Tagged: outbreak

The changing COVID-19 situation in Taiwan – what can NZ learn from Taiwan’s latest outbreak? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jul 13, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• New Zealand stories,
• outbreak,
• taiwan

Jennifer Summers, Leah Grout, Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig, Nick Wilson* (author details*) We previously published an assessment of Taiwan’s extremely effective response to COVID-19 during 2020. However, a recent surge of community cases in northern Taiwan from April 2021 onwards has resulted in an increasing mortality rate, with large scale restrictions imposed to bring the outbreak under control.  This COVID-19 … Read More

COVID-19: sequence the viral genomes of all border cases - Code for life

Grant Jacobs • Aug 17, 2020 •

• August 2020,
• border,
• COVID-19,
• genome,
• New Zealand,
• outbreak,
• SARS-CoV-2,
• sequence

New Zealand has an advantage in managing COVID-19: all our cases come from the border, one way or other.[1] We can exploit this in how we shut down outbreaks. One way is to have at the ready the viral genomes of all border cases. With this we can quickly find the starting point of any outbreaks inside the country. If … Read More

News coverage drove Zika interest - Lately, In Science

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Mar 14, 2020 •

• CDC,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• epidemic,
• media,
• outbreak,
• Rio Olympics,
• WHO,
• Wikipedia,
• zika

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

COVID-19 coverage - News

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 04, 2020 •

• 2019-nCov,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• outbreak,
• WHO,
• World Health Organization,
• Wuhan

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

Measles deaths and antivax misinformation - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Nov 26, 2019 •

• Anti-Vax,
• measles,
• misinformation,
• outbreak,
• Samoa,
• science and society

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

Measles: NOT a “benign childhood disease” - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Sep 02, 2019 •

• immunisation,
• measles,
• outbreak,
• vaccination

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

An update on Zika infection and pregnancy - Infectious Thoughts

Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 16, 2016 •

• Brazil,
• French Polynesia,
• Lancet,
• microcephaly,
• mosquitoes,
• outbreak,
• virus,
• zika

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

Zika virus: an FAQ - Infectious Thoughts

Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 26, 2016 •

• Aedes,
• Brazil,
• microcephaly,
• Mosquito,
• outbreak,
• small head,
• virus,
• zika

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

The legacy of the MMR debacle - Infectious Thoughts

Siouxsie Wiles • Apr 15, 2013 •

• Andrew Wakefield,
• Independent,
• Jeremy Laurance,
• measles,
• MMR,
• outbreak,
• vaccination,
• Vaccine,
• Wales

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

Monday Micro - Infectious Thoughts

Siouxsie Wiles • Oct 29, 2012 •

• Anaerobe,
• Clostridium difficile,
• Exserohilum rostratum,
• faecal transplant,
• fungus,
• Johan Bakken,
• meningitis,
• New Enagland Compounding Company,
• outbreak,
• PLOS Pathogens,
• Trevor Lawley

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