The continuous rise in cases has been seen throughout the months, where newly developed cases are being reported from Alabama and North Carolina.

Presently, there are 123 whooping cough, more known as pertussis, in Alabama and 525 in North Carolina.

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It is caused by bacteria known as Bordetella pertussis, and it results in violent coughing, fever, sore eyes, and blue lips.

In severe cases, this can lead to vomiting, exhaustion, and problems breathing, and is fatal in about one percent of babies who catch the bug.

The growing threat of illness

Nationally, an outbreak that started in the spring grew less intense over the summer but spiked again in August – and doctors are concerned that the illness may rise even higher as viruses weaken immune systems during the cold and flu season or as people are cooped up indoors because of the weather, the DailyMail reported.

So far, in 2024, there have been five times the number of cases as in 2023 – more than 16,000 Americans were infected as of the middle of October, CDC reported.

The majority of the cases have been detected in Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, California, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Arizona.

The authorities have blamed it majorly on a gap in vaccination uptake post-pandemic.

According to the CDC, children are advised to receive three doses of the Tdap shot, which protects against the virus, before their first birthday.

Additionally, this shot is proven to be ninety-eight percent effective in preventing disease among children within the year following the injection of the vaccine.

In Alabama, the cases were confirmed in students of the High Schools of Trussville and Springville and the University of Alabama Huntsville, among other schools in the central and northern regions of the state.

Whooping cough cases have increased in the state by 300 percent in the last year – from 41 people to 123 people, according to a report from the Alabama Department of Public Health, the DailyMail reported.

According to Andrew Mundhenk, Henderson County Department of Public Health spokesperson, the latest jump in cases may be “similar to what we saw in the spring.”

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A seventh probable California case has been identified and is awaiting confirmation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, all the reported cases are described as mild, and each case appears to have resulted from contact with infected livestock or poultry.

In California, for instance, the infections were among workers in the dairy industry. In Oregon, the patient was a poultry worker.

Rising cases in states

California’s state epidemiologist Erica Pan said that when five cases were announced on Friday, this may have sounded like it exploded or accelerated, medicalxpress.com reported.

The CDC had confirmed three cases on Wednesday after California’s reporting deadline. The other two were declared on Thursday – a day California doesn’t release data on the cases.

There was also a holiday on Monday, which contributed to delaying the reporting.

According to him, “I would still call these sporadic animal or human infections, and there’s still no evidence of any human to human.”

“These are all workers who are at risk of exposure based on their their work exposures,” he added.

In the Oregon case, the disease was contracted from a reported outbreak of infected commercial poultry operations in Clackamas County.

The agency noted that the person has been treated with an antiviral medication called Oseltamivir. The health agency also advised the use of the antiviral medication to other members of the family or people who stayed with the patient, medicalxpress.com reported.

Since March this year, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that fifty-two people have contracted H5N1. Thirty samples were obtained from dairy cattle and 21 from poultry.

For one more case in Missouri, the source of infection is still unknown.

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Since September, at least thirty-nine people have reported falling ill with E. coli after consuming carrots; fifteen of them were hospitalized, said the CDC.

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Bagged organic baby and whole carrots in various sizes and brands were recalled Saturday by Grimmway Farms of Bakersfield, California, which claims to be the world’s largest carrot producer.

The carrots were sold under the store brands of Kroger, Publix, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Wegmans, and Whole Foods.

While the carrots have probably been removed from stores, people may still have them at their homes, stated Grimmway Farms. Those who have rereminded carrots should discard or return them to the store they bought, and anyone who may have handled them should wash their surface, CDC said.

The products were distributed under several brands, such as Grimmway Farms, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s Wegmans, and Good & Gather, among others, according to the recall notice.

About the outbreak

The health agency noted that illnesses reported may not portray the exact expanse of the outbreak as it could take up to four weeks or more to take a notice that if a sick person is part of an outbreak, and in many cases, people who get E. coli get better without treatment and never get tested for the bacteria, the agency noted.

Shiga toxin-producing E.coli, which has been associated with carrot recall, has an incubation period of about three to four days and is self-limiting, lasting for about setting for five to seven days, according to the agency.

The CDC describes groups at a higher risk for infection to be Children under five years, people who are sixty-five years and above, and anyone with a weakened immune system.

Consumers should consult a healthcare provider if they get severe E. coli symptoms, including diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and dizziness, the agency says.

According to Grimmway Farms President and CEO Jeff Huckaby,

“We take our role in ensuring the safety and quality of our products seriously,” CNN Health reported.

