Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Page 18

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has announced it is investigating fourteen cases of sexually transmitted Zika in the United States.

Doctors have found the Zika virus in areas of the body protected from the immune system, such as seminal fluid, fetal brain tissue, and the placenta.

An American researcher, who identified the Zika virus as a potential threat in 2009, tells the journal Wired that it would have been impossible to attain funding to research Zika exclusively five years ago, as few believed it had the potential to cause an outbreak as large as that currently underway in Latin America.

The White House has asked Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to combat the spread of Zika, funding programs to study the virus and control the mosquitoes that spread it, both at home and abroad.

Alleged ties between the Zika virus and increased numbers of cases of microcephaly in Brazilian babies may be due more to hype and hysteria than serious science, according to a recent analysis of the data involved. The notion of a

The threat the Zika virus poses to Americans is more serious than the federal government claims, according to at least one mosquito expert.

The responsibility for protecting our communities in Texas from the Zika virus is local and municipal, say mosquito experts. The problem is that poorer areas do not have the expertise or the manpower because of their low tax base. Texas counties without formal mosquito districts or like services are ill-equipped to address Zika virus concerns.

The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is providing Department of Defense (DOD) personnel with guidance for personal protective measures in response to the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak in its area of operation (AOR).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Department of Defense (DOD) experts will support the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in its fight against the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the Americas, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters.

A study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds a fourfold increase in the risk of genital mutilation among girls less than 18 years of age in the United States – and a threefold increase in other girls and women in the U.S. – due to the rise in immigrants from countries where the ritual is practiced.

Doctors have long worried about the evolution of a disease that would defeat antibiotic treatments. There are now two such “superbugs” on the medical radar screen, and one of them is spreading through the United States.

According to an interview with the head of the Kurdish Red Crescent at Rudaw, the latest horror unleashed by the Islamic State is a plague of flesh-eating bacteria, spreading rapidly through rural Syria due to the jihadis’ habit of littering the streets with corpses.

Chikungunya is an infection caused by the chikungunya virus.

A patient with Ebola-like symptoms was seen at the Veterans Affairs emergency room in Dallas this past Thanksgiving weekend. Hospital officials have reportedly ruled out the deadly virus.

Young people aged 15-24 years develop half of all new sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), says a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Potentially deadly insects known as “kissing bugs” have invaded the entire southern half of the United States–including California.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds the proportion of high school seniors who smoke marijuana is higher than the proportion that smokes cigarettes.

From 1981 to 2013 the U.S. added 195 million privately owned firearms and the firearm-related suicide rate fell by five percent.

An unusual resurgence of the plague in the United States this year has left three dead and eight others sickened across six states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Human Plague has stricken a California child after a visit to Yosemite National park in July. The child was hospitalized and is recovering.

School is out for summer but one Texas border city’s health officials called 163 elementary schoolchildren back into the classroom for testing following possible tuberculosis (TB) exposure.

The Hispanic population in the coming two decades is projected to reach 84,543,000, or 22.8 percent of the population, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently the Hispanic population makes up 17 percent of the U.S. population at 56,754,000.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) final report on death statistics for 2013 shows there were 35,369 deaths from motor vehicle accidents versus 505 deaths from the accidental discharge of firearms.

Moms fighting vaccine mandate bill SB277 in the California legislature may have found an ally with the state’s branch of the ACLU given that both question its constitutionality. Moms, some with children, journeyed again to Sacramento on Wednesday to protest the bill

Bluebell Creameries shut down its Broken Arrow operations after continuing problems relating to the listeria bacteria. The move from the 108-year-old Texas ice cream maker comes after products that are produced in the Oklahoma facility tested positive for the potentially deadly bacteria. The warning from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Friday night advised consumers against eating “Any Blue Bell Creameries product manufactured in the company’s Oklahoma facility.”

The measles outbreak has provoked California lawmakers to back legislation that would reduce personal belief exemptions for some or all required school vaccinations–but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wants them to reconsider.

In the midst of the Disneyland measles outbreak, California legislators have been decrying the number of under-vaccinated children in schools in a push for legislation that would strip parents of the right to choose whether to vaccinate their children. However, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) statistics show that “personal belief” exemptions account for only 2.54% of under-vaccinated California school children.

Three more cases of measles have popped up in California since Monday, according to California Department of Public Health numbers released Wednesday–an increase after a hopeful weekend of no new cases. There has been a slowdown in new cases connected to the Disneyland outbreak, while passage of a California bill seeking to reduce parents’ options to exempt their school-age children from required vaccines has become more likely.

Between multiple public health agencies from the U.S. and Canada, at least 147 cases of measles have been documented between December 28, 2014 and February 19, 2015 in an outbreak that is believed to have started at California’s Disneyland theme park in mid-December. The outbreak has expanded to six other states, plus Mexico and Canada.

Measles continues to spread internationally, with ten cases now appearing in Quebec, Canada connected to a California outbreak, according to a Feb. 11 report by the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Agency for Health and Social Services of Lanaudière.

Four-month-old baby Mobius Loop is up to date on American Academy of Pediatrics recommended vaccinations, but at his tender age, it’s too early for his measles shot. It was during a January 18 family trip to Disneyland that Baby Mobius is believed to have contracted the highly contagious measles disease–and his mother posted her “mixed feelings” online.

Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theater hosted the timely red carpet premiere of the anti-vaccine film Trace Amounts on Wednesday evening.The film challenges the safety of vaccines that may contain the potentially harmful preservative thimerosal. The film’s release comes in the middle of a measles outbreak that has put the debate over childhood vaccinations in the national spotlight.

Since the Disneyland measles outbreak began in December, public health officials have called upon parents to vaccinate to vaccinate their under-immunized children and for adults to obtain a booster shot to protect against the disease. Since then, the coastal, liberal enclave of Santa Cruz has seen a significant uptick in vaccination appointments, according to local news station KSBW and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Thursday’s suspected Ebola patient, who was monitored at UC Davis Medical Center Sacramento, tested negative for the virus in results released Friday morning, according to officials from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services, and the medical center.

California and California-related cases of the measles now total 87, excluding any outside the state that have no known link to the December Magic Kingdom outbreak. California Department of Public Health officials have updated the known extent of the spread that now spans seven states and Mexico.

Public health officials are raising their measles intervention alert, urging adults to consider a measles vaccine booster as California now reports 59 cases of the disease.