How many diseases are preventable by vaccines?
The power of vaccines cannot be underestimated. Take, for example, Poliomyelitis, which was a significant problem 70 years ago – and is now close to becoming a disease of the past. Not that long ago, smallpox was completely eradicated through the use of a vaccine.
As the world celebrates the imminent arrival of several COVID-19 vaccines, we might ask how many diseases are preventable by vaccines as of 2020.
Which diseases haven’t got a vaccine yet?
Of the 361 generic infectious diseases that affect humans, only 62 (17%) are preventable by vaccines. Over 100 of the remainder are caused by fungi and pa...
Source: GIDEON blog - December 17, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: News Therapy Source Type: blogs
Should you take the Covid-19 Vaccine if You ’re Pregnant?
The FDA took an important step on Friday by authorizing the Emergency Use for Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Recognizing the risks inherent in COVID-19 infection can be significant, while those identified to date for its vaccine appear to be low, they have not advised against vaccination during pregnancy. However, its important to note that have they not specifically approved the vaccine for use in pregnancy. That’s because we have neither animal or human data on use of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
This is incredibly frustrating to those of us who care from women of repro...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - December 13, 2020 Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Uncategorized Covid-19 pfizer pregnancy pregnant Vaccine Source Type: blogs
Should you take the Covid-19 Vaccine if You ’re Pregnant?
The FDA took an important step on Friday by authorizing the Emergency Use for Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Recognizing the risks inherent in COVID-19 infection can be significant, while those identified to date for its vaccine appear to be low, they have not advised against vaccination during pregnancy. However, its important to note that have they not specifically approved the vaccine for use in pregnancy. That’s because we have neither animal or human data on use of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
This is incredibly frustrating to those of us who care from women of repro...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - December 13, 2020 Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Uncategorized Covid-19 pfizer pregnancy pregnant Vaccine Source Type: blogs
Why are mRNA vaccines so exciting?
The very first vaccines for COVID-19 to complete Phase 3 testing are an entirely new type: mRNA vaccines. Vaccines of this type have never before been approved for use in any disease. How do they differ from traditional vaccines, and what makes them so exciting?
How traditional vaccines work
The main goal of a vaccine for a particular infectious agent, such as the virus that causes COVID-19, is to teach the immune system what that virus looks like. Once educated, the immune system will vigorously attack the actual virus, if it ever enters the body.
Viruses contain a core of genes made of DNA or RNA wrapped in a coat of pro...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Anthony Komaroff, MD Tags: Coronavirus and COVID-19 Health Vaccines Source Type: blogs
21st century outbreaks
Which diseases have generated the highest number of cases from outbreaks during the first two decades of the 21st century? In this blog, we can use GIDEON’s data to find out.
‘Disease outbreak’ is a scary term for many, but every year we suffer dozens, if not hundreds, of localized and international disease outbreaks across the world. While these outbreaks are always significant to those affected, they rarely generate headlines, and can sometimes go unnoticed outside of the Healthcare Industry.
An “outbreak” is often defined as an increase in case numbers for a particular disease in a defined place and...
Source: GIDEON blog - December 3, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Outbreaks Source Type: blogs
Top 10 most prominent diseases of the 21st Century
Which diseases have generated the highest number of cases from outbreaks during the first two decades of the 21st century? In this blog, we can use GIDEON’s data to find out.
‘Disease outbreak’ is a scary term for many, but every year we suffer dozens, if not hundreds, of localized and international disease outbreaks across the world. While these outbreaks are always significant to those affected, they rarely generate headlines, and can sometimes go unnoticed outside of the Healthcare Industry.
An “outbreak” is often defined as an increase in case numbers for a particular disease in a defined place and time. ...
Source: GIDEON blog - December 1, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Outbreaks Source Type: blogs
Disease names – what do they mean?
In the midst of the continuing pandemic, World Dictionary Day seems like the perfect occasion to consider the meaning and origin behind some of the most well-known disease names. We’ve been speaking with Dr. Steve Berger, our co-founder, to learn more.
CORONAVIRUSES
Let’s start with the obvious one. COVID 19, which began as a localized outbreak of “Novel Coronavirus” infection, is now a name almost every household in the world will know. COVID-19 comes from COrona VIrus Disease which first appeared in 2019, with the disease itself being caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
SARS was a prominent name back in the early 2...
Source: GIDEON blog - October 16, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Source Type: blogs
Mosquito: more than a bug
Anopheles mosquito, a vector of Malaria
In one half of the world, the mosquito is seen to most as a minor annoyance, but for others, mosquitoes are synonymous with disease, pain, and death. Today is the World Mosquito Day and the perfect reminder of the devastating impact of such diseases as Malaria, Zika, and various kinds of Encephalitis for which mosquitoes are a major vector.
