the sight-threatening eye infection acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) than people who wear daily disposable lenses, says a study published in the journal Ophthalmology. Researchers say contact lens wearers can easily reduce their risk by not wearing their lenses while swimming or in the shower. They also advise that stickers saying "No Water" be placed on contact lens packages. Health authorities have seen a rise in AK cases in the United Kingdom and Europe in recent years, the lead author for the study, John Dart of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said in a news release. The infection is rare but still deserves a public health response, he said. "Contact lenses are generally very safe but are associated with a small risk of microbial keratitis, most commonly caused by bacteria, and which is the only sight threatening complicatio...

By Reuters Staff 7 Min Read Correction 2: Reuters Fact Check team initially rated this claim as True, and later revised that to Partly True. After listening carefully to feedback from readers and reviewing the timeline of the Hong Kong flu pandemic that started in 1968, we are correcting this verdict to Misleading. Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt (Note – this fact check does not aim to compare the responses to the Hong Kong flu and the current COVID-19 outbreaks. It is strictly assessing the primary claim shared in social media posts that "Woodstock occurred in the middle of a pandemic". It does not attempt to verify or disprove the entire content of an article with that headline that was published on the website of the American Institute for Economic Research here ) Here is our updated fact check, which replaces the earlier versions and includes a response from one of the organisers of the Woodstock festival. -- Social media users have been sharing an image online t...

As Southwest Florida begins to recover from Hurricane Ian. We are working to collect essential information for Lee, Collier, Charlotte, DeSoto, Hendry, and Glades County FOR ANYONE LOOKING TO VOLUNTEER IN THE RECOVERY EFFORTS – VOLUNTEERFLORIDA.ORG COMCAST HAS OPENED FREE WIFI HOTSPOTS ALL SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: QUESTIONS REGARDING DEBRIS? – Contact the Hurricane Ian Debris Hotline at (800) 375-0844. All courts in the 20th Circuit will be closed through Thursday, September 29. This includes Lee County, Collier County, Charlotte County, Hendry County, and Glades County. All airlines at RSW have canceled their flights for Wednesday, Sept. 28. The airport will remain closed until further notice. For further information, visit your airline's website. The U.S. Postal Service has suspended delivery and retail operation in Southwest Florida due to Hurricane Ian's approach until further notice. LEE COUNTY – Lee County has executed a State of Local Eme...

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Leaders in Howard County have unveiled a major investment in expanded reproductive health services, committing $1 million in funding in a three-year-period to ensure that students at Howard Community College have improved access to care. "Reproductive health care has become weaponized across our country, especially since the repeal of Roe v. Wade. As county executive, I will continue to unequivocally support the right for women to use their own voices and make their own choices for their reproductive health care and family planning needs. The program we are announcing today will prioritize preventative reproductive care for women and increase healthcare services for all," Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said. Under a pilot program being established through a partnership between HCC and the Howard County Health Department, the expanded HCC clinic will be open longer hours, offer telemedicine services; a full complement of contraception; treatment of se...

Manufactured homes, property tax exemptions, selling municipal land—the potential solutions for addressing the nation's housing crisis are as varied as the challenges driving it.  But to ensure American households can access stable housing, local, state and federal officials need to rethink outdated approaches, experts said during a panel on Tuesday. They also emphasized how housing market difficulties extend beyond just a lack of affordable homes and are not confined to the nation's most expensive cities. "We can really see that it's not isolated to a particular socioeconomic class. It's not isolated to particular geographies. It's a broad spectrum," said Craig Parker, CEO of Holland Partner Group, a multifamily and mixed-use developer based on the West Coast. At a summit hosted by Up for Growth, an organization seeking to address the housing shortage, panelists discussed how to increase housing of all kinds—including supportive, affordable, midd...

September 20, 2022 Audit Report Number: A-15-21-51117 Objective : Our objectives were to summarize the results of prior audits and provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) recommendations to improve its financial management oversight of states' disability determination services (DDS).

Concerned about a bird flu outbreak, the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo has removed its birds from public viewing and canceled all bird interactions, including the popular flamingo feeding activity, until further notice. Avian influenza in wild birds and poultry is common in the U.S. but typically poses low risk to humans, according to the zoo's website. The outbreaks do pose a threat to local birds, however, and the zoo, located at 1451 Middlefield Road, is taking precautions to protect its feathered inhabitants. The current outbreak of avian influenza is highly pathogenic, according to a press release from Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. Four cases were detected in Canada geese and red-tailed hawks in Santa Clara County in August and early September. Avian influenza typically is restricted to aquatic birds. "This is primarily because of the watery habitat they enjoy, which assists in the spread of the virus," Matthew Dodder, executive director of Santa Clara Valley...

