An outbreak of H7N9 avian (bird) flu was reported March 17 in Mississippi, USA. This variety of bird influenza has not been seen in the US since 2017. [1] According to the World Health Organization (WHO), humans who have gotten this virus in the past have become severely ill. Since 2013, 1568 people have been infected in China, with 616 of them dying of...
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The Advent of Public Health During the first half of the 1800s, something extraordinary happened. Carried along trade routes and with the movement of troops, the world truly unified, but not in a good way. Bacteria, viruses, and parasites traveled easily and frequently, bringing successive epidemics of plague, yellow fever, and cholera across...
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The protrusions on the Coronavirus are a group of three “S” proteins also call “Spike” proteins. These proteins bind to ACE2 receptors on the membranes of cells in the body. This has been a target of many of the over 120 vaccines that have been in production since the pandemic began. A recent intermediary report on one of the...
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There are many states in the US that are reopening, some in a phased manner, others have just opened everything. On May 18, Massachusetts’ government unveiled a plan that stated that true “normalcy” would not really be attained until there was a treatment or vaccine. At the time of the report, there were over 86,000 confirmed cases....
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When Heidi Larson worked for UNICEF as an anthropologist, much of her time was spent ferreting out the rumors that influence public opinion. In 2003, she went to Northern Nigeria where political and religious leaders had decided to stop supporting the vaccination of children against polio. They told parents that the vaccines were contaminated with...
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If you had the flu in 2017, you know what the influenza A H3N2 virus feels like. Australia had a bad round of H3N2 flu this year and often the Northern Hemisphere follows the same trend. What to do? Get the flu shot! So many people say that they get the flu shot but still get the flu. It is true that the vaccine has only a 40 to 60 percent effectiveness...
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I may be a little late in getting one, but I’m going to get the flu vaccine this year. In the US, it is recommended that you get the flu vaccine in October. That gives you time–two weeks–to build immunity to the flu before the “flu season” hits. One reason to get the vaccine is to help protect other people from influenza. This...
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