Outbreak News Radio

In this episode in the series, Parasites 101, I talk to Parasitology teacher and author of the book, Parasites: Tales of Humanity's Most Unwelcome Guests, Rosemary Drisdelle about the protozoa Cryptosporidiosis (or "Crypto" for short).

Rosemary answers the question, "How common is it", along with discussing the symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis and treatment of the parasite.

In recent weeks, two high profile individuals– a televangelist and the newly appointed Health commissioner of Milwaukee, WI–made very troubling anti-vaccine statements that garnered critiques by health experts. Charismatic televangelist Gloria Copeland basically told followers to skip the flu shot in favor of prayer and Milwaukee’s new Health commissioner, Dr Patricia McManus, the person responsible for […]

In recent weeks, two high profile individuals-- a televangelist and the newly appointed Health commissioner of Milwaukee, WI--made very troubling anti-vaccine statements that garnered critiques by health experts.

Charismatic televangelist Gloria Copeland basically told followers to skip the flu shot in favor of prayer and Milwaukee's new Health commissioner, Dr Patricia McManus, the person responsible for that city's public health, told a radio caller who asked whether the MMR vaccine causes autism--"I don't know. I think the science is still out".

Senior Associate with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Amesh Adalja, MD joined me to give his thoughts and strong criticism of the statements made by both women.

According to Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a food allergy is a serious and potentially life-threatening medical condition affecting up to 15 million Americans.

One in every 13 children has a food allergy—that's about 2 in every U.S. classroom. And every 3 minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room.

Scott Riccio, senior vice president of education and advocacy at Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) joined me in this 2016 interview to give the ABCs of food allergies and the work of FARE.

The Lupus Foundation of America says lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body.

Their research estimates that at least 1.5 million Americans have lupus. The actual number may be higher; however, there have been no large-scale studies to show the actual number of people in the U.S. living with lupus.

More than 16,000 new cases of lupus are reported annually across the US. It is believed that 5 million people throughout the world have a form of lupus.

President and CEO of the Lupus Foundation of America, Florida Chapter, Amy Yalden joined me in this 2016 interview to talk about lupus, Lupus Awareness Month and the work of the chapter.

Lyme disease was first described in the US in 1975-- it's a vector borne illness caused the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. It is transmitted to humans primarily by the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis and other species.

Is the Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma americanum, also a vector of the Lyme bacteria? My guest today says it is not.

Ellen Stromdahl, BCE joined me on the show to discuss this topic and an article recently published in the Journal of Medical Entomology-- Amblyomma americanum Ticks Are Not Vectors of the Lyme Disease Agent, Borrelia burgdorferi: A Review of the Evidence.

Ellen is an entomologist at the U.S. Army Public Health Center and the lead author of the study.

The CDC Yellow Book says the number of people traveling internationally has continued to grow substantially in the past decade. According to the World Tourism Organization, there were 1.2 billion worldwide international tourist arrivals in 2015, an increase of 4% from 2013; 50 million more people spent a night at an international destination than in 2014.

In 2015, US residents made more than 73 million trips with at least 1 night outside the United States. The importance of protecting the health of individual travelers, as well as safeguarding the health of the communities to which they return, cannot be overstated.

No interview in this episode. Instead, I want to look at the topic of travel health and my first destination is the archipelago made up of over 7,000 islands--the Philippines.

Last week it was reported in a number of media outlets that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be dramatically downsizing its epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out--That money is slated to run out by September 2019.

The program is called the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

Joining me today to talk about the GHSA and the implications of the budget cuts is Mike Osterholm, PhD. Dr Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy or CIDRAP at the University of Minnesota.

In this June 2016 interview, I talk to the author of Lyme Madness: Rescuing My Son Down The Rabbit Hole of Chronic Lyme Disease, Lori Dennis about the book, chronic Lyme disease and the multi-layers of issues surrounding it.

In addition to being a writer, Lori is a Registered Psychotherapist and the mother of an adult son who has been suffering from Chronic Lyme Disease for more than four years.

Dennis talked about the complexity of the disease and the problems encountered for sufferers to include the medical establishment, the media and the politics.

In this podcast, that was actually recorded in early November 2014, I started by giving some thoughts on Ebola in the US. This segued into a discussion with Associate Professor with the Department of Biostatistics, Environmental Health Sciences, and Epidemiology at Kent State University's College of Public Health, Tara Smith, PhD.

Dr. Smith addressed topics of how the situation in West Africa got to the point of where it was–unprecedented high numbers of cases and deaths dwarfing all previous Ebola outbreaks. What factors led to the enormous, in Ebola terms, outbreak; how did "patient zero" likely get infected and what did Nigeria do so well to squash a potential disaster in Africa's most populous country?