Outbreak News Radio

May is Myositis Awareness Month and on today's show I want to take a look at these rare conditions and the importance of this month.

In addition, there is a new analysis on how myositis affects woman of color that we'll discuss.

Joining me to look at these issues and more is Dr. Cheilonda Johnson. Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is a pulmonologist who specializes in interstitial lung diseases. Her research focus is on genetic risk factors for autoimmune myositis-associated interstitial lung disease especially in African Americans.

On the latest Outbreak News This Week, I look at news from Florida and then expand to national and international news, and a little research.

Earlier this week, research was published in the journal, Nature Microbiology, which has newly published maps that reveal, for the first time, where anthrax poses global risks to people, livestock and wildlife.

The maps are the result of 15 years of data collection covering 70 countries.

Joining me today to discuss this work and it's importance is the lead author, Jason Blackburn, PhD. Dr. Blackburn is with the Spatial Epidemiology and Ecology Research Lab, Department of Geography at the University of Florida at Gainesville. He is also with the Emerging Pathogens Institute at UF.

Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated numbers of measles cases in the United States and through May 10, 839 measles cases have been reported in 23 states.

This is an increase of 75 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

A number of outbreaks have been reported this year, most notably the outbreak in Brooklyn.

A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases identifies the counties at the highest risk for measles outbreaks according to their analysis.

Joining me today is the lead author of the study, Sahotra Sarkar, PhD. Dr. Sarkar is a philosophy and integrative biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

On this week's Outbreak News This Week Radio Show, I had the opportunity to spend the whole hour discussing the three most commonly diagnosed free-living amoeba species that infect humans: Naegleria fowleri, Acanthamoeba species, and Balamuthia mandrillaris, with someone with expertise in infectious diseases and the unique perspective of a parent that lost a child to one of these lethal parasites.

Joining me on the show to take a closer look at these uncommon, accidental, yet high consequence pathogens and to share her personal story is Sandra Gompf, MD. Dr Gompf is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease and International Medicine at USF Health in Tampa.

Bioterrorism expert and Senior lecturer at Western New England University in Springfield, Lawrence Roberge, PhD joined me on the show to look at the history of bioterrorism--from antiquity to contemporary times.

The parasitic disease, Chagas disease, and the vector, the kissing bug, have been in US media a lot recently after the CDC published an MMWR about finding the bug in Delaware.

My guest today is currently conducting survey work in Oklahoma to estimate the prevalence of T. cruzi infection in domestic dogs and kissing bugs within the state.

Joining me to talk about Chagas disease, the kissing bug and her survey in Oklahoma is Kelly Allen,Ph.D.

Dr Allen is an assistant professor of veterinary parasitology at Oklahoma State University's Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

On this weeks program, I take a look a the surge of dengue fever cases in the Americas and southeast Asia. A primer of dengue fever and severe dengue is also introduced.

Measles does not just have individual health implications, but a measles investigation can be very expensive in terms of manpower and dollars and cents.

I look at this.A little update on the hepatitis A outbreak in Florida, increases in STDs and congenital syphilis and more.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that a slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria caused severe symptoms in a mouse model, which may account for the persistent symptoms seen in up to twenty percent of Lyme patients that are not cured by the current Lyme antibiotic regimen.

In addition, they also found that these "persister" Lyme bacteria were resistant to standard single-antibiotic Lyme treatments currently used to treat patients, while a three-antibiotic cocktail eradicated the Lyme bacteria in the mouse model.

Joining me to discuss these findings from a recent study in Discovery Medicine is Ying Zhang, MD, PhD. Dr Zhang is a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School.