Doctors are weighing in on a drug described as 50 to 60 times more powerful than fentanyl, which is known on the streets as “ISO.” This drug was recently seized in a drug bust in West Palm Beach, and medical professionals are warning the public about its dangers.

An internal medicine physician at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital, Dr. Pedram Rad, says N-Desethyl Isotonitazene is about 800 times more potent than morphine.

Read more at: wbpf.com

Local cases of the infectious disease leptospirosis, which in New York City is largely associated with exposure to rat urine, are continuing to trend upward, the city’s health department warned in an advisory on Friday.

The city recorded 24 leptospirosis cases in 2023, its highest number in a single year, according to health officials. That’s compared to just three cases per year on average between 2001 and 2020. So far this year, six cases have been reported.

Read more at: gothamist.com

This year’s measles cases are over 17x higher than cases seen in the first quarters of 2000 to 2023.

In 2000, after a decadeslong public health battle and a Herculean vaccination program, the US won a coveted status: measles elimination. The designation means that the extremely infectious measles virus is no longer endemic in the US—defined as continuous transmission in the country over 12 or more months while in the presence of an effective disease monitoring system. The country went from having 3 to 4 million children fall ill with the severe infection each year, to tallying just dozens of mostly travel-linked cases.

But in an alarming turn, the country’s elimination status is now at risk. Measles cases in the first quarter of 2024 have increased more than 17-fold over the cases seen in the first quarters of 2000 to 2023. Measles vaccination rates among kindergarteners have slipped in that time, too, with vaccination coverage in the last three consecutive years below the 95 percent target that is needed to prevent sustained transmission. Outside the US, measles cases are exploding in the wake of pandemic-related disruptions to routine childhood vaccination programs. Altogether, the conditions are prime for measles to regain its foothold in the country—and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is clearly anxious.

Read more at: arstechnica.com

In March 2024, Chicago public health officials reported two additional measles cases, bringing the citywide total at that point to 12. Officials said most identified cases were connected to a migrant shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood. State and local agencies coordinated testing, exposure tracing, vaccination outreach, and infection-control measures. Health officials emphasized that measles spreads readily among unvaccinated people and encouraged residents to review their vaccination status.

Read more at www.nbcchicago.com

Leprosy is on the rise again in the United States, particularly in Florida, concerning disease specialists.

According to the World Health Organization, about 200,000 cases of the disease occur every year in 120 countries worldwide and are often associated with contact with armadillos.

The U.S. is experiencing cases creep upwards, with the number of infections across the country more than doubling over the past decade, both in people exposed to armadillos and those who aren’t.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, there were 159 new cases of leprosy in the U.S. in 2020, around a fifth of which were in Florida. Of the Florida cases, 81 percent were found in central Florida.

Cases in the southeastern states have nearly doubled over the last decade, according to the report.

“Florida reported 10 cases of leprosy every year between 2002 and 2014. This rose to 29 new cases in 2015. There were 15 new cases in 2023,” Francisca Mutapi, a professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity and co-director of the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh, told Newsweek.

“Global case detection rates dropped between 2019 and 2020, but this has been rising since then. The WHO attributes part of the decline in case detection rates to the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on health services,” she said.

“The number of new cases post-2019 is growing but reported cases to date are still lower than those reported in 2019 (202,166 new cases) compared to those detailed in the latest WHO report from 2022 (174,087 new cases).”

Leprosy—also known as Hansen’s disease—is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis, and is one of the oldest recorded diseases, having infected humans for thousands of years. It primarily affects the skin, peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and eyes, and causes symptoms including skin lesions, which may be lighter or darker than the surrounding skin and may lack sensation.

Other symptoms can include numbness or weakness in the hands and feet, nerve damage, and in severe cases, deformities and disabilities.

Symptoms may take as long as 20 years to set in. Deaths from the disease are uncommon, but complications related to the disease can still occur, particularly if it is left untreated or if treatment is delayed. These complications may include secondary infections, nerve damage leading to disabilities, and other health issues.

“We currently do not know what is driving the reported increase of leprosy cases in Florida. Studies are currently underway to determine how infections are being transmitted, i.e., between humans vs infections from animals to humans. People may become infected from other people with untreated leprosy or from the nine-banded armadillo, a natural host of the bacteria causing the disease,” Mutapi said.

Read more at: newsweek.com

Dengue fever, carried by mosquitoes, is swamping the populations of Brazil and Peru, Argentina, Laos and causing major concerns in other parts of the world.

It has spiked fourfold in Brazil just this year following the release of millions of gene-edited mosquitos by the World Mosquito Program run by the United Nations.

Vaccines are being produced and distributed on a timetable pushed by the urgency of the events, and multiple deaths already are being reported.

The Guardian reported there have been nearly a million cases in Brazil, and almost the same number in Peru.

Government officials say there already have been dozens of deaths.

“Brazil has bought 5.2m doses of the dengue vaccine Qdenga, developed by Japanese drugmaker Takeda, with another 1.32m doses provided at no cost to the government,” the report said, explaining three Brazilian states are in a state of emergency.

The ailment is spread by mosquitoes, which were described in an International Business Times report as the “most dangerous animal in the world.”

It was the United Nations that previously cited a World Health Organization warning that more than half of the world was at risk from mosquito-transmitted dengue fever.

