Epidemics

Tool focuses on anthrax and smallpox outbreaks

August 13, 2008 -- LIVERMORE, C.A. — Imagine an outbreak of a disease like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that could become an epidemic affecting thousands of people. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know early in the epidemic how fast the disease would spread and how many people may be infected so that the medical community could be prepared to treat them?

Sandia National Laboratories/California researcher Jaideep Ray has developed a computer model that can do just that.    » read more »

Grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will enhance state, local public health emergency preparedness efforts

June 16, 2008 -- SPRINGFIELD – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today announced that Illinois will receive nearly $20 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to further enhance state and local preparedness for public health emergencies.

The CDC recently notified the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) that the Department will receive $19.9 million, as part of a $705 million package that is being awarded nationwide to public health departments in states and territories, as well as in four major metropolitan areas. The City of Chicago will also receive $11.4 million as part of this package.    » read more »

May 14, 2008 — The HIV/AIDS epidemic will remain for the foreseeable future an unprecedented economic, social, and human challenge to Sub-Saharan Africa. This, according to a new strategy on HIV/AIDS in Africa launched by the World Bank Group on May 14. As well, African countries must continue to champion efforts to slow and reverse the rate of new HIV infections.    » read more »

20 September 2007 -- The World Health Organization says it has found typhoid in an area of the Democratic Republic of Congo where health experts are working to fight an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Last week, DRC officials ordered a quarantine in central Kasai Occidental province, after the U.N. health agency said five people there tested positive for the Ebola virus. Now, WHO officials say they have discovered five cases of typhoid in the same area.

WHO spokesman, Greg Hartl tells Reuters news agency that one of the typhoid cases also tested positive for Ebola.    » read more »

02 September 2007 -- Medical experts with the U.N. World Health Organization are investigating an outbreak of an unknown illness with a high mortality rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WHO has issued a statement saying it is unclear exactly how many cases or deaths are involved. But it says more than half the people affected are under the age of 10.

The statement listed symptoms that include fever, headache, diarrhea or abdominal pain and vomiting.    » read more »

30 August 2007 -- More than 100 people have died in the central Democratic Republic of Congo, in what health officials suspect is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.

The chief health official for Kasai Occidental Province, Jean-Constatin Kanow, says a total of 217 people in four villages have come down with the illness.

Kanow says the outbreak appears related to the funerals of two village chiefs in early June. The U.N.-funded IRIN news service quotes him as saying all the people who assisted with those burials have died.    » read more »

23 August 2007 -- The World Health Organization says infectious diseases are spreading around the world at a faster rate than ever before, making them more difficult to treat.

In its annual World Health Report, issued Thursday, the United Nations agency says one or more new diseases have been identified every year since the 1970s, a rate it says is "unprecedented."

The agency also says efforts to control such well-known diseases as tuberculosis have been compromised as they evolve into stronger, more drug-resistant forms.    » read more »

08/08/2007 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today added Glenn County and Kings County to the list of counties eligible for emergency financial aid to fight the spread of West Nile Virus.    » read more »

08/02/2007 -- With the number of people infected this year with West Nile Virus three times higher than the same time last year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today declared a state of emergency in Kern, Colusa and San Joaquin counties to prevent the spread of this mosquito-borne disease. This year there have been 4 deaths in California due to West Nile Virus (2 in Kern County, 1 in San Joaquin County and 1 in Colusa County).    » read more »

May 30, 2007 -- THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Welcome to the Rose Garden. Today, I'm joined by some very determined people who are battling one of the worst epidemics of modern times: the spread of HIV/AIDS.    » read more »