US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention •

US lawmaker seeks congressional intervention in ‘superbug’ outbreak

At a time when a “superbug” outbreak is playing havoc in country, an American lawmaker on Monday sought Congress to initiate a probe into the medical scopes that are being blamed for triggering the bacterial menace at a University of California, Los Angeles hospital, infecting seven patients.

Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, wrote a letter to Congress asking for a congressional oversight committee hearing that the drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) outbreak is posing serious risks on “both health and national security” fronts.

In a letter to Congress, Lieu wrote, “A superbug infection can kill not only the patient who was exposed to a tainted duodenoscope but also family members, friends and hospital staff who interacted with the patient. If unmitigated, the human and societal costs of CRE outbreaks will continue to rise.”

The hospitals and medical centers across the US have reported similar exposures from the same type of medical equipment in the recent times.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), its experts have been working with other government agencies and scope manufacturers in order to keep a tab on the bacterial outbreak and lower the risks to patients.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finalizing a set of guidelines for the prevention of medical devices that are leading to the transmission of potentially fatal “superbugs”. The federal agency has developed a new protocol for the reusable clinical devices called duodenoscopes, which has played a crucial role in the transmission of infections since 2013.

The devices were found responsible for transmitting antibiotic-resistant bacteria to seven patients at a hospital in University of California, Los Angeles. So far, the infection has claimed lives of two infected people.

CDC confirms one death in Kansas linked to new tick-borne virus

By Leave a Comment

A Kansas man died after getting infected from a newly discovered type of virus, according to the US health officials.

The health officials said that the man fell sick after he was bitten by a tick. Some of the symptoms shown by the man included weakness, nausea and diarrhea.

The man reportedly told the doctors that he was bitten an engorged tick which he spotted on his shoulder some days before he fall sick.

According to the health department officials, the man died 11 days after being contracted the virus.

The man was diagnosed with low counts of different blood cell types due to unhealthy suppression of bone marrow, as per the doctors.

The doctors who were administering the man initially prescribed him antibiotic doxycycline, but he showed no signs of improvement and his health condition continued to deteriorate further due to loss of appetite and high fever.

The organ failure further aggravated the man’s health condition, leading to his death 11 days after being admitted to the hospital, said the health officials.

The health experts at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the newly discovered virus belongs to a family of germs known as Thogotoviruses. The medical experts say the virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.

Meanwhile, the researchers said that a team of experts will be working in the laboratory to gain close insight into the newly spotted virus.

The virus has been named Bourbon virus after Kansas county, where the infected man had lived.

Illinois reports five confirmed cases of babies infected with measles

By Leave a Comment

The Illinois health officials on Thursday confirmed five cases of babies diagnosed with measles at a suburban Chicago daycare center, adding to the concerns over the rising outbreak of the contagious disease across the United States.

In a statement, the Illinois and Cook County health departments said that the health officials are looking into the cluster of measles cases at Palatine-based KinderCare Learning Center.

Among the infected are children under one- year-old. As the dose of vaccine begins at 12 months, hence all the infants have not been subject to routine measles vaccination.

The health officials, however, not provided details over the source of the infection.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, in a statement said, “These cases underscore the need for everyone who is eligible for the vaccine to ensure that they have been vaccinated. There are certain individuals who, because of their age or clinical condition, cannot be vaccinated.”

Illinois had recently diagnosed an adult with measles. The health officials said that the diagnoses for the adult and two of the five babies were confirmed through lab testing. On the other hand, the test results for the other three cases are still pending. However, they have been diagnosed on the basis of clinical and epidemiological factors.

More than 100 cases of measles have been reported across the United States, with many traced to an outbreak linked to the visit of an infected foreign national to Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, in December last year.

The highly contagious respiratory disease, Measles, can have the symptoms like red and sore eyes, fever, cough, runny nose and skin rashes. It can be fatal in some cases when the immune system is very weak.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report shows 644 cases of measles were reported from 27 states in 2014, which is the most since 2000.