The U.N.’s response was to work with technology to create millions of “sterilized pests” and then release them, a campaign which reached Brazil only months ago.

“Countries have already started like Italy, Greece and Mauritius, and others are on the point of doing it, for example the United States, France and Brazil,” said Jeremy Bouyer, medical entomologist at the Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, a joint International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) / Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) initiative.

Read more at: wnd.com

U.S. life expectancy fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, with federal statistics showing a decline from 2020 to 2021. A January 2024 article attributed that trend to COVID-19 vaccination and repeated additional claims about vaccine-related mortality. The timing of two developments alone does not establish that one caused the other, and the article’s broad causal claims are not supported by the life-expectancy figures it cites. The reported decline is real; the proposed explanation requires separate, reliable evidence.

Read more at www.naturalnews.com

The H5N1 virus was detected on a poultry farm in northwest Belgium

An outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza has been reported on a poultry farm in the northwestern part of Belgium, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

In a Monday statement quoted by Reuters, the Paris-based organization said that the outbreak was detected in the city of Diksmuide near France and that at least 95 birds died of the infection while the rest of the flock, consisting of 20,100 birds, had been culled.

Previously, German authorities also reported on Friday that 11,500 turkeys had to be slaughtered after an outbreak of the highly pathogenic virus was detected at a farm in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

In the Netherlands, outbreaks have been detected at a laying hen farm, prompting the culling of approximately 110,000 chickens, and at a petting zoo, where some 90 birds that posed a risk of spreading the virus were slaughtered.

Another outbreak was also reported by the French Ministry of Agriculture last week at a turkey farm in northwest France, prompting authorities to raise the national alert level for bird flu from ‘negligible’ to ‘moderate.’

In recent years, the H5N1 avian influenza has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds worldwide. In Europe, outbreaks typically occur in autumn and winter, and this season has also already seen cases detected on farms in Italy, Croatia, and Hungary, in addition to those previously mentioned.

Read more at: rt.com

Democrat-run San Francisco is facing its deadliest year in history for drug overdoses. During the full month of August — all 31 days — San Francisco was hit with an overdose death every nine hours.

Well, this is what happens when you vote for Democrats who declare your city a sanctuary city, refuse to put convicted criminals in jails, and support a Southern border that is wide open to third-world invaders who bring with them sex trafficking and deadly narcotics.

It’s terrible, no question. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt or die, and my heart breaks for people caught in the horrors of addiction, but this is what the people of San Francisco vote for.

No one who ran for office in this once beautiful city hid their desire to import third-world illegals, look the other way with drug cases, or release criminals. And what happened?

The idiots of San Francisco voted overwhelmingly to destroy their city. Oh, yeah, they are showing us MAGAtards a thing or two — as we live here where life is safe, clean, and tolerant.

“San Francisco is facing its deadliest year ever for drug overdoses,” reports the far-left Guardian. “a trend blamed on the surge of powerful synthetic fentanyl in the US’s illicit drug supply.”

The report continues: “August was the deadliest month on record – with an overdose death every nine hours.”

“It’s going to be an almost 25% increase over last year – that’s crazy and unfortunate,” said one addiction specialist.

Democrats open the border…

Cartels smuggle in fentanyl and meth.

These drugs are deliberately dosed to murder Americans…

Nevertheless, San Francisco politicians do nothing to reverse its sanctuary policy, nothing to pressure His Fraudulency Joe Biden to secure the border; San Francisco residents approve of this in overwhelming numbers with their votes, and John eats cookies and watches Star Trek* because San Francisco is not my problem.

Democrats release convicted felons…

Felons deal the drugs deliberately dosed to murder Americans…

Read more at: breitbart.com

High school students, particularly males, with a history of concussion in the last year, showed a higher tendency for suicidal thoughts, planning, or attempts compared to those without a concussion history, according to a study by a research team that includes a researcher at the University of Michigan.

Boys who experienced two or more concussions in the past year were twice as likely to report a suicide attempt compared to those with a single concussion. For girls, the likelihood of suicidal behaviors was comparably higher irrespective of the number of concussions.

“This type of research is never easy to discuss, but it is vitally important to understand who is at risk and why,” said study co-author Steve Broglio, professor of kinesiology and director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center. “Anyone who has concern for any student-athlete should not be afraid to reach out and help find the appropriate resources.”

This is believed to be the first known study to examine the relationship between suicidal behaviors and concussion frequency in a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students.

“From broader literature, we know that brain injuries, like concussion, can precipitate or exacerbate mental health challenges,” said lead author Jacob Kay, a rehabilitation scientist at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital and the University of South Carolina. “Our study further highlights the importance of evaluating mental health among both male and female youth that have sustained a concussion. This is particularly true for those who have sustained multiple concussions in a short time.”

Other study highlights include:

• 15% of students reported one or more concussions and 6% reported two or more concussions in the past year
• 17% of males and 13% of females reported one or more concussions in the past year
• 44% of females vs. 24% of males reported feeling sad or hopeless
• 24% of females vs. 13% of males reported having suicidal thoughts
• 19% of females vs. 10% of males reported planning suicide
• 10% of females vs. 5% of males reported attempting suicide
• 3% of females and 1% of males reported an injury from an attempted suicide
• Medical professionals should closely evaluate and monitor mental health in youth, especially those with a recent history of repetitive concussions

Read more at: scitechdaily.com