Category: Vectorborne
Hemorrhagic Fever in Saudi Arabia: Following the Ticks
As scientists with CDC’s Special Pathogens Branch, Pierre Rollin, Bobbie Rae Erickson, and I recently boarded a flight from Atlanta to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, so that we could provide health officials with our expertise on Alkhurma virus. This virus causes Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever, a tick-borne disease that can be serious, even fatal, in humans. Ticks Read More >
Posted on by 5 CommentsOne Piece Found in the Marburg Puzzle
Marburg hemorrhagic fever is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. While not always fatal, infection with the Marburg virus generally causes serious illness. There is no vaccine or drug therapy available for those who become infected and we know that as many of 90 percent of those infected during outbreaks have died. Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentImported Human Rabies Cases
In the U.S., human rabies is rare, thanks mostly to the availability of rabies vaccination and the elimination of dog rabies. But in many other countries around the world, dog rabies is very common and people are at greater risk. When a person travels or immigrates from an area of higher risk (like Mexico) to Read More >
Posted on by 7 CommentsNCIS Atlanta: Severe Rash Illness in Baja
A mysterious cluster of illnesses and deaths of unknown cause was recently reported in Baja California, a Mexican state that – as the Spanish translation suggests – is situated just below the California-Mexico border. Our shared border with Mexico fosters a mutual interest in epidemiologic events like this one — where time is of the Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsImported Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever: One That Got Away
CDC’s Special Pathogens Branch recently diagnosed a case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in a U.S. traveler, who returned from Uganda back in January 2008 [SPB posting]. This person had visited the famous “python cave” in Maramagambo Forest, Queen Elizabeth Park, western Uganda. Fortunately, no one seems to have been infected from this patient when she Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentA New Twist for Ebola: Reston-Infected Pigs in the Philippines
Ebola-Reston [initial identification] virus is a mystery. Although quite deadly in monkeys, this Ebola cousin doesn’t appear to cause human illness. And who knows how it got to or independently evolved in the Philippines – a good 7,000 miles and really big ocean away from its Zaire, Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, and Bundibugyo brethren in Africa. Read More >
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