Outbreak News Radio

The restrictions put in place  and the resulting  social isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on children's mental and behavioral health. Joining me today to take a look at Children's Mental Health during the Pandemic is Dr. Mamilda Robinson. Dr. Robinson is a specialty director and clinical instructor of psychiatric-mental health at Rutgers School of Nursing.

With the nation focused on the delivery of a COVID vaccine, the CDC wants to ensure that older individuals are protected against other prevalent yet preventable diseases that can lead to severe health complications and even hospitalization. Vaccine demand declined an average of more than 60 percent across adult vaccines during the height of pandemic. One of those adult vaccines is Shingrix for the...

The Carter Center announced this week that the number of Guinea worm disease cases dropped by 50% in 2020 compared to 2019. This includes a dramatic decrease in cases in the country of Chad. What's more, this happened despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is all great news and the parasitic disease seems primed to become the second human infectious disease to become eradicated. Joi...

As the country tries to open up during this pandemic, a variety of methods are being employed to keep people safe. Dogs are slated to be used at Miami Heat games to screen people for COVID, similar to how dogs have been used to smell out explosives or drugs. How effective is this method and is it something that more companies should look into? Joining me to today discuss the use of dogs to screen...

While the world's focus has been on COVID-19, sometimes it seems like nothing else is happening in infectious diseases. But that is far from the reality. In recent years, we've seen Nigeria report large numbers of Lassa fever, we continue to see plague outbreaks from Africa to Asia and monkeypox cases have risen in recent decades. Joining me to talk about these other outbreaks is Stephen A. Berger...

Florida has reported about 1.6 million total COVID-19 cases, including more than 24,000 deaths. We've known for some time that some of the most vulnerable people are those aged 65 years and older and since Florida has the second-highest proportion of retirement-age residents in the nation this makes getting the COVID-19 vaccine available an imperative. Joining me today to give an update how hospit...

Researchers from the University of Florida in a new study report the mosquito, Aedes scapularis is now established in mainland Florida in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. How did it arrive in the US? And What is the public health significance of this finding? Joining me today to answer these questions and more is Lawrence Reeves, Ph. D.  Dr Reeves is an entomologist and Research Assistant Scientis...

In late 2018 into early 2019, an outbreak of a form of hantavirus called Andes virus, swept through a small town in Argentina infecting 34 and killing 11. Researchers led by a team from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) attribute the size of the outbreak to a super spreader event. Joining me to discuss Andes virus and the Argentina outbreak is Dr. Gustavo P...

Last month, a multidisciplinary panel led by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American College of Rheumatology published the 2020 Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The authors say it provides recommendations aimed to serve as a meaningful resource for the safe, effective, evi...

The U.S. is in the grips of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the numbers are rising at a rapid pace. A vaccine is what public health officials are banking on to get us out of it. With that, viral mutations are a concern. My guest today is screening wastewater for the presence of COVID-19 to determine if the virus is circulating and if different strains of the virus are cropping up. Joi...

President-elect Joe Biden recently announced a new 13 member COVID-19 advisory board to guide his administration during the transition period. One of the members is Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) Director Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH. Dr Osterholm has been a guest on this show numerous times over recent years. He joined me today to discuss issues that elicit questions an...

In this news podcast, I look at the success and progress of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and their situation concerning receiving and Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to determine recommendations on the distribution of the vaccines, I take a look at what they came up with. I also lo...

Russian authorities reported seven deaths recently due to people who drank methanol-tainted hand sanitizer after running out of drinks at a party. In this podcast, I look at the dangers of drinking alcohol based hand sanitizer, particularly for children. In addition, I examine other ways people try to get intoxicated like vodka eyeballing and look at the rumor of several years ago of women using v...

In this video, I look at the yellow fever outbreak currently affecting 5 states in Nigeria--Delta, Enugu, Bauchi, and Benue and Ebonyi. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Yellow Fever (YF) is a mosquito-borne viral disease of humans and other primates, and is currently endemic in over 43 countries in the tropical regions of Africa and The Americas. Infection with the YF virus can be...

In this short podcast, I look at the situation with vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) in Africa and the Emergency Use Listing recommendation for the type 2 novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2).

In this episode, I look at two of the biggest stories (outside of COVID-19) during the past week. The first is the 11th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was declared over after nearly 6 months and 130 confirmed and probable cases. The second is research that was presented at the ASTMH meeting that showed human-to-human transmission of Chapare virus in an outbreak that o...

In a topic that has not received nearly enough attention-- since 2016, the US has seen the largest person-to-person Hepatitis A virus outbreak in the post-vaccine era. About two thirds of the states have declared outbreaks which includes tens of thousands of cases with 60% hospitalizations and more than 300 deaths. In Kansas, the most recent state to declare an outbreak, the hospitalization rate s...

An arrhythmia is a problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat. It means that your heart beats too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular pattern. There are many types of heart arrhythmias, with Atrial fibrillation or (A Fib) being the most common type of serious arrhythmia. Joining me today to discuss A Fib and other arrhythmias is cardiac electrophysiologist and author of a very interes...

Are the COVID-19 deaths undercounted, as many believe, or are they overcounted, as others think? My guest today had the opportunity to look at a sample of death certificates in Florida and she is here to discuss what she found. Joining me today is the Editor of The Alachua Chronicle and co author of the article investigating death certificates, Jennifer Cabrera.

Chagas disease is a potentially life-threatening parasitic disease that affects  up to 300,000 people in the United States and millions in South America. The current treatment regimen is--oral benznidazole in smaller twice-daily doses over 2 months. My guest today and his colleagues say high weekly doses of oral benznidazole over 30 weeks resulted in better clearance of the parasite. This research...

Rabies post exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, consists of a rabies vaccine series and human rabies immune globulin (HRIG). Kedrion Biopharma's human rabies immune globulin, Kedrab, was FDA approved in 2017. And now for the first time, the safety of HRIG (Kedrab) was studied in children. Joining me today to discuss rabies, PEP and the pediatric trial is James Linakis, MD, PhD. Dr. Linakis is Professor...

The World Health Organization (WHO) previously stated "To date there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes". Now researchers from Kansas State University report confirming this in a new study published recently in Scientific Reports. Joining me today to discuss this is associate vice president for research and director of the KS...

In a recent Op-Ed, Pacific Research Institute President, Sally Pipes asked--Will COVID-19 launch an epidemic of cancer as the pandemic stay-at-home orders have caused patients to put off routine cancer screening. Mammogram and colonoscopy rates fell between 86 percent and 94 percent in March. One study estimates that during the past three months, more than 80,000 cancer cases have gone undiagnosed...

Lice Clinics of America (LCA) reported last week that they saw a  significant increase in head lice activity through their network of clinics in the US in April and May during the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining me on today's show is Krista Lauer, MD, National Medical Director of Lice Clinics of America. Dr. Lauer discussed some of the basics about head lice, the increase in lice activity during this t...

This episode of NEWS TALK with BRANDON & BOB featured insight from Outbreak News Today's Robert Herriman, discussing COVID-19, good vs. bad coronavirus testing, understanding terms like "viral load," thoughts on data, tracking and locking down.