Tag Archives: outbreak

Why Asymptomatic COVID-19 is a Problem

CDC/ Brian Judd/Photo credit: James Gathany

I got an interesting question about asymptomatic COVID-19 this week that seemed relatively straightforward, but is actually much more complicated. Isn’t it a good thing that a lot of people with COVID-19 have mild illness or no illness at all? Here’s why the answer to that question is both yes and no.

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Is the U.S. Doing Too Much or Too Little to Combat COVID-19?

On Wednesday March 11, the NBA announced it would be suspending its season due to COVID-19, and other professional sports leagues soon followed suit. Over the past week, concerts, conferences, and other large gatherings were cancelled amid concern for the outbreak to apply a strategy known as “social distancing.” Students from universities across the country are being sent home, children are out of school, and employers are scrambling to develop guidance for employees to work remotely. And yet the reaction of the public is one of polar opposites: either sheer panic or no big deal (how very on-brand for the U.S.). 

Social distancing refers to literally creating more distance between individuals by enacting measures that prevent congregate settings. It may seem extreme, take for example this text my sister sent me this week:

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A Mysterious Case of COVID-19 has Appeared in the U.S. What do we do now?

“Washing Hands” by peterjai2000 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The first possible case of community spread of COVID-19 was reported by the CDC on Wednesday February 26, and the tone of information disseminated to the American public has taken a decidedly serious turn. What do we do now?

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Five Myths About Coronavirus Debunked

“MERS Coronavirus Particles” by National Institutes of Health (NIH) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 

There is an overwhelming amount of information about coronavirus circulating on the internet these days. Here are five ideas and sentiments that are utterly false.

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Ebola is back–10 things you need to know

Ebola infection isolation

  1. Ebola causes a severe disease with fever, rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes internal and/or external bleeding. It kills about half of  patients.
  2. Humans are first exposed to the virus from contact with bats or other infected animals. Once a person is infected, they can transmit the virus directly to other people via bodily secretions.  All bodily secretions are considered infectious, but the virus cannot spread through the air.
  3. The largest outbreak occurred in West Africa in 2014-2015, affecting almost 30,000 people and killing 40% of them.  From this outbreak, 4 cases occurred in the U.S.–2 traveled from Africa and 2 additional healthcare workers contracted the disease.
  4. The current outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo involves 58 people and 27 have died.
  5. Healthcare workers are frequently infected during outbreaks due to close contact with patients despite rigorous precautions and personal protective equipment.
  6. Burial ceremonies that involve contact with the deceased, which are common in Africa, have been implicated to spread disease.
  7. Ebola virus has been detected in semen of male survivors months after infection, but it is not known whether it can be transmitted via sexual intercourse this long after infection.
  8. Rehydration and supportive care improves survival, but there is no proven therapy to treat patients with Ebola. A few experimental therapies are being tested.
  9. There is no licensed vaccine available, though an experimental vaccine appeared to work during the West Africa outbreak and has been deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo.
  10. Ebola virus is a slow moving target that poses little risk for a worldwide pandemic with proper control and coordination from the WHO and partners.

For more information:
WHO
DynaMed Plus 
Cloudy Media Blog posts about Ebola

The “Not” Zone

THZIt has recently come to my attention that a lot of people out there are reading (or re-reading) Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone as a reference because of the current Ebola outbreak. I was shocked to hear this because I remember swiftly flipping the pages of this enthralling novel in high school. Yes, you read that correctly, novel. I thank my Twitter acquaintances (and science writer idols) Seth Mnookin (@sethmnookin), Maryn McKenna (@marynmck), Ed Yong (@edyong209), and Vincent Racaniello (@profvrr) for bringing a horrifying truth to my reality, The Hot Zone is classified, distributed, and sold as a nonfiction book!

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