SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGET) — California construction workers will soon receive valley fever awareness and prevention training. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill from Assemblyman Rudy Salas requiring construction employers in counties highly affected by valley fever to provide education and training to employees with the hopes that it will help prevent the spread of the [...]

Arizona is leading the country this year in terms of West Nile virus deaths, according to a recent tally from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of Oct. 8, 16 of the 35 nationwide West Nile virus-linked deaths this year had been reported in the Grand Canyon State. All but one in the state have been reported in Maricopa [...]

-TRIMARAN and TRIGGER findings show improvements in lung function, lower exacerbation rates Study Authors: Johann Christian Virchow, Piotr Kuna, et al.; J. Mark FitzGerald, Mohsen Sadatsafavi Target Audience and Goal Statement: Allergists, pulmonologists, family physicians, primary care physicians The goal of this study was to examine the outcomes from two trials that compared single-inhaler triple therapy (inhaled [...]

The FDA approved its first rapid in vitro diagnostic for confirming Ebola virus infections. The single-use OraQuick Ebola test developed by OraSure Technologies searches for virus antigens in samples to provide an early, probable readout that must later be confirmed with another test. It can be used on human blood—through either venipuncture or finger stick—as [...]

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Antibiotic resistance is a one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. An Army project has developed a new weapon to combat super-bugs, which could protect Soldiers and fight resistance. Bacteriophage, a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria, kill bacteria through different mechanisms than antibiotics, and they can [...]

Since the Zika epidemic of 2015 and 2016 sickened thousands of people in the Americas, and resulted in 3,700 babies born with birth defects —including microcephaly —researchers have produced a deluge of academic papers in an effort to answer key questions about the flavivirus. Yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers published a comprehensive review [...]

Mike Ryan, MD, the World Health Organization (WHO) executive director of health emergencies, said today that the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been “squeezed into a small geographical area”—a triangle between Mambasa, Beni, Mandima, and Komanda. “The virus is now back to where it began in Mandima, the same [...]

Executive summary Key facts: In 2017, 8.3% (11 787) of the patients who stayed in intensive-care units (ICUs) for more than two days presented with at least one ICU-acquired healthcare-associated infection (HAI) under surveillance (pneumonia, bloodstream infection, or urinary tract infection). Of all patients staying in an ICU for more than two days, 6% presented [...]

America’s food safety attorney Bill Marler, who by way of proper disclosure is also the publisher of Food Safety News, wants food handlers vaccinated for Hepatitis A. Fact is Marler has been on something of a campaign or crusade or jihad with health departments and restaurant owners to get food handlers vaccinated. He’s pleaded, cajoled, and bargained [...]