HEALTH - Think Ebola is Scary, There Are Others

"Ebola sounds scary, but these diseases are the real health threat" PBS NewsHour 10/22/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  The government’s latest steps illustrate again just how much anxiety remains about the prospect of Ebola’s spread.  But as public health officials continue to emphasize, the real risk to most Americans remains small.

In fact, there are a number of other illnesses that continue to pose bigger threats.

We outlined some of those concerns online, and it attracted a great deal of public interest.  So we decided to provide that context on our broadcast as well.

Hari Sreenivasan recorded this conversation in our New York studios.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  We get more information and perspective on this now from Dr. William Schaffner.  He is an infectious disease expert joining us from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

So, first off, there were quite a few cases that we heard out just a few months ago about Enterovirus D68.  This is something that was discovered in the ’60s, but this is really first outbreak that we have had.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, Vanderbilt University Medical Center:  Yes, Hari, it’s a very large outbreak.  It’s run across the entire country.

Children, many of them, have been affected.  And, of course, there are some children who had difficulty breathing and asthma attacks.  And now there’s even the question about whether this virus is capable of producing a paralytic illness.  That’s still under investigation.  But that was a big surprise that came upon us, yes.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  OK.

And then something that we thought was long gone, measles, we have kind of seen a reemergence of measles, almost 600 cases this year.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER:  Yes.  Can you imagine that?

And that’s because there’s still measles out in the world, but our parents, many of them, are withholding their children from vaccination.  And so when someone from — with measles comes into this country, it can spread among our own children, causing a whole lot of illness, illness that we thought was long gone.

And, actually, you know, before we had measles vaccine, measles caused 400 to 500 deaths of our children each year.  We’re letting down our guard a little bit there.

HEALTH - Lyme Disease on the Rise

"Dramatically Revised Lyme Disease Statistics Raise New Questions About Risk" PBS Newshour 8/20/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  Lyme disease was first identified in the 1970s, but it now turns out that it's much more common than previously estimated, about ten times more.

The CDC reported this week that an estimated 300,000 Americans get the tick-borne disease every year.  Symptoms can include fatigue, fever, skin rashes, and a headache.  Left untreated, it can lead to arthritis, facial palsy, and problems with the nervous system.  The number of cases has been increasing.  Most are concentrated in the Northeast, with 96 percent of them in 13 states.

There's also been a long-running debate around treatment for the disease.

And for all this, we turn to Beth Daley of The Boston Globe.  She has been working on a series about the disease and its impact.

ZOO NEWS - Avian Disease

"The ABCs of Avian Disease" By Bruce Rideout DVM PHD, San Diego Zoo Blog

Like most wildlife veterinarians, I chose this profession because I love animals and wanted to make a difference. So, nothing makes me more frustrated than seeing a disease take a high toll on our animals and being unable to help.

Avian tuberculosis was one such disease – even though it is uncommon, it takes a high toll on innocent bystanders each time a case occurs, and until now, there wasn’t much we could do to help.

The problem with avian tuberculosis is that it has always been considered a highly contagious disease, but one that spreads slowly and is very difficult to detect, much like human tuberculosis. As a result, when a case of avian tuberculosis is identified, the traditional management recommendation was to humanely euthanize all exposed birds because some of them might go on to spread the disease even further.

Unfortunately, many of these exposed birds turned out to be perfectly healthy and were euthanized unnecessarily, but we had no way of knowing that beforehand. So we decided to make avian tuberculosis our top research priority several years ago. We wanted to find out the best way to prevent this disease, so we could avoid these devastating consequences for exposed birds.

As we investigated the transmission of this disease, we discovered something amazing and unexpected: contrary to 100 years of dogma, avian tuberculosis does not appear to be a highly contagious disease. Our results so far suggest that avian tuberculosis is acquired primarily from soil and water in the environment, not from other infected birds.

Apparently, it is an environmental disease and not at all like human tuberculosis. This means that an infected bird does not pose a significant risk of infection to other birds, so none of the exposed birds need to be euthanized.

We now recommend that the disease be called avian mycobacteriosis to avoid confusion with human tuberculosis, and we recommend that it be managed as a preventable environmental disease.

When I presented these results at the annual meeting of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, a zoo veterinarian later told me that she ran out into the hallway as soon as she heard the results and called her associate veterinarian to cancel the scheduled euthanasia of a very valuable bird that had been exposed to avian mycobacteriosis. That was one of the most rewarding moments in my career. Nothing makes a veterinarian feel better than saving a life.

The next phase of our research is taking us into new territory. Many physicians believe that their immunocompromised patients, such as those on cancer chemotherapy, should euthanize or get rid of their pet birds because of the risk that they will acquire avian mycobacteriosis from them.

But there is mounting evidence that human cases of avian mycobacteriosis are also acquired from the environment, not directly from birds. In order to confirm this, and thereby prevent the unnecessary euthanasia of healthy pet birds, we plan to obtain DNA fingerprints of mycobacteria from birds and humans to show that human infections are not acquired from birds. Stay tuned!

WORLD - Disease Threats to World's Wheat Crop

"Scientists in Kenya Try to Fend Off Disease Threatening World's Wheat Crop" PBS Newshour 12/28/2011

Excerpt

FRED DE SAM LAZARO (Newshour): When the price of bread and other food staples goes up in the developing world, riots often result. What would happen if the majority of the world's wheat crop was wiped out by disease is unfathomable.

PETER NJAO, plant pathologist: This is a susceptible variety. And, actually, the disease is eating the whole plant.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Scientists Peter Njao and Ruth Wanyera say a fungal disease thought long under control called wheat rust is back and could destroy 80 percent of all known wheat varieties if it isn't stopped in its tracks.