A long-term study shows that it’s not just travelers who are at risk of insect-borne diseases.
States are concerned after the CDC recently published data showing that disease cases from mosquito, tick and flea bites have more than tripled in the United States from 2004 to 2016.
Several other notable points were made:
After studying over 300 samples of ancient humans from across Europe and Asia, international scientists have discovered the hepatitis B virus in 12 people. The oldest of the samples comes from the 4,500-year-old remains of a man from Osterhofen, Germany.
Eske Willerslev, evolutionary genticist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, led the team who found the virus. Hepatitis B was present in people from approximately 3500 to 500 B.C.
But, this wasn’t the only team to find ancient proof of hepatitis B. Led by geneticist Johannes Krause, another group found the virus in the teeth of three skeletons in Jena, Germany from about 5000 to 3200 B.C. Krause comes from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
After a possible 34 cases and 18 deaths in the past five weeks, the Democratic Republic of Congo has officially declared an outbreak of the Ebola virus.
Two people have been confirmed to have Ebola, specifically the Zaire strain, while others showed signs of the illness.
The news was released by the World Health Organization on Tuesday, May 8. The WHO is working with officials in Congo to handle the outbreak and respond as early and effectively as possible. No deaths have been noted since May 3 as of May 11.
Mononucleosis is known for many things, including the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which can cause it. But, after a Cincinnati Children’s article on their new research, transmission of EBV may mean a lot more than just mono.
Published in April 2018, the article shows that getting mono can increase risk for developing seven other serious diseases.
A link has been previously found between EBV and lupus, as well as several particular lymphatic system cancers. New genomic methods are the reason we can now prove this significant connection. The science wasn’t available a decade ago, allowing us to show the link between mono and these diseases:
As we learn more about how illnesses spread, we consider new methods of transmission that hadn’t been previously investigated. One major idea that 2018 has presented is: can a virus spread via the rain?
As shown in new findings, they can and they do.
There’s nothing radical about viruses existing in water. Many common illnesses, like cholera and typhoid, can spread via the liquid. But, exploring the thought of rain carrying disease is relatively novel. Scientists had not been able to quantify what was “hiding out” in the atmosphere before.
