Contagious Disease

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that although the Wuhan coronavirus has caused an epidemic in China, it is not yet a public health emergency on the international scale; however, this is not to a sign that the WHO is not taking this seriously. There have been several hundred confirmed…

The main trigger of the deadly respiratory illness (Coronavirus) in China is said to have originated from snakes, more specifically, the Chinese cobra and the Chinese krait. This type of virus is transmitted primarily through the air and primarily affects the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal…

The Wuhan coronavirus is believed to have started in a food market. There have been over 50 fatalities, and over 1,900 confirmed cases of the disease in 11 different countries. Canada has now reported its first case of the virus, and all that were in contact with the man in Toronto are being…

The second-worst Ebola outbreak in human history started in the summer of 2018 and is still going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Health workers have faced significant difficulties that have made outbreak response particularly difficult in this outbreak: the inability to…

As the coronavirus has killed 17 people and continues to spread throughout Asia and across the globe, Wuhan will be temporarily terminating public transportation. The Chinese government has confirmed that the virus can spread by human-to-human contact, increasing the possibility of greater…

China is facing a challenge as a new coronavirus is spreading as hundreds of millions of people are planning to travel for the Lunar New Year, which consists of a large human migration and is the most important Chinese holiday. It was first identified in Wuhan, China. The virus has infected 300…

An unusually large amount of young children in the U.S. are currently experiencing cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. While the virus causes cold-like symptoms, it can be very serious for infants. For more information, click here. 

In the last week of 2019, from Christmas Day to New Years, eight Californians died from the flu. In 2019, government health officials reported that the flu caused at least 6.4 million illnesses, 55,000 hospitalizations, and about 3,000 deaths. However, prior to December 21, the CDC reported…

On December 19th, the FDA approved an Ebola vaccine, Ervebo, developed by Merck. It is the first Ebola vaccine approved in the United States. The vaccine protects against the most common species to cause the Ebola outbreaks, Zaire ebolavirus. Dr. Peter Marka, director of the FDA’s Center for…

Everyday between 300 and 500 babies in Sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV according to UNAID. Up to 50% of these children will die by the age of 2 if they do not receive antiretroviral therapy, with infants infected in utero facing the worst outcomes. New research suggests that HIV-positive…

The current Ebola outbreak happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been specifically exacerbated by the civil unrest surrounding the outbreak areas interfering with the outbreak efforts. For example, there is a current vaccine for Ebola that is being used to slow the spread of…

-- AP News Reports from Nigeria, Congo, Central African Republic, and Angola state that they have linked more cases of polio in children from the oral vaccine than from the wild virus. There are two countries where polio is still endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan. The WHO report found that the…

Two new studies have shown that other than being a deadly disease itself, the measles virus has the power to inflict damage on the victim’s immune system even after it has been cured. This happens because the virus kills cells that make antibodies, which are essential for the immune system to…

October 24th is World Polio Day. Even though the number of Polio cases has been reduced through eradication efforts to the last 1%, there are specific challenges to address in complete eradication. Several professors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine answer questions about…