Category: Disease Investigation
Keeping Cool Under Pressure: NYC Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak, Summer 2015
In the summertime when the weather is hot, having air conditioning to help keep you cool can be a sweet relief. Have you ever felt a fine mist when walking past large buildings in the heat of the summer? That mist may have been water droplets from rooftop cooling towers that keep large air conditioning systems―like those found in hotels―running efficiently, even when temperatures are soaring outside. When these cooling towers are not properly maintained, they can become a home for Legionella bacteria Read More >
Posted on by 7 CommentsUnveiling the Burden of Dengue in Africa
Most travelers to Africa know to protect themselves from malaria. But malaria is far from the only mosquito-borne disease in Africa. Recent studies have revealed that dengue, a disease that is well recognized in Asia and the Americas, may be commonly misdiagnosed as malaria in Africa. Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsCDC Offers Hope in Fighting Brain-Eating Ameba
By Sioux Henley Campbell Fighting Brain-Eating Ameba [i] It sits in a blister pack, secured in a nondescript office at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), just a few phone calls away from being flown to a patient’s bedside for emergency treatment. Miltefosine is one of several drugs used to treat rare[ii] diseases that the Read More >
Posted on by 10 CommentsThe Anatomy of an HIV Outbreak Response in a Rural Community
In a small, rural town in Southern Indiana, a public health crisis emerges. In a community that normally sees fewer than five new HIV diagnoses a year, more than a hundred new cases are diagnosed and almost all are coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). How was this outbreak discovered, and what caused this widespread Read More >
Posted on by 9 CommentsClarity on Cholesterol Management and Why We Need It
By Jennifer Robinson, MD, MPH In the winter of 2013, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released new guidelines for treating blood cholesterol. These new guidelines, which I helped draft, moved away from focusing on a patient’s blood cholesterol level and, instead, put a focus on a patient’s risk for atherosclerotic Read More >
Posted on by 21 CommentsAn Unsuspected Treat Contaminated with Listeria. How about them Caramel Apples?
By Mandip Kaur and Brendan Jackson Oh, how sweet it is to enjoy a caramel apple when autumn sweeps in! Maybe you like yours topped with nuts? Sprinkles? How about chocolate? But who knew that this past fall, certain caramel apples would be contaminated with the dangerous Listeria monocytogenes bacteria (here, Listeria for short), and Read More >
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