Page 2 - Public Health Alerts
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Posted: April 19, 2023
Rising Legionella Infections and Its Prevention in Industrial Cooling Towers
Although Legionella is found naturally in freshwater environments, it becomes a health concern to the population...
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Posted: January 20, 2023
Clostridioides difficile (formerly named Clostridium difficile, and widely known as C. diff) is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, obligate anaerobe that causes life-threatening diarrhea in people who take antibiotics, are hospitalized or in nursing homes, and people with weakened immune systems.(1)
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Posted: November 21, 2022
Two years ago, there was virtually no flu season due to COVID-19 isolation.
In addition, experts predict another COVID-19 surge this fall and winter.(2) According to the World Health Organization’s early October global situation report, more than 1.5 million COVID-19 diagnosis were reported across Europe during the week ending Oct. 2, about...
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Posted: September 30, 2022Categories: Clinical, Industry Insights, Public Health Alerts, Health & Wellness, Product Spotlights
Emerging hand in hand with the Pandemic...
A new 2022 special report from the CDC is sounding the alarm that antimicrobial resistance to some of the most concerning bacteria and fungi significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (1) One such highly drug resistant yeast noted in the report is Candida...
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Posted: August 19, 2022
Effective vaccinations for COVID-19 have been readily available in the United States for well over a year and a new vaccine has just been added to the arsenal. Novavax (NVX-CoV2373), created by a company of the same name, was granted emergency use authorization in early July and has now been endorsed by the CDC.(2) Novavax is approved for adults who are 18 years and older and currently is limited to...
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Posted: August 05, 2022
Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is the most common bacterial cause of pharyngitis, often referred to as strep throat. GAS can also cause severe invasive infections. People who are elderly, have skin breakdown (when the skin is deprived of blood flow, the skin can become damaged or develop ulcers), or have chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, are at increased risk. Each year in the United States...
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Posted: July 22, 2022
Another respiratory virus of concern. Common, yet underdiagnosed...
Every year we anticipate the rounds of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and now Covid-19; but there is a lesser-known culprit of seasonal respiratory infections.
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Posted: March 21, 2022Categories: Modern Innovations, Clinical, Industry Insights, Public Health Alerts, Health & Wellness
As the COVID-19 pandemic moves into its third year, new treatment options to combat the coronavirus disease are being authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In December, 2021, the FDA issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for two oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, Molnupiravir and Paxlovid.(1,2)
This comes at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and COVID-19... -
Posted: February 10, 2022
How dangerous are the BA.2 and BA.3 sub-variants compared to the Omicron BA.1 that we already know?
South Africa has one of the most robust public health systems in the world, carefully monitoring their SARS-CoV-2 case load, which has been dominated these last few months by the Delta variant. In recent months, however...
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Posted: November 23, 2021
In the United States, Campylobacter is the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea, affecting 1.5 million U.S. residents every year.(1) Approximately 30% of Campylobacter strains have decreased susceptibility to fluoroquinolones (e.g., ciprofloxacin) or macrolides (e.g., azithromycin), the antibiotics commonly used to treat infections, which poses a serious threat to public health.(2)
In August... -
Posted: May 21, 2021
How far do we have to go to reach herd immunity?
First of all we must know that herd immunity is defined as a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that can occur with some diseases when a sufficient...
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Posted: April 23, 2021
Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of molecules for large-scale manufacturing purposes. It is a broad field of science, which combines chemistry, physics, energy storage, microfabrication, and molecular engineering.
Recently, it has been popularized by its role in nanomedicine for the COVID-19 vaccine. (1) Currently...
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Posted: March 02, 2021
Many states are relaxing restrictions amid both vaccination efforts and slowly decreasing case numbers, however, scientists warn that this pandemic is far from over. Researchers are working to gather more information about the SARS CoV-2 and its variants while the virus continues to mutate.
So, what are variants?...
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Posted: January 07, 2021
A novel test for T cells show great promise in detecting immune status
Antibodies often steal the spotlight when talking about immunity, but they are not the only protagonist in the immune system.
T cells are specialized defenders activated in the adaptive...
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Posted: December 08, 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a pandemic on March 11, 2020. 1 Since then—at the time of writing—63,098,003 cases and 1,465,111 deaths have been reported from 191 afflicted countries/regions across the globe. 2 Along with its high transmissibility...