Word: outbreaks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...provided readers with a real-life example of what epidemiologists do to protect the public health and underscored the need for maintaining skills and capabilities as an integral part of the U.S. public health system. All too often shortsighted budget cuts weaken the system's capacity to identify an outbreak quickly and intervene early enough to prevent further spread of an illness. Effective prevention requires some investment, and this is more important than ever with so many newly emerging communicable diseases like E. coli O157:H7. JOHN BECKLEY, Director Department of Health Hunterdon County Flemington...
...Alpine outbreak had spread to 13 states--or at least it seemed to have. Thirteen states could also mean 13 separate outbreaks. Earlier this year, the CDC took a step to eliminate such uncertainty, employing an innovative network of biotech machines called PulseNet. The hardware allows scientists to scan a bacterium and come up with a sort of genetic fingerprint unique to that cell line. Studying samples of the Wyoming E. coli as well as bugs from the surrounding states, the EIS researchers discovered that their profiles matched perfectly. The Alpine infection, it appeared, was indeed widespread...
...people tested positive for the Alpine bug--19 of whom were hospitalized--and an additional 159 were suspected of being infected, making it the largest waterborne outbreak of O157 in the U.S. So far none of the Alpine victims have died; given the bacteria's low but consistent mortality rate, however, that is as much a stroke of luck as anything else...
...weeks after the Alpine outbreak subsided, LaFonda Scott and one of her daughters attended a church luncheon. Still shaky after their battles with the bug, mother and daughter made their way to a nearby table, where seven-year-old Janessa spotted a pitcher of water. Eying it warily, she asked, "Mom, is that safe water...
DICK THOMPSON, our Washington-based science and medicine correspondent, heard about a dangerous E. coli outbreak in a small town in Wyoming and immediately did what federal health sleuths do: headed for the problem's source. His on-the-scene reporting provided a vivid account of the ongoing war against lethal bacteria. Says writer Jeffrey Kluger, who worked from Thompson's dispatches: "I didn't get the sense of experiencing this story secondhand. It was really like being there." Thompson was impressed by the combination of methodology and intuition of state and federal epidemiologists: "They spent hours on the phone...