On today's podcast, I want to take a look at a couple of much talked about issues when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic at this point in time--the diagnostic testing (both PCR and antibody, or serology testing) and the death rates associated with the viral illness.

I am joined today with friend of the show and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH.

On today’s podcast, I want to look at some different issues involving the coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19 pandemic to include the varying fatality rates in certain countries, US pandemic preparedness and what we should be doing moving forward. Joining me to look at these issues and more is Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins […]

On today's podcast, I want to look at some different issues involving the coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19 pandemic to include the varying fatality rates in certain countries, US pandemic preparedness and what we should be doing moving forward.

Joining me to look at these issues and more is Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Amesh Adalja, MD.

This week, March 15-21 is National Poison Prevention Week 2020. What is poison control and what is the role of Poison control centers?

Joining me today to answer these questions and more is Dr. Mazda Shirazi. Dr Shirazi is associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, a clinical toxicologist and serves as the medical director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center.

Locally acquired cases of Chagas disease are exceedingly rare in the United States. Only 28 autochthonous infections were documented from 1955 to 2015.

A recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) describes the first locally transmitted Chagas disease case in the state of Missouri.

Joining me to talk about this unusual case is George Turabelidze, MD, PhD. Dr Turabelidze is with the Division of Community and Public Health with the Missouri Department of Health.

Results were recently published in a study in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology that show limitations of currently available diagnostic tests for early-stage Lyme disease, and highlight the need for more research toward improved diagnostics and treatments.

Joining me today to discuss the study and the findings is Liz Horn, PhD. Dr Horn is the Principal Investigator with the Lyme Disease Biobank.

Today is World Aspergillosis Day, a day to raise awareness about a fungal infection that kills more than one million people globally each year.

Joining me now to talk about aspergillosis, a new kind of antifungal drug and World Aspergillosis Day is Marco Taglietti, M.D. Dr Taglietti is the president and chief executive officer of SCYNEXIS and an infectious disease expert.

When their is a global infectious disease outbreak, one action governments take is traveler screenings--we saw it during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and we are seeing it with the current COVID-19 outbreak.

So, how effective are traveler screenings?

My guest today addresses this issue in a recent study published in eLife.

Joining me is Katelyn Gostic, PhD. Dr Gostic is with the Dept. of Ecology & Evolution at the University of Chicago and the lead author of the study.

In this October 2016 interview, I speak to University of Florida Associate Professor of Veterinary Entomology, Dr. Phil Kaufman about the screwworm and the situation in the Florida Keys that year.

Kaufman talked about the biology of screwworm, the pathology demonstrated on an infected mammal, treatment, the devastating effects on the Key deer and prevention and control methods employed by federal and state agricultural officials.

While sifting through the archives I stumbled across several old radio interviews that I never published as podcasts.

This interview from March 2014 with founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr Peter Hotez was on the spread of the neglected tropical disease, the parasitic disease, Leishmaniasis and its spread in the Middle East and East Africa due strife, war and conflict in these regions.