Tag: monkeypox

STD epidemic in US is ‘out of control,’ warn experts, CDC

Associated Press – September 19, 2022

NEW YORK — Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting US health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts.

“It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the US,” said Dr. Leandro Mena of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a speech Monday at a medical conference on sexually transmitted diseases.

Infections rates for some STDs, including gonorrhea and syphilis, have been rising for years. Last year the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest since 1991 and the total number of cases hit its highest since 1948. HIV cases are also on the rise, up 16% last year.

And an international outbreak of monkeypox, which is being spread mainly between men who have sex with other men, has further highlighted the nation’s worsening problem with diseases spread mostly through sex.

David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the situation “out of control.”

Officials are working on new approaches to the problem, such as home test kits for some STDs that will make it easier for people to learn they are infected and to take steps to prevent spreading it to others, Mena said.

Another expert said a core part of any effort must work to increase the use of condoms.

“It’s pretty simple. More sexually transmitted infections occur when people are having more unprotected sex,” said Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Syphilis is a bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores but can ultimately lead to severe symptoms and death if left untreated.

But by 2002, cases began rising again, largely among gay and bisexual men, and they kept going. In late 2013, the CDC ended its elimination campaign in the face of limited funding and escalating cases, which that year surpassed 17,000.

By 2020, cases had reached nearly 41,700 and they spiked even further last year, to more than 52,000.

The rate of cases has been rising, too, hitting about 16 per 100,000 people last year. That’s the highest in three decades.

https://nypost.com

There Will Be Pestilences: Authorities Don’t Understand Why So Many Vile Diseases Are Suddenly Erupting Around The World

– August 21, 2022

Why are we seeing so many unusual outbreaks of disease in 2022?  Coming into this year, there was just one major outbreak that everyone was talking about.  But then 2022 came along, and all of a sudden it seemed like there was a new disease in the news every month.  First, an eruption of the bird flu spread like wildfire and that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys.  Then monkeypox took the world by storm.  It has spread to nearly 100 different countries, and it is now the worst monkeypox outbreak in history by a very wide margin.  And now more weird diseases are popping up.  Earlier this month, I wrote an article about the appearance of “Langya henipavirus” in China and the case of polio that was just detected in New York, and in this article I will be telling you about even more strange outbreaks that are deeply alarming global authorities.

For example, a very mysterious virus that is being called “the tomato flu” has started to spread in India…

Doctors in India have sounded the alarm over a new virus dubbed ‘tomato flu’ that has infected dozens of children.

The infection was spotted in May in the southern state of Kerala and it is feared to be a new variant of hand, foot, and mouth disease.

There are a couple of things about this that caught my attention right away.

First of all, I think that it is very noteworthy that this has happened in India.  There are more than a billion people in that nation, and many of them live in extremely overcrowded urban areas.

Secondly, this is yet another disease that causes sores on the skin.  In fact, the sores can actually grow until they are “the size of a tomato”…

The infection gained its name because it causes an ‘eruption’ of red painful blisters across patients’ bodies that ‘gradually enlarge to the size of a tomato’.

Most patients also suffer high fever and intense joint pain, but fatigue, sickness and diarrhoea have also been reported.

Could you imagine having sores that grow to be the size of tomatoes all over your body?

http://endoftheamericandream.com

An Extremely Deadly Disease With A 30 Percent Death Rate Has Been Detected At 2 Locations In Georgia

– May 30, 2022

Why are so many strange diseases suddenly breaking out all over the globe?  In all my days, I have never seen anything like this.  COVID, bird flu and monkeypox are all making headlines around the world, but of course they aren’t the only pestilences that we are currently dealing with.  As I mentioned a few days ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo is actually facing outbreaks of ebola, cholera, measles, monkeypox, bubonic plague and typhoid all at the same time!  Can you imagine what health authorities in that nation must be going through right now?  A few years ago most of us never gave much thought to disease outbreaks, but now they are seemingly everywhere.

Unfortunately, we have a new one to add to the list.

According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, two mosquito pools in southern Georgia have tested positive for a disease known as “Eastern equine encephalitis”…

Health officials say two mosquito pools in South Georgia have tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis.

EEE is a virus that is spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. Only a few cases are reported in the United States each year.

The name of the disease may not sound that threatening, but it is actually extremely deadly.

WSB-TV says that the death rate for Eastern equine encephalitis in humans is approximately 30 percent…

Although rare, EEE is very serious. Approximately 30% of people with EEE die and many survivors have ongoing neurological problems.

There are no vaccines to prevent EEE or medicines to treat it.

When I first read that, I was stunned.

The death rate for COVID is well under 1 percent, and so a disease with a death rate of 30 percent could be a real nightmare.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

From Transmission Conundrum to Timing Factor, Experts Puzzle Over Outbreak of Monkeypox

Svetlana Ekimenko – May 21, 2022

With symptoms commonly including fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash with blisters, confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox – a rare disease previously limited to Western and Central Africa – have been spreading across Europe this spring.

As cases of monkeypox, both confirmed and suspected, have been reported in the US, Canada and several European countries – such as the UK, Portugal, Spain, Sweden France and, most recently, Germany – the medical community is racking its brains to figure out how the outbreak started.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to convene an emergency meeting of experts to discuss the outbreak, with a focus on transmission of the virus, its high prevalence in gays and bisexual men, as well as the situation with vaccines, The Daily Telegraph has reported.

The rare disease, a version of the smallpox virus that was eradicated in 1980 but is less transmissible, has previously been limited to Western and Central Africa.

On 7 May the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was the first health authority in Europe to announce a case of monkeypox publicly. It was confirmed in a person who had recently flown into the country from Nigeria.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), virus transmission appeared to have occurred as a result of homosexual contacts between men, at least in the UK case.

Since then, 19 more cases have been confirmed in the UK bringing the total up to 220, although the source remains elusive, as the infections appear to have been “locally acquired”, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

https://sputniknews.com

Monkeypox Case Confirmed in US

Newsmax – July 19, 2021

A case of monkeypox has been confirmed in an American who had recently traveled to Nigeria, U.S. health officials reported. Officials believe the threat of the virus spreading to others is low.

Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that’s in the same family of viruses as smallpox, but causes a milder infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It typically begins with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes, then progresses to a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last 2-4 weeks.

The infected person is now hospitalized in Dallas, the CDC said.

Officials are working to contact airline passengers and others who may have come into contact with the patient during two flights: Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, with arrival on July 9; and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9, the CDC said.

The passengers were required to wear masks on their flights and in the U.S. airports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s believed that the risk of spread of monkeypox is believed to be low, the CDC said in a news release.

The strain of monkeypox in this case is one that’s most commonly seen in parts of West Africa, and is fatal in about 1 in 100 people. But the risk can be higher in people with weakened immune systems.

https://www.newsmax.com