Disease

Lassa Fever is endemic in Liberia and has continued to spread throughout the country. On January 9, 2018, a patient from Guinea with a fever, neck pain, and body pain was admitted to a local hospital and passed away two days later due to an infection with Lassa Fever. Between January 1, 2017, and…

On February 14, 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of an individual infected with Avian influenzaH7N4. This marks the first reported human infection nationwide. The 68-year-old female who was infected had a preexisting history of heart disease and hypertension and was…

According to this Science Daily article, a new and faster Zika virus diagnostic test is being developed. This new method will test a patient’s saliva rather than blood, which will allow a diagnosis to be made within minutes. While the virus is not detectable in blood after a couple of weeks, it…

Donald G. McNeil Jr.- Around 615 cases of Lassa fever have been reported across 17 different states in Nigeria during recent weeks. Lassa fever is a viral disease acquired by food contamination from infected rodent’s feces and urine. Though usually resulting in mild symptoms, the disease can be…

The San Diego Union-Tribune: In the beginning of 2017, San Diego faced one of the largest hepatitis A outbreak in decades. On September 19th, over 27,000 people were vaccinated in hopes of preventing the spread of the hepatitis outbreak that began in March. One week later, over 52,000 individuals…

Washington Post According to US government officials, the CDC is cutting back on preventing global disease due to fund shortages in 39 out of 49 countries. Most of the funding for the CDC comes from a one-time emergency package approved by Congress. In 2014, 600 million dollars was provided and…

By Thursday night, there were 128 cases of norovirus reported at Pyeongchang, the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics. A spokesman for South Korea's Center for Disease Control and Prevention has tried to calm the growing worry among competitors, but he has stressed the importance of proactive personal…

BBC News- Vaccination rates in the Philippines have decreased recently due to the controversy surrounding the vaccine Dengvaxia, which is a vaccine created by Sanofi-Pasteur to combat dengue fever. Over the course of 2016-2017, about 800,000 children received the vaccine in the…

 Image Above: An officer standing guard near the Lactalis factory in Craon, France, last month while investigators were on the premises. Credit: Damien Meyer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images As reported by Liz Alderman in The New York Times: The French dairy brand "Lactalis" recalled 7,000…

Above image: A colored electron micrograph showing colon tissue with cancer in yellow, blood cells in red, mucus in blue and bacteria in light green. A study links colon cancer with two types of bacteria, which may fuel the growth of tumors. Credit: Eye of Science/Science Source As reported by…

NBC News: This season’s flu has killed a few dozen children and thousands of adults, making the flu very relevant in the news. The message across the board has been and still is that everyone who can should get vaccinated. Recently there’s been higher demand than usual for the flu shot due to the…

Zahid Mahmood — CNN Scientists from Australia and Japan have conducted a study and found a way to detect early onset signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that deteriorates one’s brain, while impairing memory and cognitive functions. They have created a blood test to find…

Sabrina Barr — INDEPENDENT Tammy Dugas, a professor from the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, claims to have found an antioxidant in red wine that could help individuals who suffer from heart disease. She does not…

In September of 2017, Nigeria saw a widespread yellow fever outbreak that took the lives of 45 and infected over 358 individuals. As a result, the Nigerian government and the World Health Organization (WHO) began a campaign on January 25th, 2018 with the goal of vaccinating 25 million individuals by…