Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Mar 14, 2020 •
At a time when our news headlines are saturated with COVID-19, it could be helpful to look back at a previous disease outbreak for hints of what’s happening now. Back in 2016, the infectious disease of the hour was Zika. Remember the Rio Olympics and fears that Olympians would be infected (there wound up being no cases linked … Read More
Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 04, 2020 •
Our Scibloggers have been providing updates on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. This page will be updated as more posts are published. As of 11 February 2020, the virus has been officially named COVID-19. 12 March 2020 Wellington, we have a problem… Now that the WHO has declared a pandemic, what next? Sarb Johal The Psychology Report … Read More
Alison Campbell • Nov 26, 2019 •
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a benign childhood disease”. Clearly, it is not. (And never … Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 02, 2019 •
Pretty much everyone in NZ should be aware by now that the country is facing its biggest measles outbreak in years, with Counties Manukau being particularly hard-hit. Here’s the data for the week ending August 23rd, from ESR’s Public Health Surveillance page: This hasn’t stopped those opposed to vaccination plague enthusiasts pushing all their usual tropes, … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 16, 2016 •
New research which looked at the data from the 2013-2014 outbreak of Zika in French Polynesia, estimates that the risk of microcephaly is about 1 for every 100 women infected with the Zika virus during the first trimester of pregnancy. Zika is the virus spread by mosquitoes (and more rarely by sexual transmission) that … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 26, 2016 •
A virus spread by mosquitoes and which has been linked to babies being born with smaller heads and brains in Brazil is making the news. Here’s a quick FAQ to bring you up to speed. What is Zika and where has it come from? Zika is an RNA virus that was first identified in monkeys in Uganda in 1947. The … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Apr 15, 2013 •
Wales in currently in the grip of a measles epidemic, with nearly 700 people diagnosed with the highly contagious virus since the outbreak began in November last year. To put this in perspective, in 2012 there were 2,016 cases of measles in the WHOLE of England and Wales, with 116 of those in Wales. Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Oct 29, 2012 •
Inspired by the fabulous David Winter‘s Sunday Spinelessness blogs, I’ve decided to have a bash at writing a more regular quickie microbiology-related post. First up, the growing fungal meningitis outbreak in the USA. With 344 cases and 25 deaths spread over 18 states, the outbreak is a result of patients receiving contaminated steroid injections. So far … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 19, 2012 •
According to to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is currently an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium going on associated with eating cantaloupe melons grown in southwestern Indiana. Infection with S. Typhimurium results if diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after ingesting the bacteria. In most cases, the … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 17, 2011 •
Finally the number of new cases from the German E. coli outbreak are easing. To date there have been 3362 people infected, with 823 people developing Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS) and 37 deaths. Turns out the culprit was bean sprouts from an organic farm in lower Saxony. It does seem likely that the reason the majority of cases have been … Read More