Outbreak News Radio

Just in the past week, I reported on cyclospora outbreaks in Ontario, Canada and Texas and an increase in cases in New York City on the website, outbreaknewstoday.com.

Parasitologist and author of the book, Parasites: Tales of Humanity's Most Unwelcome Guests, Rosemary Drisdelle joined me to discuss Cyclospora in the latest installment of Parasites 101 on the Outbreak News Interviews podcast.

CIDRAP Director and author of the book, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH discussed this investigation from nearly four decades ago.

In 1980, 890 cases of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) were reported and nine out of 10 cases were associated with menstruation and linked to the use of higher absorbency tampons.

Today, TSS is relatively rare, but but serious clinical syndrome typically caused by bacterial infection due to Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pyogenes. Toxic shock progresses quickly. Its symptoms include: sudden fever, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, muscle aches, low blood pressure, rash, and shock with multi-organ dysfunction. The case fatality rate is reported as four percent nationally.

Epidemiologist with the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ryan Maddox, PhD, joined me to discuss Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and other human and animal prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).

A relatively rare tapeworm has popped up in several patients in Alberta, Canada in the past few years, which may not sound like much; however, the only other human case in Canada was in 1928 in Manitoba.

The parasite is called Echinococcus multilocularis and it appearance in Alberta has caught the attention of some infectious disease specialists.

Professor of Medicine and infectious disease expert with the University of Alberta, Stan Houston, MD joined me to discuss this serious parasitic disease and the situation in Alberta.

Who said health care must be expensive and essentially dominated by the US government and insurance companies? Free market options are out there and this sector is growing as the government-insurance cartel crumbles before our eyes.

Wichita, Kansas family physician, Dr. Josh Umbehr joined me to talk about his Direct Primary Care Clinic, which is essentially a membership service, providing health care at a low cost and exceptional service.

Umbehr talks about how his practice works, services provided and patient and doctor savings. Fascinating stuff you don't want to miss.

Parasitology teacher and writer and the author of the book, Parasites: Tales of Humanity's Most Unwelcome Guests, Rosemary Drisdelle joined me on the episode to discuss the soil-transmitted helminth, the giant intestinal roundworm--Ascaris lumbricoides.

Today's episode will be the first of a series of podcasts I'd like to call Parasites 101, which we'll try to on a weekly basis.

One of the main issues with Lyme disease is the testing, or the diagnostics as the current two-tier diagnostic approach can be inaccurate up to fifty percent of the time.

Professor in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and inventor of the Global Lyme Diagnostics platform, Richard Marconi, PhD joined me to discuss this new test for Lyme disease.

Learn more about the GLD Test at Global Lyme Diagnostics

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says "Hepatitis" means inflammation of the liver. The liver is a vital organ that processes nutrients, filters the blood, and fights infections. When the liver is inflamed or damaged, its function can be affected. Heavy alcohol use, toxins, some medications, and certain medical conditions can cause hepatitis. However, hepatitis is most often caused by a virus. In the United States, the most common types of viral hepatitis are Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C.

Hepatitis A has been in the news with some frequency as significant outbreaks have been reported in the Detroit and San Diego areas and Europe is experiencing a big outbreak.

Senior Associate with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Amesh Adalja, MD joined me to answer some questions about hepatitis A.