Malaria – a headline disease
Malaria is the headline disease associated with mosquitoes and it was on this very day in 1897 that Sir Ronald Ross discovered that female mosquitoes can transmit malaria between humans. This was a major ...
Source: GIDEON blog - August 20, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Source Type: blogs
Be vigilant about bug spray
Ticks and mosquitoes don’t care about COVID-19 safety protocols. They don’t care that people are trying to squeeze out the last moments of this restrictive summer by getting outdoors, hiking, or just sitting on their decks at night and feeling something that’s close to normal.
COVID-19 has commanded our attention and caused people to adapt their behaviors to prevent one major health concern, but it doesn’t mean others have been eliminated. “Masks and social distancing will do nothing to protect you from what ticks and mosquitoes potentially carry,” says Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases and vice...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Steve Calechman Tags: Autoimmune diseases Prevention Safety Source Type: blogs
The Itchy, Bumpy Blues: How to Treat and Prevent Mosquito Bites and Related Conditions
Mosquito bites may be a nuisance, but fortunately, in the U.S., they tend to amount to nothing more than that. Upon being bitten, most Americans experience a bit of swelling and itchiness, and nothing more. However, there are exceptions to this, including stronger allergic reactions to bites and cases of mosquito-borne illness.
Insect and arachnid bites, including ticks, account for approximately 2,000 cases of malaria and 30,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. annually. In addition, millions of people worldwide die of malaria each year. It is helpful to protect yourself against insect bites, not only to avoid pesk...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - June 7, 2020 Category: Child Development Authors: Alan Greene MD Tags: Dr. Greene's Blog Environmental Health Insect Bites & Stings Insects & Animals Outdoor Safety Source Type: blogs
Planning for Future Pandemics Including Smallpox Outbreaks: Interview with Dr. Phil Gomez, CEO, SIGA Technologies
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant global consequences, with healthcare systems stretched to their limits, a growing death toll, and economic devastation as economies came grinding to a halt.
The pandemic
and its aftereffects will be with us for some time to come, but this isn’t the
first pandemic humanity has weathered, and it won’t be the last. Given accelerating
advances in medical technology, there is plenty to discuss in terms of how we
can be better prepared for the next infectious disease event.
While COVID-19 is widely thought to have arisen naturally through transmission between an animal and a hu...
Source: Medgadget - May 27, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
Practice social distancing because the lives of your health care workers matter
I was in medical school when the world saw the news of the Zika and Ebola viruses, but never have I seen mass hysteria to this level for COVID-19. No longer is coronavirus what is depicted in a copy of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, where it says coronavirus is a cause for […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 3, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ton-la-jr" rel="tag" > Ton La, Jr. < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID-19 coronavirus Infectious Disease Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Lessons from Zika in the Era of COVID-19
By CHADI NABHAN, MD, MBA, FACP
If you are a soccer fan, watching the FIFA World Cup is a
ritual that you don’t ever violate. Brazilians, arguably more than any other
fans in the world, live and breathe soccer—and they are always expected to be a
legitimate contender to win it all. Their expectations are magnified when they are
the host country, which was the case in 2014. Not only did the Germans destroy
Brazilian World Cup dreams, but less than a year after a humiliating loss
on their turf, Brazilians began dealing with another devastating blow: a viral
epidemic. Zika left the country scrambling to understand how t...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Chadi Nabhan epidemic Pandemic Zika Source Type: blogs
COVID-19 and the rise of Telemedicine
Telemedicine has not had the success story it had hoped to achieve. The method, involving remote health-related services such as monitoring, advice and education between doctors and patients online over a secure connection, promised to be at the forefront of the future of medicine. It promised to make state-of-the-art healthcare more accessible without the need to wait hours in line.
However, the reality is that only a handful of countries and regions adopted the concept, but telemedicine remains merely a concept for many. In fact, a study showed that in the U.S. alone, 82 percent of consumers do not use such serv...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 31, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Design Telemedicine & Smartphones digital health technology telehealth covid covid19 Source Type: blogs
COVID-19 Was Needed For Telemedicine To Finally Go Mainstream
Telemedicine has not had the success story it had hoped to achieve. The method, involving remote health-related services such as monitoring, advice and education between doctors and patients online over a secure connection, promised to be at the forefront of the future of medicine. It promised to make state-of-the-art healthcare more accessible without the need to wait hours in line.
However, the reality is that only a handful of countries and regions adopted the concept, but telemedicine remains merely a concept for many. In fact, a study showed that in the U.S. alone, 82 percent of consumers do not use such serv...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 31, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Design Telemedicine & Smartphones digital health technology telehealth covid covid19 Source Type: blogs