RICHFIELD, Minn. — Racked with nausea and unable to leave the bathroom, Acey Hofflander muttered in confusion. Her husband tried to press a damp washcloth against her neck, his hands trembling and weak from Parkinson's disease. "What's happening? What's going on?" Acey mumbled. Their roles had unexpectedly reversed. At 85, Acey is the healthy one, the organized, energetic caregiver for husband, Tom, 88. But when a grueling day of showering, dressing, feeding and transporting him to medical appointments pushed Acey beyond exhaustion in July, she wound up in the emergency room — a health crisis the Hofflanders blame in large part on a lack of professional, in-home care. Amid a national shortage of home-care workers that deepened during the covid-19 pandemic, the couple spent much of this year on a private agency list waiting to be assigned a professional home-care aide. But over four months, from April to August, no aides were available, leaving Acey to carry the lo...

The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division is sending this notice to all participants in the Child Nutrition Programs located in Madera, Modoc, and Siskiyou Counties in response to an emergency proclamation issued on September 19, 2022, by Governor Gavin Newsom regarding the Fork, Barnes, and Mountain Fires. SACRAMENTO –Governor Gavin Newsom signed an emergency proclamation to support communities recovering from several fires that started during the recent extreme heat wave, which brought record high temperatures and exacerbated drought conditions, dry fuels and the intensity and spread of fire. Guidelines on Disaster Relief For information on Governor Newsom's emergency proclamation, please refer to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom web page . For information on the CDE Disaster Relief Guidelines, please refer to the CDE Disaster Relief Guidelines web page. For information on disaster assistance and resources in California,...

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. William Shakespeare. Just his name terrifies many. But does it have to? For me, Shakespeare is about taking risks. Having the courage to leave the safety of your bubble. Chasing a dream. Cliché, right? But studying theater and Shakespeare — arguably one of the most famous playwrights in the English language — has led me around the world. Athens. Rio de Janeiro. Glasgow. London. And more. In Greece, I created street "guerilla theater" based on Shakespeare's works. In Brazil, I created new works devised from Shakespeare's plays. In Scotland, I got my master's in classical and contemporary text from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where I learned theater directing. In England, I walked the boards at London's Globe theater, the famous Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare wor...

NewsDesk  @bactiman63 The Mongolia Ministry of Health in Ulaanbaatar posted on their Facebook page Monday (computer translated): Image/Mongolia MOH On September 12, 2022, a citizen from Khovd Province, developed symptoms of fever and diarrhea after hunting and cooking marmot with a trap, and went to the provincial health center. The emergency call team of Khovd province's HCPC took a sample from the patient and performed laboratory tests. Molecular biology, bacteriological analysis, and clinical and epidemiology tests confirmed that the patient had a severe case of bubonic plague. The Center for the Study of Zoonotic Diseases is working together to respond quickly to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Therefore, citizens should follow the following recommendations to prevent plague. Plague is an infectious  disease  caused by the bacterium,  Yersinia pestis . It is found in animals throughout the world, mo...

Here are eight studies on infection control that Becker's has covered since July 12:  1. Smaller community hospitals have been most affected by the COVID-19-related uptick in healthcare-associated infections, a study published Aug. 23 in Clinical Infectious Diseases found. 2. The prevalence of Clostridioides difficile infections decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but inpatient mortality and treatment costs went up, a study published Aug. 25 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases found. 3. Standard surgical masks do not fully seal around a person's face, allowing for more participle exposure. But simply adding two rubber bands may improve the seal and offer N95 respirator-level protection, according to researchers at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor.  4. Misuse of gloves may have increased rates of hospital-acquired infections during COVID-19, a report published Aug. 29 in Nursing Times found. 5. A study of more than 2,900 healthcare workers in Switze...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] 'It's not just Portland': How high standards for forced mental health care affect care in rural Oregon    KGW.com

An epidemic is defined by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a sudden increase in the number of cases of an infectious disease within a community or geographic area during a specific time period. A spike in the number of cases of the same illness in an area beyond what health officials expect to see is an outbreak. The terms may be used interchangeably, though epidemics are often considered more widespread. Over the years, many outbreaks of infectious diseases have occurred and spread across the United States. Smallpox came to North America in the 1600s. Symptoms included high fever, chills, severe back pain, and rashes. It began in the Northeast and the Native American population was ravaged by it as it spread to the west. In 1721, more than 6,000 cases were reported out of a Boston population of 11,000. Around 850 people died from the disease. In 1770, Edward Jenner developed a vaccine from cow pox. It helps the body become immune to smallpox without causing the ...