Topics in Clinical Biosecurity: Disease Outbreaks

Listed below are all CBN articles on Disease Outbreaks published since 2005

• 03-13-2020: Get Ready for a 1918-like Scenario While we can hope for the best, we cannot exclude the possibility of a Wuhan-like outbreak in your city. Hospitals should be all-out preparing for their worst-case scenario.
• 02-27-2020: What US Hospitals Should Do Now to Prepare for a COVID-19 Pandemic The WHO and the US CDC have called on health systems around the world to prepare for a possible COVID-19 pandemic.
• 01-22-2020: A Novel Coronavirus – Determining Its Spread and Severity The last several days of infectious disease headlines have been focused on a mysterious outbreak in Wuhan, China, that has many concerning characteristics.
• 11-26-2018: Machine Learning to Identify the Attributes Influencing Zoonotic Virus Emergence Overview of an important new study that illustrates how machine learning can identify attributes influencing zoonotic virus emergence.
• 11-17-2017: Herd Immunity: Keeping Zika at Bay, For Now Zika infection rates appear to have ebbed, a new study reveals that Zika’s extraordinary trajectory may explain its diminished ability to cause new infections.
• 09-29-2017: Critical Illness and MERS A new retrospective multicenter cohort study focused on critically ill MERS patients in Saudi Arabia and provides important information.
• 07-14-2017: CCHF in Spain: Geographic Dynamics, Nosocomial Spread Two cases of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever due to an African strain were recently in Spain one of which involved nosocomial transmission.
• 01-27-2017: Seoul Virus Outbreak Highlights Ongoing Risk of Zoonotic Viruses CDC has alerted clinicians about an outbreak of Seoul hantavirus in the Midwest related to home-based rat breeding.
• 02-19-2016: Zika Virus: Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns The apparent explosive spread of the Zika virus and its association with apparent rises in cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome is alarming.
• 06-12-15: West African Travel-Related Illnesses: Not Just Ebola A new study highlights the importance of travel histories—not just for Ebola or MERS. The most frequent cause of fever in travelers from West Africa is malaria.
• 02-06-15: The Role of Camels in MERS Transmission The MERS-CoV, which has been spreading in the Middle East, is likely to have originated in bats, spread to camels, and then spilled into the human species.
• 12-19-2014: Preparing for Influenza: An H3N2 Season with a Vaccine Mismatch The predominance of H3N2 this year and the mismatch of the H3N2 component of this year’s vaccine are driving this concern.
• 12-05-2014: Nosocomial Transmission of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) from a US Soldier The case of a US soldier who was fatally infected with CCHF illustrates several important points about caring for hemorrhagic fever patients.
• 11-14-2014:Chagas Disease in the US: An Underestimated Emerging Infectious Disease Threat While many emerging infectious diseases are characterized by rapid, explosive outbreaks, some may be marked by an insidious, unrecognized spread.
• 09-26-2014: Tularemia Cases in Colorado Recent reports of cases of tularemia in Colorado should prompt clinicians to consider the diagnosis of tularemia in the right context.
• 09-12-2014: Severe Respiratory Illness due to Enterovirus D68 There are many strains of EV, most cause simple colds but a few have been known to cause outbreaks of severe respiratory disease.
• 08-29-2014: Asymptomatic MERS Cases A study found that a small proportion of individuals exposed to MERS cases may become silently infected. This information is key to controlling the outbreak.
• 07-03-2014: Resurgence of Vaccine-Preventable Childhood Diseases The CDPH reported on an ongoing epidemic of pertussis. A total of 1,100 new cases have been reported in the 2 weeks ending June 24, 2014.
• 11-08-2013: Cholera in Mexico The cholera epidemic in Haiti has caused more than 600,000 cases and 8,000 fatalities and is prompting concern about wider spread into the Western Hemisphere.
• 04-19-2013: Factors Influencing Control of the H7N9 Epidemic The ongoing outbreak of a novel H7N9 avian influenza in eastern China poses a significant threat to public health.
• 04-12-2013: Update on Novel H7N9 Influenza Epidemic The epidemic of novel H7N9 avian influenza in eastern China continues with no sign of abating. As of today, there have been 38 confirmed cases, with 10 deaths.
• 04-05-2013: Novel H7N9 Outbreak in China There have been 14 confirmed human cases of infection with a novel H7N9 influenza A virus reported in eastern China; 6 have died; source not yet confirmed.
