Outbreak - Page 2

Texas public health officials issued an advisory this week following a spike in the number of cases of a parasitic foodborne intestinal illness often linked to the consumption of imported produce tainted with human fecal matter.

Two years after a large Measles outbreak broke out at Disneyland in Southern California and spread internationally, an outbreak of the disease is back with nine confirmed cases in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

Japanese authorities have warned of a possible measles outbreak after a fan who went to a Justin Bieber concert near Tokyo was diagnosed with the contagious disease, officials said Friday.

Three more cases of Zika virus transmission have been reported from the outbreak area in northern Miami, making a total of 25 cases reported to date.

Thirty-five cases of the Zika Virus have been reported in Texas but the virus is expected to spread in the Lone Star State during mosquito season. The threat is especially likely near the Texas-Mexico border and along the Gulf Coast.

The government of Guinea has confirmed four cases of Ebola and two deaths, the first in months following the official conclusion of the 2014 outbreak in that country that took the lives of over 11,000 people.

As Brazil struggles to contain the Zika virus in what has now become a pandemic, the nation officially begins its annual Carnival. Despite experts deeming the scantily clad nationwide block party an “explosive cocktail” for a mosquito-borne illness, thousands are expected to flood the streets of the nation’s biggest cities and have a good time.

There have not been any cases of the Zika pandemic reported in India yet, but health authorities are nervous for several reasons, not least of which is that India has already dealt with Zika in the past, logging some of the oldest known cases of infection.

Brazil authorities ordered health workers to sterilize Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome, which will serve as the center of the 2016 Summer Olympics, over the fear of the Zika virus.

More than 3,000 infants in Brazil have been diagnosed with brain deformities believed to have been triggered by the Zika virus, a disease similar to dengue fever that has become increasingly common as the Southern Hemisphere’s summer wears on.

Vaccination rates seem to be rising in California on their own–long before the state’s controversial new mandatory vaccination law takes effect in July 2016.

California health officials announced this week that the state is seeing a excessive uptick in the number of “winter vomiting disease” or norovirus cases from prior years.

On Thursday, the California State Assembly passed the SB 277, which mandates child vaccinations as a condition of private and public school enrollment, by a vote of 46-30. Democrats and Republicans were divided within their own parties over the bill, which ultimately passed with bipartisan support. Due to amendments, however, the bill was immediately ordered back to the State Senate, where it previously passed.

San Diego cases of tuberculosis are double the national average health officials say, raising again the question of the role of illegal immigration in the spread of very serious like tuberculosis (TB) in the United States.

Parents and kids showed up in droves at the California Democratic Convention Saturday for a protest against SB 277 and other legislation.

As of April 17, 2015, California’s Department of Public Health has declared the outbreak of measles that began in Disneyland last December officially over. But that isn’t stopping Democrat California legislators from pressing on with the vaccine legislation that broke out along with the measles.

California’s hotly-debated vaccinate mandate, Senate Bill 277, has been delayed just in time for the anticipated official April 17 end to the measles outbreak that began spreading at Disneyland last December and that inspired two Democrat State Senators, Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen, to propose the bill. The new legislation would strip parents’ ability to exempt their children from one or more of the 27 doses of vaccine required for K-12 students.

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.

Health officials report four cases of measles linked to a restaurant at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, where a staff member listed as “under-immunized” appears to have infected two other Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House staff members and a patrol.

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.

Furious debate has circled around the issue of parents vaccinating children since an outbreak began at Disneyland in mid-December last year. Whether or not teachers and school staff should be required to be vaccinated (again, in most cases), however, is a different story. Even records for those that are vaccinated have been found to be far out of date in some cases.

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.

Measles isn’t the only disease infiltrating the immune systems of Californians. Whooping cough is back, rising through 2014 and highlighting the diminishing effectiveness of the childhood vaccine. In response, public health officials are encouraging booster shots in adults and older children.

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.

Disney stockholders can breathe a little bit easier. On Tuesday, CEO Bob Iger said that attendance at Disneyland theme parks in California has not been affected in the wake of a measles outbreak that is thought to have originated at the parks.

SAN DIEGO — Measles continues to sweep California, seeping into six other states and Mexico after an outbreak began mid-December at Disneyland, re-igniting controversy over parents under-vaccinating their children.

A new case of measles caused the shutdown of a Santa Monica High School day care center Monday after one of its infant attendees was diagnosed the disease. The current outbreak began in California’s Disneyland theme park with 74 of the 107 recent cases linked to the Magic Kingdom point of origin.

More measles cases are appearing by the day in an outbreak that began mid-December in the traveler-magnet Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, California. In numbers updated Friday, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) reports 91 cases confirmed within California and has reported 16 outside the state for a total 107 measles-infected persons.

The measles outbreak continues to spread in California and beyond, with a case confirmed Wednesday in Fresno County. Fresno health officials say the man visited the area recently and may have had contact with county residents in public locations, including an area medical center and its maternity ward, potentially exposing babies to the extremely contagious disease.

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.

A Costco location in Gilroy, California is one of the latest sites exposed to the measles outbreak that began at Disneyland in mid-December. A measles-infected shopper visited the store while contagious, according to a Santa Clara County health official and NBC News Bay Area.

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.

A study of California’s Bay area and Sonoma County suggests that the most under-vaccinated children in California are the very poor–and the very smart.

An outbreak of measles thought to have originated in Anaheim’s Disneyland amusement park earlier this week has now expanded throughout Southern California, with 45 cases now confirmed in the state and an additional six cases confirmed in three other states and Mexico.

Five deaths have been reported out of 29 Listeria-related illnesses in the United States in a recent outbreak that has been linked to Happy Apple Brand Caramel Apples produced out of Orosi, California and Union, Missouri. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, “Listeria can cause a serious, life-threatening illness.”