Diseases

Spanish Ebola nurse Teresa Romero Ramos ‘followed all protocols’ and has ‘no idea’ how she contracted virus

The Spanish nurse who became the first person to contract Ebola in Europe has said she followed all protocols and does not know how she became infected with the virus. Teresa Romero Ramos, who helped treat two Spanish missionaries who died after returning from Africa with Ebola, tested positive for the disease on Monday. In a brief interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the nurse was asked how she may have fallen ill, to which she replied:

There are 110 MILLION cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States – and 20 million new infections every year

New statistics reveal that an astonishing number of individuals in the United States are infected with sexually transmitted diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control, there are a total of 110 million STDs among the men and women of America, with 20 million new cases being reported every year. The direct medical cost of these infections is said to be $16 billion.

This 2 Percent of US Population Accounts for 63 Percent of HIV/AIDs Cases

For years, society has been told that HIV and AIDS are no longer gay diseases. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, provides telling evidence that homosexual men are at a much greater risk for HIV/AIDS and other diseases. According to the CDC report released at the end of September to coincide with “National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day,” just 2 percent of the population is made up of gay or bisexual men, yet they accounted for 63 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in 2010.

New mosquito-borne illness spreading across Latin America – victims describe disease as ’10 days of near unbearable pain’

An excruciating mosquito-borne illness that arrived less than a year ago in the Americas is raging across the region, leaping from the Caribbean to the Central and South American mainland, and infecting more than 1 million people. Some cases already have emerged in the United States. While the disease, called Chikungunya, usually is not fatal, the epidemic has overwhelmed hospitals, cut economic productivity and caused its sufferers days of pain and misery.

CDC warns universities to prepare for Ebola pandemic

American colleges and universities are now on high alert and are being instructed to take extra precautions against the potential spread of incoming Ebola. Students traveling abroad to Ebola-stricken countries like Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria or Sierra Leone run the risk of bringing the virus back to US campuses. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now urging all US colleges to implement additional safety measures to prevent accidental spread of Ebola.

White House To Assign 3,000 Military Personnel To Combat Ebola

The Obama administration is ramping up its response to West Africa’s Ebola crisis, preparing to assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and to boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.

Pre-diabetes, diabetes rates fuel national health crisis

Americans are getting fatter, and older. These converging trends are putting the USA on the path to an alarming health crisis: Nearly half of adults have either pre-diabetes or diabetes, raising their risk of heart attacks, blindness, amputations and cancer.

How to Reduce Your Risk of Catching the Flu This Year

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The FDA has announced that the flu vaccine for the 2014-2015 flu season is ready. This means you can drive down nearly any city street and see at least one flag or spinner, manically suggesting that you “Get your flu shot here!

Virologist: ‘It’s Too Late, Ebola Will Kill 5 Million’

A top German virologist has caused shockwaves by asserting that it’s too late to halt the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia and that five million people will die, noting that efforts should now be focused on stopping the transmission of the virus to other countries. Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that hope is all but lost for the inhabitants of Sierra Leone and Liberia and that the virus will only “burn itself out” when it has infected the entire population and killed five million people. “The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,” said Schmidt-Chanasit.

Ebola in the air? A nightmare that could happen

Today, the Ebola virus spreads only through direct contact with bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit. But some of the nation’s top infectious disease experts worry that this deadly virus could mutate and be transmitted just by a cough or a sneeze. “It’s the single greatest concern I’ve ever had in my 40-year public health career,” said Dr.

No More Places To Put Ebola Patients In Liberia But Cases Are Growing Exponentially

There is not a single empty bed available for an Ebola patient in Liberia right now, but thousands more cases are expected in the coming weeks. Entire families have been driving around in taxis looking for some place that will take their sick family members, but every treatment facility is already full. According to the World Health Organization, many of those potential Ebola patients end up returning to their homes where there will inevitably spread the virus to even more people.

Hospital sets patient record as mystery respiratory virus spreads

Medical officials admitted a record number of children to a local hospital over the weekend because of what they believe to be a rare respiratory virus spreading throughout the country. Although there’s been no confirmed cases of the enterovirus at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, officials admitted 540 patients Friday, said Dr. Derek Wheeler, associate chief of staff at the hospital.

Ebola Is Surging In Places It Had Been Beaten Back

Doctors Without Borders has returned to Macenta as well, opening a transit center more than a week ago at the site of its old clinic where it screens patients. As of the beginning of this month, the Health Ministry said 45 people from Macenta were being treated at an expanded treatment center at Gueckedou. The charity would like to open treatment centers in both towns, but it does not have enough staff.

New Ebola Cases In Congo Unrelated To West African Outbreak

If there can be any good news – or at least not further disheartening news – coming out of the African continent regarding this year’s Ebola outbreaks, we have one positive report this morning. The World Health Organization has just confirmed that the newly-identified cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo is genetically unrelated to the strain currently circulating in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. A WHO collaborating research center in Franceville, Gabon, the Centre International de Recherches Médicales, had previously identified six Ebola positive samples sent to the laboratory.

Another American Doctor Tests Positive for Ebola in West Africa

Another American doctor working for the missionary group SIM has tested positive for Ebola in Liberia. The doctor was treating pregnant women ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, according to SIM. But he was not treating Ebola patients in the hospital’s separate Ebola isolation facility, the group said, adding that it was unclear how he contracted the virus.

If Ebola Spreads At The Current Rate, There Will Be 10,000 Cases By September 24th

Alessandro Vespignani hopes that his latest work will turn out to be wrong. In July, the physicist from Northeastern University in Boston started modeling how the deadly Ebola virus may spread in West Africa. Extrapolating existing trends, the number of the sick and dying mounts rapidly from the current toll—more than 3000 cases and 1500 deaths—to about 10,000 cases by 24 September, and hundreds of thousands in the months after that.

Funerals, ghost towns and haunted health workers: Life in the Ebola zone

At the gravesite in a northern Liberia village, there are no religious or traditional burial rites. No ceremony, no mourning, no family members, and no final goodbyes. Nothing but a group of men dressed in space-suit-like outfits, cautiously throwing the dead body into the grave, they pause only to toss in anything else they are wearing that came into contact with the deceased.

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