infectious diseases

Third Leading Cause of Death in the US 2020 and 2021

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COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States between March 2020 and October 2021, according to an analysis of national death certificate data by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The study appears July 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

COVID-19 was third leading cause of death in the United States in both 2020 and 2021 — https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/covid-19-was-third-leading-cause-death-united-states-both-2020-2021 — “Leading Causes of Death in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 2020 to October 2021” appears July 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Two Omicron subvariants — BA.4 and BA.5 — are propelling the growth of COVID-19 infections this summer as they become the dominant coronavirus strains in the U.S.

These variants now make up 52.3% of infections, with BA.5 accounting for 36.6% of new cases and BA.4 accounting for 15.7% of new cases, according to the latest CDC data. The week before, the subvariants made up about 37.4% of cases…Although hospitalizations and deaths remain low compared to earlier Omicron waves, public health officials have warned about certain severe symptoms seen with the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, as well as the risk for ongoing health problems, particularly as people get reinfected again and again.

Two Omicron Subvariants Drive Summer Infections — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976560?src=rss

These novel subvariants carrying additional mutations in their spike proteins raise concerns that they may further evade neutralizing antibodies, thereby further compromising the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic monoclonals.

Antibody evasion by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants BA.2.12.1, BA.4, & BA.5 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05053-w

The Omicron sub-variant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen. It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility, well beyond Omicron (BA.1) and other Omicron family variants that we’ve seen (including BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, and BA.4). You could say it’s not so bad because there hasn’t been a marked rise in hospitalizations and deaths as we saw with Omicron, but that’s only because we had such a striking adverse impact from Omicron, for which there is at least some cross-immunity (BA.1 to BA.5). Here I will review (1) what we know about its biology; (2) its current status around the world; and (3) the ways we can defend against it.

The BA.5 story — https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-ba5-story

Be careful.

Can 2020 Get Any Worse? (si)

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Until now, there had been only one confirmed case of Chapare virus, an Ebola-like illness that turned up in the rural Bolivian province of Chapare in 2004 and then disappeared. But in 2019, at least five more people caught the bug, according to research now made public. The virus spread from person to person through bodily fluids in a region near Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz, killing three people. There are no active outbreaks of Chapare in 2020, and even in the event of further outbreaks the virus would be unlikely to cause a pandemic, according to virus experts.

There are reasons to be concerned about the news, however. Three of the five confirmed patients from the 2019 outbreak were health care workers, according to a CDC statement; a “young medical resident,” an ambulance medic and a gastroenterologist all contracted Chapare after contact with bodily fluids from infected patients. Two of them died.

Deadly hemorrhagic fever in Bolivia can spread between people — https://www.livescience.com/chapare-virus-human-transmission.htm

In my next life I want to come back as an Infectious Disease specialist.

ATTENTION Anti-Vaxxers – Measles Deaths Surge Worldwide

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Deaths due to measles increased 50% from 2016 to 2019, according to recent data from the World Health Organization and CDC that were highlighted in MMWR. In 2019, over 200,000 people died from the disease.

Measles Deaths Surge Worldwide — https://www.jwatch.org/fw117234/2020/11/15/measles-deaths-surge-worldwide

Measles is entirely preventable. And please don’t quote me the U.S. fatality statistics for measles. I am aware the U.S. numbers are very low. Don’t use this as a reason not to vaccinate your children.

COVID-19 – Your Daily Dose 03.11.20

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I’ve been reading a lot of COVID-19 news articles.  Here are a few of my favs.

In South Korea, public health officials screened about 100,000 people and detected over 7,300 cases. So far, the death toll is 50, which translates to a case-fatality rate of 0.7 percent. That’s still seven times worse than seasonal flu, but it’s far lower than the initial reports from China.

Most Important Coronavirus Question

 

Impact of the epidemic in the U.S.

Now that new COVID-19 cases are being detected in the U.S. every day, it is too late to stop the initial wave of infections. The epidemic is likely to spread across the U.S. The virus appears to be about as contagious as influenza. But this comparison is difficult to make since we have no immunity to the new coronavirus.

How big will the coronavirus pandemic be? An epidemiologist answers.

 

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is among those arguing hospitals need to change course.  “It’s just not sustainable to think that every time a health care worker is exposed they have to be quarantined for 14 days. We’d run out of health care workers,” Nuzzo said.

Self-quarantines will lead to health worker shortagesSelf-quarantines will lead to health worker shortages

 

Pink Slime – You Want Fries With That?

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Similar to a previous dissection they had performed on hot dogs, the researchers discovered waste and by-products including connective tissue, nerve tissue, cartilage, bone, and in a quarter of the samples, Sarcocystis parasites. But surely these “fillers” were the minority, right? Unfortunately not. After crunching the numbers, the researchers found that the amount of actual meat (muscle flesh) in the burgers ranged from 2.1 percent to 14.8 percent.

via Michael Greger, M.D.: Pink Slime: All About the Green.

Alltop Does H1N1

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Alltop – Top Swine Flu News

Alltop has developed a page devoted to H1N1 news.  I’ve added links under Public Health and Alltop on the sidebar.

As you probably already know, the “official” death toll from H1N1 in Mexico is considerably lower than the original counts.  Non-mainstream media outlets are reporting much higher numbers of fatalities than the “official” number from the WHO.  The question now is troubling – if H1N1 was not the cause, what did all of these people die from?

Possible Human to Pig 2009 H1N1 Infection

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Canada: Farmer possibly gave swine flu to pigs – CNN.com

I find it odd that the confirmed number of 2009 H1N1 cases being reported continues to trend downwards while the WHO continues to maintain its pandemic flu alert rating.  Even from the normal reliable sources, it is becoming increasing difficult to determine the truth.

CNN and other news outlets are reporting what may be a human to pig transmission of the 2009 H1N1.