Outbreak News Radio

Nearly one year ago, an infectious disease physician named Dr. Steven Beutler wrote a piece in the New Republic where he asked the speculative question--Many mental health professionals believe the president is ill. But what if the cause is an untreated STD?

In a Feb. 2017 interview from the radio show, infectious disease physician, Amesh Adalja, MD joined me to discuss neurosyphilis and to give his thoughts on the article.

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is caused by a dangerous tick-borne virus, (Nairovirus) of the Bunyaviridae family, that is endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asian countries south of the 50th parallel north – the geographical limit of the principal tick vector.

In Sept. 2016, we reported on the first local transmission of the tick-borne infection, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Spain.

In an radio interview that month, infectious disease physician and Forbes contributor, Dr. Judy Stone, joined me to discuss the ABCs of CCHF and how climate change and the destruction of the environment put us at risk for the spread of emerging infections like CCHF and others.

Syphilis numbers are growing around the US and around the world as more and more states and countries release data. In this interview from Apr. 2016, I speak to the Director of Communications for the American Sexual Health Association/National Cervical Cancer Coalition, Fred Wyand to discuss the syphilis situation.

We go over the ABC's of syphilis, why the number of cases are increasing, the reported link to apps like Tinder and Grinder and much more.

In this podcast, I pulled out a radio interview from the 4th of July 2016 weekend where the discussion was on foodborne parasites found in the United States. I was joined by microbiologist and the man behind the website, Parasitology Illustrated, Wilson Vientos.

We spent at least a half hour talking about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) list of the top foodborne (and may are primarily waterborne) parasites in the United States– protozoa such as Cryptosporidium spp.,Giardia intestinalis, Cyclospora cayetanensis, and Toxoplasma gondii; roundworms such as Trichinella spp. and Anisakis spp.; and tapeworms such as Diphyllobothrium spp. and Taenia spp.

In this podcast episode, originally from the Outbreak News This Week Radio Show in Mar. 2017, I look at the rare condition, usually brought on by medications or infections, Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) with a person that actually went through this painful immune-complex–mediated hypersensitivity complex.

Donna Rushing of Tampa was diagnosed with SJS one year ago and talks about the beginnings of the syndrome, symptoms, diagnosis, the treatment and her long recovery.

About three years ago, the website, VacTruth.com published an article entitled, "10 Reasons Not To Vaccinate", which laid out such arguments like "Vaccine do NOT work", "Are vaccines cause a host of 'chronic, incurable, and life threatening diseases'? and "Vaccines have never been proven safe or effective".

The theme of my Jan. 2015 interview with Director of the Vaccine Education Center and a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Paul A. Offit, MD was to examine many of the "10 reasons" and for him to offer his rebuttal.

According to the USGS, White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent fungal disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern to the central United States at an alarming rate. Since the winter of 2007-2008, millions of insect-eating bats in 31 states and five Canadian provinces (as of September 2017) have died from this devastating disease.

Bat Conservation International Director of Communication and Public Engagement, Micaela Jemison joined me in this Apr. 2017 interview to discuss WNS, general information about bats and the work of Bat Conservation International.

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the United States with some 200,000 cases reported annually. It is an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies directed against the thyroid gland lead to chronic inflammation. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis occurs most commonly in middle aged women, but can be seen at […]

Hashimoto's thyroiditis, also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the United States with some 200,000 cases reported annually. It is an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies directed against the thyroid gland lead to chronic inflammation.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis occurs most commonly in middle aged women, but can be seen at any age, and can also affect men, and children.

Founder and President of the Engelman Health Institute and permanent Clinical Consultant for Cyrex Laboratories, Mark Engelman, MD joined me to go over the nuts and bolts of Hashimoto's disease in this Aug. 2016 interview.

According to a paper published in AIMS Public Health earlier this year--We estimate the number of lives saved and morbidity reduction associated with the discovery of the first human cell strain used for the production of licensed human virus vaccines, known as WI-38. The diseases studied include poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chicken pox), herpes zoster, adenovirus, rabies and Hepatitis A.

The number of preventable cases and deaths in the U.S. and across the globe was assessed by holding prevalence rates and disease-specific death rates constant from 1960–2015. Results indicate that the total number of cases of poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A averted or treated with WI-38 related vaccines was 198 million in the U.S. and 4.5 billion globally. The total number of deaths averted from these same diseases was approximately 450,000 in the U.S., and 10.3 million globally.

"Living legend in the infectious disease world" and creator of the cell strain WI-38, Leonard Hayflick, PhD joined me in this March 2017 interview to discuss the history and development of the WI-38 cell strain, some of the controversy surrounding it and the vaccines that were produced because of it.