“The health of our customers and the integrity of our products are our highest priorities, and we are conducting a thorough review of our growing, harvest, and processing practices,” Huckaby added.

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Additionally, the reports from St. Joseph County suggest that infected teenagers are facing hospitalization longer than what usually takes. 

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According to Dr. Karen Davis, Pediatric Hospitalist at Saint Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, “It’s specifically mycoplasma pneumonia in this age group, which, mycoplasma is what we call an atypical pneumonia. So, not the bacteria that we normally expect to cause pneumonia,” wsbt.com reported. 

“And so it is more common in that age group, and what we’re seeing is that number seems to be a lot higher than it has in years past, and that’s other physicians’ experience throughout the nation as well,” he added. 

Therefore, reports suggest that the severity of the symptoms in teens is unusual. 

What more are the experts stating? 

According to Davis, “So, I’m definitely seeing a lot more here in the hospital. Kids get pneumonia, but the overwhelming majority, especially in that age group, don’t necessarily end up being hospitalized. So, this year has definitely been out of the ordinary in that I’ve had quite a few kids end up admitted to the hospital because they’re requiring oxygen or just having a lot more severe symptoms,” wsbt.com reported. 

More about Mycoplasma 

Mycoplasma is an infection caused by bacteria, which leads to inflammation in the lungs, which makes the body feel that there is an “unfriendly” foreign object that needs to be removed. 

Moreover, as St. Joe County Health Officer Dr. Michelle Migliore, “Mycoplasma requires a specific type of antibiotic to be treated. It does not respond normally to the normal antibiotics that we use with children. A lot of times kids will get amoxicillin or the pink stuff that tastes like bubble gum as they often say. But mycoplasma requires what is called a macrolide, a type of antibiotic that’s in the class of macrolide.” 

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The Aedes aegypti is an invasive species that is active in biting during the day and can spread a number of diseases.

To date, the mosquito has been identified in six places within Santa Clara County. Last discovered, the species was in San Jose near Cortez Avenue and Orlando Drive.

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According to Edgar Nolasco, director of the County of Santa Clara Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency, “The threat posed by Aedes aegypti is growing, and we need everyone to pitch in now to prevent this day-biting mosquito from becoming established in Santa Clara County,” mercurynews.com reported.

“In the interest of public health, we need businesses and residents to check their properties for sources of standing water and remove them. And we need the people who live in areas where this invasive mosquito has been found to work together with district staff and allow them to inspect their properties,” Nolasco reported.

The mosquito is approximately ¼ inch in length and is not difficult to identify as it includes black stripes down its back as well as its legs.

Adult wildcats prefer to feed on human beings and have never been seen to fly more than 500 feet away from the nests where they are born.

San Jose Mosquito – The mosquito has infested six areas in San Jose near Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park near Cortez Avenue and Orlando Drive and the South San Jose, Santa Clara, Gilroy, and East sections of San Jose.

It was detected that while the cause of mosquito activities rose with climate change through warmer temperatures, the officials of the county were equipped with the necessary knowledge of those developments.

Officials said that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes continue to breed in 19 California counties – mostly in the Central Valley and Southern California.

However, the mosquitoes’ presence is claimed in four, but not found, counties of the Bay Area. County officials said that this mosquito is capable of spreading diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, zika, and yellow fever.

In 2024, there were 12 locally acquired dengue cases in Los Angeles County, according to the Department of Public Health.

There is up to thirty-two (32) fluid ounces of water required for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to lay their eggs and these breeders prefer smaller artificial containers just above the water line such as buckets, pet dishes, fountains, bird baths, plant pots, saucers, tires, etc.

The eggs can also live for a year and a half in a dry environment.

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Some have been confirmed in fourteen states, as reported by the US CDC.

Hospitalizations and Fatality

One person has died in Colorado alone, and four other individuals have been found to have a potentially fatal acute kidney condition.

Overall, there are more than thirty cases in Colorado, nineteen in Montana, thirteen in Nebraska, ten in New Mexico, eight in Missouri and Utah, six in Wyoming, three in Kansas, two in Michigan, and one case each in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The cases of illnesses were reported from September 12 to October 21. At least seven of the respondents who suffered food-borne diseases indicated that the food they took was from McDonald’s while on the move.

Source of Contamination

The CDC ruled out slivered onions, used to garnish Quarter Pounders, as the cause of contamination.

