Infectious disease
Category archives for Infectious disease
The impact of HIV on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Posted by Tara C. Smith on February 26, 2013 Second of five student guest posts by Nai-Chung N. Chang Tuberculosis (TB) is a major disease burden in many areas of the world. As such, it was declared a global public health emergency in 1993 by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is a bacterial disease that is transmitted through the air when an infected…
Treatment of Chronic Otitis Media: Guidelines versus Practice
Posted by Tara C. Smith on February 25, 2013 First of five student guest posts by Kristen Coleman Every morning as I prepare for class, I go through the same internal dialogue, “to wear or not to wear my hearing aide.” I am forced to do this because when I was a child I, like most American children (about 80% by age 3 as…
Second Annual Great Plains Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference
Posted by Tara C. Smith on February 22, 2013 For those of you in the general vicinity, the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology will be once again sponsoring the Great Plains Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference on April 19-20 in Iowa City. This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance: Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, is…
Plague in Victorian San Francisco–lessons for public health communication
Posted by Tara C. Smith on February 18, 2013 I have a post up today at the Scientific American Guest blog, discussing how an earthquake and denial led to prairie dog plague. It details an outbreak of plague in Victorian San Francisco–the first time plague hit the United States–and the many downstream consequences of that outbreak (which began in 1900 and wasn’t really contained…
Matt Damon: no poo for you
Posted by Tara C. Smith on February 13, 2013 Readers may be familiar with Matt Damon’s charity work with water.org, an organization he co-founded. Water.org seeks to raise awareness of the lack of clean water by almost a billion people on earth, and lack of toilets by almost 2.5 billion–and more importantly, they work to remedy that situation by providing sustainable, local solutions. His…
Where do pandemics come from?
Posted by Tara C. Smith on December 4, 2012 I discuss the topic of emerging infectious diseases today over at Slate, as part of their Pandemic series.
Pig-to-monkey Ebola: is there something in the air?
Posted by Tara C. Smith on November 19, 2012 Ebola has long been known to be a zoonotic virus–one which jumps between species. Though it took several decades to find evidence of Ebola virus in bats, these animals had previously been associated with human index cases of Ebola disease have worked in bat-infested warehouses or traveled to caves where bats roost. Non-human primates have…
Uganda hit with Marburg
Posted by Tara C. Smith on October 19, 2012 Uganda’s latest Ebola outbreak, which I covered back in July, was just officially declared over on October 5th, a mere two weeks ago. Now today there is a report that three are dead from an outbreak of Marburg virus. That makes 4 Ebola outbreaks and now 2 Marburg outbreaks in the country since 2000.
Eastern Equine Encephalitis: The Mosquito that bit the Snake
Posted by Tara C. Smith on October 17, 2012 Guest post by Hillary Craddock Last week a new study regarding Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) was published online (Bingham et.al.). EEE is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious, and sometimes deadly, disease in humans and equines. In warmer parts of North America, the virus is spread year-round, but in areas where mosquitoes get killed…
“Rabid” by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
Posted by Tara C. Smith on September 28, 2012 Rabies is a disease without a public relations firm. In developed countries, human disease is incredibly rare–we see typically one or two deaths from rabies each year. In contrast, lightning is responsible for about 60 deaths each year. However, worldwide, rabies is another matter. Today is World Rabies Day, a reminder that 55,000 people still…