• 07-13-2012: Report from CDC’s Unexplained Respiratory Disease Outbreak Working Group Some undiagnosed respiratory illnesses could be caused by pathogens of interest, in which case nascent outbreaks of serious diseases may not be recognized.
• 04-27-2012: Sapovirus: An Important Cause of Gastroenteritis Outbreaks A cause of norovirus-negative gastroenteritis outbreaks may be sapovirus. A paper offers evidence of this with results of a study of outbreaks over 7 years.
• 10-21-2011: Biosurveillance and Group A Streptococcal Pharyngitis The likelihood that a clinical diagnosis of a communicable disease will be accurate is influenced by the prevalence of the disease in the community.
• 03-03-2011: Social Network Analysis and Whole Genome Sequencing Aid in TB Outbreak Investigation Tuberculosis (TB) outbreak investigation traditionally has been conducted through “shoe-leather epidemiology,”
• 12-03-2010: Cholera in Haiti and Beyond There have been 7 distinct cholera pandemics during the last 2 centuries. The current pandemic, caused by the El Tor biotype, has been occurring since 1961
• 10-08-2010: Lassa Fever in Philadelphia Of the many diseases that can be imported into the US by travelers, viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are of particular concern.
• 09-17-2010: Hundreds of Cutaneous Anthrax Cases in Bangladesh More than 400 cases of cutaneous anthrax have been reported in Bangladesh. None have been fatal, and all have been linked to infected cattle.
• 07-22-2010: Pertussis Resurgent in California Whooping cough, or pertussis, a disease thought by many to be of historical significance only, has steadily resurged and, in a few cases, has been deadly.
• 03-22-2010: Puerto Rico Declares Dengue Fever Epidemic An epidemic of dengue fever was declared in Puerto Rico after 210 cases were recorded during the month—triple the number of cases in January 2007.
• 01-22-2010: Anthrax Cases Among Heroin Users in Europe Illustrate Novel Risk Cases of anthrax in Scotland and Germany highlight a new risk—recreational heroin use. Only 1 prior case of anthrax infection in a heroin user has been reported
• 04-17-2009: Adenovirus 14: An Emerging Threat The Journal of Infectious Diseases has just published 2 papers by teams of researchers describing separate, severe outbreaks of Adenovirus 14 (Ad14).
• 11-07-2008: New Arenavirus Identified as Cause of Cluster of Illness and Death in South Africa and Zambia Through molecular diagnostic techniques, a previously unknown arenavirus has been identified as the etiologic agent responsible for 4 deaths in Africa
• 03-28-2008: ASPR Makes First Playbook Available The HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has posted online its Hurricane Playbook (ESF-8 Hurricane Response)
• 06-07-2007: Learning from the XDR-TB Experience: Policy Priorities Going Forward Careful examination of government and public responses to the recent case of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is critical.
• 09-06-2006: Outbreak of Highly Lethal, Extensive Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in South Africa On September 5, 2006, the WHO posted information on an outbreak of highly lethal “Extensive (or Extreme) Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB)” in South Africa.
• 04-21-2006: Large Botulism Outbreak in Thailand The April 14 edition of MMWR reports an outbreak of food borne botulism in rural Thailand, with 163 people affected, 42 of whom required mechanical ventilation.
• 04-13-2006: CDC Warns of Possible Exposure to Mumps During Air Travel The CDC has issued a warning that airline passengers may have been exposed to mumps on several flights in late March/early April.
• 04-11-2006: Mumps in Iowa The nation’s largest outbreak of mumps since 1988 is currently underway in Iowa and is spreading to adjacent states.
• 01-13-2006: H5N1 in Turkey This week’s news of sudden and widespread outbreaks of both human and avian H5N1 influenza in Turkey has been worrisome.
• 01-06-2006: Bad Bug: The New Epidemic of Clostridium difficile Bad Bug—The New Epidemic of Clostridium difficile: C. difficile was described as the agent of antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis in 1978
• 07-18-2005: Ribavirin Not Effective Against SARS Taiwanese researchers report that patients with confirmed SARS who were treated with ribavirin had worse outcomes as compared with infected patients who did not
• 04-12-2005: Marburg Situation Worsens While it is known that the number of Marburg cases and deaths continues to rise, at this point the true extent of the outbreak remains unclear
• 04-06-2005: Airborne spread of SARS; Marburg outbreak Two recent studies provide evidence for airborne (small droplet aerosol) transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the hospital setting.