Taylor Farms, a California-based producer-growing company, also recalled onions that could have been contaminated with bacteria.

Tests by the US Food and Drug Administration detected a type of E. coli bacteria that produces a dangerous toxin in one sample of the onions, but it did not match the strain that made people sick, officials reported.

The US Food and Drug Administration lab tests found a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli bacteria in one of the onions but different from that which infected people, officials said, as ABC News reported.

During the initial phase, Quarter Pounders were removed from the menus of many states during the early days of the outbreak.

McDonald’s officials said Wednesday that the company identified an alternate supplier for the nine restaurants that temporarily stopped serving the burgers with onions.

Over the past week, those restaurants resumed selling Quarter Pounders with slivered onions.

As FDA mentioned, there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants,” ABC News reported.

The kind of bacteria causing menace to which the type of bacteria mentioned in this outbreak belongs resulted in 74,000 annual infections in America and 2,000-plus hospitalizations besides 61 deaths, according to the CDC.

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Study Findings

By 2018, the federal statistics demonstrated that 42 percent of adults had at least some kind of NAFLD; the actual figure, many researchers believe, is considerably higher than this figure; how, for instance, precisely, a group of researchers led by Dr. Juan Pablo Arab, a liver specialist with the Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, wanted to know.

Hispanic adults were at particularly elevated risk, the team identified, with 47 percent having been infected.

What is Fatty Liver Disease?

Fatty liver disease, as experts point is characterized by a slow and steady accumulation of fat in the blood-cleansing organ.

If left untreated, MASLD can lead to liver failure and severe kidney complications, according to the American Liver Foundation.

Study Methodology

This new study drew from data collected between 2017 and 2018 from 5,523 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

MASLD is by far the most frequently encountered liver disease, with an overall prevalence of 42 percent among the adult population.

ALD and MetALD are greatly reduced and account for only 1.7 percent and 0.6 percent of the total adult population, respectively.

Fatty liver disease, for instance, had higher incidence rates for men than women and reported higher incidences as age increased.

The high rate of MASLD among Hispanics was unexpected; however, one 2014 study estimated that only 29 percent of Hispanics experienced this disease at the time.

Researchers suggest that a combination of genetic predisposition, obesity, and high rates of diabetes in the Hispanic community may explain this higher risk.

Rising Cases Linked to Obesity & Diabetes

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are the main factors, as researchers noted.

Nearly 65 percent of those adults with overweight have MASLD, the team said, raising the risk to 90 percent among morbidly obese people.

Moreover, during that, almost 70 percent of patients with type-2 diabetes also suffered from MASLD, the expert team noted.

Conclusion

As Arab described, “This study highlights a significant health issue that affects a large portion of the U.S. population, and it shows that certain groups are at a higher risk,” and “We hope these findings will guide more targeted health interventions to reduce the burden of liver disease, especially in high-risk communities.”

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First identified in Italy, this highly contagious flu strain has now reached the French border, prompting increased vigilance in the region.

Details on the outbreak

The first known severe case of this flu strain involved a 76-year-old man who was urgently hospitalized in Italy in October. Since then, isolated cases have been reported in the Lombardia, Lazio (Rome area), and Piedmont regions, according to dailygalaxy.com.

This flu variant is believed to be a descendant of the H3N2 strain from the A influenza family, which is typically seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

About the circulating flu strain

It is also termed the ‘Australian flu‘ because it struck Australia hardest, where it ranks as the second-worst flu season in the last ten years. Therefore, this nomenclature is based on its origins and the repercussions it had and continues to have on the health of the public.

The spread of this flu strain is similar to other worrisome viral activities, such as the concerning chimp behaviors that might have caused a pandemic, thus showcasing the vital need to stay vigilant of this emerging threat.

Distinctive Symptoms and Risks

Dr. Fabrizio Pregliasco, Health Director at IRCCS Galeazzi and a virologist at the University of Milan, described this variant as “immuno-evasive,” meaning it can bypass the body’s immune defenses more effectively.

This characteristic has raised concerns multifold and makes the flu particularly dangerous, especially for individuals over the age of sixty-five.

Clinical signs of this flu variant include

• Sudden high fever (above 38°C)
• Respiratory symptoms (nasal congestion, runny nose)
• Muscle or joint pain
• Dry cough
• Loss of appetite
• Chills and headaches
• Bone pain and fatigue
• Digestive symptoms (vomiting and diarrhea)

These might include things like brain fog and confusion, and though this is very, very rare, you know there is always a risk of encephalitis, which is the inflammation of the brain that can be fatal.