Secondhand smoke still a death threat to 58 million Americans: CDC

By Leave a Comment

A new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has showed that a shocking 58 million nonsmokers are still facing the brunt of cigarette smoking after getting exposed to secondhand smoke.

The federal health officials on Tuesday said that even though fewer people in the United States are smoking due to more smoke-free laws, a large number of people are exposed to the dangerous tobacco smoke due to secondhand smoking.

According to a report, the exposure to secondhand smoke declined by half between the periods 1999-2000 and 2011-12, but despite this fact the nonsmokers continued to face the ill-effects of passive smoking in large numbers.

Addressing a midday press conference, CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said, “Secondhand smoke can kill, and too many Americans — and particularly too many children — are still exposed to secondhand smoke.”

40 percent of children between age group 3 and 11 are breathing in secondhand smoke and the figure is high among black children, i.e. 70 percent, as per the latest CDC estimates.

“There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals including about 70 that can cause cancer,” Frieden said while citing the US Surgeon General.

The effect of secondhand smoke on infants and children is linked to serious health issues like sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory infections, asthma attacks and ear infections. On the other hand, passive smoke causes stroke, heart disease and lung cancer in adult nonsmokers.

Secondhand smoke claims lives of more than 41,000 Americans each year from diseases like lung cancer and heart-related ailment, while it results into 400 preventable deaths from SIDS.

The study’s findings were published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on February 3.

US study finds no link between big city life and high asthma risk in kids

By Leave a Comment

A new study has found that the development of asthma in children living in metropolitans or big cities is not just related to the fact that they have taken birth or grown up in a big city.

The latest study has provided contradictory findings from the decade-old assumptions on the so-called inner city asthma epidemic.

The researchers at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University found that being black, poor or Puerto Rican are the most crucial factors that determine a child’s risk of developing the breathing problem such as asthma.

Dr. Corinne Keet, an asthma and pediatric allergy specialist at Johns Hopkins, said, “Our findings highlight the changing face of pediatric asthma and also suggest that living in an urban area is, by itself, not a risk factor for asthma.”

According to Keet, this is a fact that previous studies have looked at rates of asthma among children within specific cities, but none of them has compared asthma rates in inner city areas countrywide, or even took the comparative analysis of asthma rates compares with other types of communities.

For the new study, the researchers collected national survey data from 2009 to 2011 on over 23,000 children between age group six and 17. The team of researchers looked at asthma rates based on population figures and factors like race, income and ethnicity.

The researchers discovered no statistically important difference in the asthma rates between children in inner-city and those living elsewhere.

It was found that children who were black (17 percent) or Puerto Rican (20 percent) developed far higher asthma rates in comparison to Asian children (8 percent), Hispanic children (9 percent) and white children (10 percent).

The study team also found wide difference by geographical factors, with 17 percent of children from Northeastern cities having asthma compared to the eight percent living in western states.

The study did not considered those factors that have any influence on the severity of asthma, which could be more prevalent in big cities, according to the authors. Researchers said that will be taken as a subject of a follow-on study.

The report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown that the asthma disease affects 6.8 million children in the United States.

The study’s findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology on Tuesday.

CDC cautions against widespread flu activity as 29 states show symptoms

By Leave a Comment

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has cautioned against a widespread flu activity across 29 states, mainly in the South and Midwest.

According to the CDC officials, the flu season is going to be more dangerous this time as number of affected states is just twice as many as reported in the previous week.

Among the most affected this time are children and elderly. Most of the hospitalized patients with severe cases of flu are either very young or the very old.

Due to the severe health conditions created following the flu outbreaks, the authorities have announced shut down of schools in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio.

So far this season, the virus has claimed lives of 11 children.

“There’s almost like a Christmas tree right in the middle of the country of the hot spots for disease,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said while elaborating upon the pattern of this year’s flu outbreak.

