Personal Safety

Ebola case numbers quadruple in Guinea

Written on May 21, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, World News.

Today, Sierra Leone berated the “selfish and shameful” behavior of people risking a resurgence of the Ebola virus by ignoring quarantine restrictions, as authorities announced a spike in cases. Already devastated by Ebola, Guinea and Sierra Leone saw a spike in new cases last week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, crushing hopes that the deadly outbreak was petering out. The country’s National Ebola Response Centre...

Ebola can spread through sex

Written on May 1, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, Science News, World News.

Health officials now think Ebola survivors can spread the disease through unprotected sex nearly twice as long as previously believed. A Liberian woman appears to have contracted Ebola from unprotected sex with a man who survived the virus, health officials said today. Scientists thought the Ebola virus could remain in semen for about three months. But this case in West Africa suggests infection through sex can happen more than five months later. Based...

5.3M Hens to Be Killed to Slow Bird Flu Outbreak

Written on April 21, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, USA News.

In an effort to stop an outbreak of bird flu that could devastate Iowa’s poultry population, state health officials announced they will destroy up to 5.3 million hens to keep the virus from spreading. The fast-moving virus was confirmed on Monday at a chicken laying facility in Osceola County, Iowa. The birds compromise nearly 10 percent of Iowa’s egg-laying poultry population, according to the Associated Press. However, officials are...

What Can Parents Do To Prevent Further Spread of Measles?

Written on April 13, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Personal Safety.

Since December, there have been more than 130 confirmed cases of measles in the state of California, most of them connected to an outbreak that originated in a Southern California amusement park. Many of the infected persons were not vaccinated against the extremely contagious virus, which manifests itself through rash, fever and coughing. While thought to be eradicated in the U.S., the illness has been traced to travelers who were infected in...

USAID Taps Cornell to Advance Ebola Protective Garments

Written on March 31, 2015. Posted in Business News, Featured, Personal Safety.

In the war against Ebola, Cornell University – along with partners International Personnel Protection Inc. (IPP) and protective apparel manufacturer Kappler Inc. – will rethink, reimagine and re-engineer protective suits for health care workers on the front lines battling the life-threatening contagion. The garments – made possible through a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) grant – will be more comfortable and breathable, with...

Ebola-Infected Sewage May Require Longer Holding Period

Written on March 12, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Personal Safety.

Storing Ebola-infected sewage for a week at 86° Fahrenheit or higher should allow enough time for more than 99.99 percent of the virus to die, though lower ambient temperatures may require a longer holding period, according to a new study by researchers at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health. The study co-authored by Lisa M. Casanova, assistant professor of environmental health, and Scott R. Weaver, research assistant professor in...

App for Simulating the Potential Spread of the Measles Virus

Written on March 4, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, USA News.

To help the public better understand how measles can spread, a team of infectious disease computer modelers at the University of Pittsburgh has launched a free, mobile-friendly tool that lets users simulate measles outbreaks in cities across the country. The tool is part of the Pitt team’s Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics, or FRED, that it previously developed to simulate flu epidemics. FRED is based on anonymized U.S. census...

Ebola Virus As ISIS Bio-Weapon?

Written on February 27, 2015. Posted in Featured, Government News, Personal Safety, World News.

ISIS may already be thinking of using Ebola as a low-tech weapon of bio-terror, says a national security expert, who notes that the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” and terror groups like it would not even have to weaponize the virus to attempt to wreak strategic global infection. Such groups could simply use human carriers to intentionally infect themselves in West Africa, then disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system....

What You Need to Know About the Flu Vaccine

Written on February 25, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Personal Safety.

This year’s annual flu shot will offer protection against H1N1 flu (swine flu) virus, in addition to two other influenza viruses that are expected to be in circulation this flu season. A vaccine that protects against four strains of the virus will also be available, as will a high-dose flu vaccine for adults age 65 and older. As you can see there are many different flu vaccines and the general population believes that there is just one. This...

The Course of Ebola Virus Disease

Written on February 24, 2015. Posted in Health News, Opinion News, Personal Safety, Science News.

When a glycoprotein in the Ebola virus envelope binds to a receptor on an antigen-presenting cell, the activated cell goes right to a lymph node and “presents” the antigen (the virus) to cells in the immune system. Thus, like the AIDS virus, Ebola begins by attacking the body’s defenders. Then as it spreads through the body, it also attacks endothelial cells (the lining of blood vessels), liver cells, and many other cells. Cells that are most seriously...