The clinical manifestations, however, usually resolve in 4-7 days but may be prolonged up to two weeks in some instances.

It is essential to act to recuperate, rest, and drink enough water. Fever and pain can be controlled by taking some medications with a doctor’s advice. Vaccination still goes a long way in prevention of the diseases.

The tetravalent flu vaccine provides a shield against complex Australian flu and is recommended for vulnerable populations, such as old people and those with weaker immunity.

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A newly emerging disease, Fox Weather found that the people in the Tampa area are now also struggling with a new mosquito-transmitted disease called Dengue fever.

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Hurricanes Helene and Milton carried water in west-central Florida before it reached rivers, and mosquitoes like to breed – in or near standing water that formed after Milton, October 9.

Since then, the Hillsborough County Department of Health has reported four new locally acquired domestic dengue fever cases, according to Fox Weather.

Over fifty cases have been confirmed in Florida alone. On a positive note, however, the WHO indicates that most of those infected with dengue do not show any symptoms, which means they are asymptomatic, TCD News reported.

Dengue fever rise

For those who are not acquainted with dengue fever, it begins with such flu-like symptoms as headache. However, it can progress rapidly to unbearable joint discomfort, according to Dr. John Sinnott from the University of South Florida and the field of infectious disease.

“I’ve seen patients with this, and their pain is remarkable,” Sinnott added.

However, the spread of dengue fever is quite alarming because its occurrence is on the rise globally due to conditions that favor the disease.

Global and ocean warming prepares the way for extreme flooding events in which mosquito breeding is possible in areas that are not traditionally warm and, therefore, not breeding grounds for the dengue fever mosquitoes.

The Americas, in general, is witnessing a slightly almost four hundred percent increase in the disease.

A word of warning: those who contracted the virus in Puerto Rico suffered longer and more severe symptoms if they got infected for the second or the third time, TCD News reported.

Brazil also saw a huge rise in 2024, with an incidence quadrupling in January compared to the same period last year, according to the BBC.

In response, Fox Weather reports that the Hillsborough County Public Works department has maintained removal efforts by pumping water from the area and aerially watering to minimize dissemination.

They are also urging residents to throw away or cover all sources of standing water.

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A total of 1,193 cases across 31 counties were reported as of November 2, the Department of Health reported. When compared with last year’s count, there were just fifty-one total cases in the state.

Sharp Increase in Pertussis Cases

However, Washington was not alone in the steep rise of very contagious bacterial disease cases in the present year.

The US has seen more than twenty thousand cases in the present year. Out of which, seven states including Washington have more than a thousand count of cases, the Seattle Times reported.

According to Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, the state’s chief science officer and a pediatrician, “The surge in pertussis cases is a stark reminder of how critical vaccinations are in protecting our most vulnerable, especially infants for whom it can be life-threatening,” the Washington Post reported.

According to DOH reports, out of the total who have gotten sick, twenty-eight have been hospitalized including twelve infants of age younger than one year of age.

Furthermore, more than eighty percent of the cases were seen in those of age less than eighteen years of age, whereas around thirty-four were those of kids younger than four years of age.

As the reports suggest, Whitman, Clark, and Chelan counties encountered the highest rate of infections, where all of the reported cases ranged between 78 and 113 per 100,000 individuals.

Also, Clark County’s infection rate has stood second highest, with nearly 83 per 100,000, whereas more than four hundred were reported this year, which is the highest rate in the state so far.

What is Pertussis?

It is often associated with the common cold, which involves a runny nose, however, it could also lead to a severe state causing coughing fits, lasting for weeks or months, as per DOH.

Moreover, as experts state, babies are the most vulnerable to this condition leading to severe illness and even death in certain cases.

As DOH mentioned, in the case of some infants, typical coughing symptoms might not be there, and they could face a “dangerous pause” in their breathing.

“To protect babies from whooping cough, people of all ages should get up to date on pertussis vaccination, and anyone with symptoms should see a health care provider to see if testing and antibiotic treatment are needed,” Kwan-Gett added.

Routine shots

According to Dr. Helen Chu and Collrane Frivold, infectious disease and vaccine researchers at the University of Washington, the regular shots for the disease are “extremely safe,” the Washington Post reported.

“Unfortunately, skepticism that arose during the pandemic about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine has bled over into a declining confidence in routine childhood vaccines, and now many children, teens, and young adults in our community are under-vaccinated,” Chu and Frivold added.

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