#parasite-prevention

#parasite-prevention

"We have not seen them go away altogether like they have in previous years," said Susanne Kluh, general manager for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.

I am open-minded; I believe in integrative practices, and I agree that the medical establishment can be arrogant and unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, which now funds so much of medical research. But I fully understand Scherer's frustration with his interminable discussions with Kennedy about scientific articles.

Bats carry a lot of very deadly pathogens like Ebola virus, Nipah, Hendra, coronavirus, and also rabies virus. People are finding more and more bat-borne viruses. When such viruses are transmitted to humans, the results are often fatal so there's a lot of interest in trying to prevent spillover in the first place.

In a study published in Science Advances, researchers in China fed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes blood that contained either a vaccine against Nipah virus or the rabies virus. The viruses, contained in the vaccines, replicated inside the insects and reached their salivary glands, allowing them to pass on the vaccine when feeding on bats or when the bats ate the insects.

Hawaii is the hot spot for rat lungworm disease in the U.S., with more than 80 cases that were laboratory-confirmed from 2016 to 2026. Still, it's considered a highly underdiagnosed disease. The largest number of rat lungworm cases occur on the island of Hawaii.

GOARN, which includes more than 310 national public health agencies, United Nations agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental groups, helps identify and manage infectious disease outbreaks worldwide. Since it was established in 2000, GOARN says it has helped manage more than 175 global health emergencies across 114 countries.

We now have our first confirmed measles case of 2026 in the Bay Area and the first of 2026 in California as an unvaccinated international traveler apparently brought some back home to San Mateo County. Though first of 2026 may not be that distinct of a deal, considering we saw another new measles case in Contra Costa County when there was still two more days in 2025. [KQED]

Risks of outbreaks with pandemic potential rise with increasing land-use change, biodiversity loss and climate change. The Pandemic Agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2025 marks a historic shift that establishes the One Health approach as a legally binding obligation for pandemic prevention.

Temperature and rainfall influence where malaria-carrying mosquitoes such as Anopheles species can survive and how well malaria parasites, such as Plasmodium falciparum, develop in them. Past predictions have been inconsistent and have often focused on where malaria might spread, rather than on how severely it could intensify where it already exists.

DNA variants near a gene called MSRB3 - which is important for hearing in humans - could determine whether a dog's ears are pendulous like a basset hound's or stubby like a rottweiler's. Researchers analysed the genomes of thousands of canines and found that small, single-letter changes to DNA in a region of the genome near MSRB3 could boost the gene's activity. The boost can increase the rate at which ear cells proliferate, resulting in longer ears.

For the first time, cameras in Africa captured a 'dynamic network' of wildlife interacting with thousands of infected bats believed to be carrying the Marburg virus, which is a rare but extremely dangerous disease that belongs to the same family as Ebola. The new videos revealed at least 14 different types of animals, including leopards, hyenas, monkeys, birds and rats, actively hunting herds of Egyptian fruit bats.

Veterinarians found leptospirosis in two dogs within the encampment around Eighth and Harrison streets, both in November, one of which died, and later detected the illness in rats for the first time in five years in Alameda County. As of the Jan. 12 announcement there were no known human cases. City officials did not respond to Berkeleyside's inquiries, sent Thursday, as

There is little doubt that this is what African countries need if they are serious about universal health coverage - ensuring that every member of their populations has access to this fundamental human right. But such an approach has never been implemented in Africa. Some of the reasons for this are outlined in a report on health financing by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent's public-health agency based in Addis Ababa, published last week (see go.nature.com/3o9wxfc).

In September, the USDA warned that an 8-month-old cow with an active NWS infection was found in a feedlot in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, just 70 miles from the border. The finding prompted Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller to step up warnings about the threat. " The screwworm is dangerously close," Miller said at the time. "It nearly wiped out our cattle industry before; we need to act forcefully now."

Clothes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, a teddy Although it should be two teddies, she re-evaluates, quickly. I can hear her trying to quell her panic. A diehard survivalist preparing for catastrophe? Actually, a beleaguered 44-year-old mother recovering from scabies an itchy rash caused by microscopic mites that burrow under human skin. Far-fetched as it sounds, emergency evacuation is exactly what she, her partner and children (six and four) resorted to in November in a desperate bid to beat the bugs.

If you're based in the United States, you've probably gotten used to government bodies issuing nationwide alerts - including ones that relate to public health. These have, historically, been good ways for health-conscious people to know what to look out for and for regional public health experts to develop strategies to help keep potential outbreaks contained.Unfortunately, now both individuals and institutions are reckoning with a big question: what to do when those warnings are much smaller in number?

CITYWIDE- NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS/BELLEVUE, IN PREPARING FOR THE U.S. HOSTING THE WORLD CUP SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS YEAR, has trained close to 500 health care and public health professionals to respond to high-consequence infectious disease threats. The city's public hospital system announced on Tuesday, Jan. 27, that during 2025, the health care professionals were trained across four jurisdictions encompassing New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.