Outbreak News Radio

Chagas disease is also known as "American Trypanosomiasis." It's caused by a blood parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted by kissing bugs.

Chagas disease affects people as well as dogs and other animals. On today's show, we are going to focus on Chagas in dogs.

Joining me today to discuss this topic is Carlos Rodriguez, Carlos is the serology section head at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab.

There is a recent reported of a toddler from Pryor, Oklahoma who contracted the raccoon roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis.

Here I look at the news report and discuss the parasite briefly.

There was a report in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) media concerning an anthrax outbreak in South Kivu. Nine people were affected, including two fatalities.

The report notes consumption of guinea pigs as the source.

In this podcast, I look at the report, eating guinea pigs and a quick look at anthrax.

My guest today writes, "In many places around the world, malaria is closely linked to illegal gold mining" in a recent article in the BMC blog, BugBitten titled, "A story of two fevers: when malaria is the price of gold".

What is malaria and how is it linked to illegal gold mining?

Joining me today to look at this huge public health problem in certain parts of the world is Karina Mondragon-Shem, PhD. Dr Mondragon-Shem is a vector biologist who specializes in the ecoepidemiology and social impact of tropical diseases.

In previous interviews, I've looked at the topic of what is a clinical laboratory scientist during the annual Lab Week observance.

Today, I want to narrow the topic to the specialty of Microbiology in the clinical laboratory.

Joining me today to discuss the clinical laboratory scientist in Microbiology and his podcast, Let's Talk Micro is Luis Plaza.

Whooping cough, or pertussis was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood mortality in the United States in the last century.

Before the availability of pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, more than 200,000 cases of pertussis were reported annually. Since widespread use of the vaccine began, incidence has decreased more than 75% compared with the prevaccine era.

However, infections began to rise again in the late 1990s. So what is pertussis and why are rates on the rise again?

Joining me to discuss pertussis is Chandana Bala, Chandana is the President of Global Insight Advisory Network and writes on the intersection of healthcare and technology. She is a frequent writer for Gideon Informatics.

Officials with the Colombian Army reported an outbreak of the parasitic disease, Chagas disease, which infected a number of soldiers at a military base in Cesar, in northern Colombia.

It is reported that two soldiers died while another seven were hospitalized in the ICU. The infections have been linked to the consumption of food.

In this podcast, I look at the news report, discuss some basics about Chagas disease and talk about the link between acai fruit and juices and Chagas.

In today's podcast, I go over a recent paper that discusses a number of viral, bacterial and prion diseases that have been linked to certain religious and non-religious rituals.

Mutations happen with viruses all the time and the Omicron COVID-19 variant is the latest and is receiving a lot of media attention.

Today is December 1, 2021, a very short time since the first cases were detected and the date of the first confirmed case in the US--so the questions are--What do we know and what do we not know?

Joining me today to look at the Omicron variant B.1.1.529 is Michael Osterholm, PhD. Dr. Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota.

In a recent article published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the authors report the unusual case of a girl diagnosed with Neisseria gonorrhoeae after bathing in a heavily frequented hot pool at the edge of the crater lake Specchio di Venere ("Mirror of Venus") on Pantelleria Island, Italy.

Joining me today to discuss the case is Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith. Dr. Goodyear Smith is with the Department of General Practice & Primary Health Care, University of Auckland and coauthor of the case report.

Gonococcus infection probably acquired from bathing in a natural thermal pool: a case report https://jmedicalcasereports.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13256-021-03043-6