According to CDC officials, 13 states have reported high levels of influenza-like illnesses and another six states have witnessed moderate activity.

Health experts said that this time the flu problem is more severe as vaccines for this year doesn’t provide protection against H3N2, the most dangerous strain of the influenza making the rounds.

However, the vaccine for this year does help protect against one or two strains of influenza B and H1N1.

The CDC has earlier this month issued a health advisory saying that only 48 percent of flu virus samples taken through in November were closely associated with this year’s vaccine.

“Because the H3N2 is dominating, we probably will see more disease. There might be reduced protection as opposed to zero protection,” said Schuchat.

Meanwhile, the health experts at CDC and others strictly recommend all the people, especially high risk group including children, pregnant women and elderly, to get the flu shots and proper vaccination.

US Listeriosis outbreak: 4 dead, 28 sickened after eating caramel apples

By Leave a Comment

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday said that four people were killed and 28 sickened due to contaminated prepackaged caramel apples, triggering a listeriosis outbreak.

Asking the public to remain cautious as the death toll is likely to rise, the CDC officials issued a health advisory against buying or eating any caramel apples.

The agency in association with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state health departments has launched an investigation into the outbreak.

Caused by the bacterium listeria monocytogenes, Listeriosis mostly affects people with weak or compromised immune systems, including pregnant women and elderly.

Some of the common symptoms include fever, stomach problems and muscle aching. Listeriosis also put the affected people at great risk of developing bacterial meningitis and encephalitis.

According to Dr. Willia Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical School, the incubation period of the infection can be as long as 70 days.

Schaffner says this clearly indicates that the death toll as well as number of sickened people who may have eaten contaminated caramel apples and have not yet shown the symptoms is likely to rise.

“We can anticipate that more illnesses will occur over time,” he noted.

The CDC report suggested that the cases of listeriosis have been reported in 10 states nationwide. Minnesota reported the first case which four people getting sickened and death of two, all after consuming the contaminated caramel apples.

According to the CDC officials who are investigating the outbreak, they have interviewed 18 infected people and found 15 to have consumed caramel apples.

The investigators said that the caramel apples prepared at home appeared to be safe and the fatal outbreak is unlikely to be linked with involvement of fresh fruit.

Only 3 out of 10 Americans take regular anti-HIV medication

A new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that only 30 percent of people living in the country with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are very consistent in keeping a check on their virus, while a huge percentage are unaware about their exact disease status, putting others at high infection risk.

According to the CDC report, 840,000 of the 1.2 million people infected with HIV in the year 2011 were found very irregular in taking the anti-HIV medications responsible for suppressing the virus at very low levels.

Of the 840,000 infected people, 66 percent had also been diagnosed with the HIV infection. But the infected population was not getting regular care. Another 20 percent were not aware of their HIV status, while 10 percent were recommended anti-HIV drugs called antiretroviral treatment (but they failed to get the virus under control). The remaining four percent were under the doctor’s care, but they were not prescribed any anti-HIV drugs.

Previous studies have strongly suggested that viral suppression can help in lowering the risk of infection transmission by as much as 96 percent and most importantly, it allows extension of the lives of people infected with the deadly virus.

The percentage of HIV-infected Americans, who achieved viral suppression remained in roughly stable condition, with 30 percent of them achieving that target in 2011. It was just 26 percent in 2009.

According to the report, the most inconsistent group in keeping check on virus was those of the youths. Only 13 percent of people between 18 and 24 years achieved viral suppression goal in 2011 as compared to 23 percent in age group 25-34 years. Rest of the age group who had successfully suppressed their virus levels are: 27 percent in 35-44 age group, 34 percent in 45-54 age group, 36 percent in 55-64 age group and 37 percent of those aged 65 and above.

Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, said, “There is untapped potential to drive down the epidemic through improved testing and treatment, but we’re missing too many opportunities.”

A CDC report shows as many as 50,000 Americans get HIV infection each year.

Categories