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Legionnaires’ disease is a type of severe pneumonia caused by breathing in mist that contains Legionella bacteria. Most healthy people aren’t affected, but those at higher risk due to other medical conditions can get Legionnaires’ disease and as many as one in ten die.
It’s named after an outbreak among people who went to a convention at the American Legion - how’s that for brand risk?
Legionella lives in water and can be transmitted to people as a fine mist that they breathe in, as in a shower or hot tub. Most often, we see this come into play in large commercial buildings (often older) with water cooling towers, hot water tanks, complex plumbing systems, or if a building has been closed for a long time and water has been sitting in the tanks and pipes. It’s important to ensure a well-maintained water system and take precautions like cleaning and flushing your system before reopening after a long closure.
Zero Hour Health clients can access a full Q&A on Legionnaires’ aimed at common manager and employee questions in our app.
Bird flu outbreaks have slowed down dramatically on American dairy farms. Though there are still infections being reported here and there (like one this week in California), overall new cases are way down, with just four in the past month across the U.S.
Despite the slowdown, scientists are still rushing to find out why and how it spread so quickly, to help prevent it in the future. A new preprint study looked at over a dozen California farms, testing air, wastewater and milk in two different regions. They found two key pathways that the virus could spread: in the air during the milking process and in wastewater. Some of the positive wastewater was found in fields and manure lagoons used by migratory birds. That’s important, too, because it’s a way that the virus could spread back to birds or other animals, which in turn increases the chances of it spreading back to humans.
The key learning in this new study is that the virus is spreading in multiple ways on farms. That creates a logistical challenge, but also helps farmers understand how better to prevent it from spreading. While our hope is that H5N1 spread on dairy farms comes to a full stop soon, we’re very glad that we have more tools in our toolkit to fight the next outbreak that affects cattle, whether it’s H5N1 or something else.
Keeping an eye on the New World screwworm’s march toward the border is key, but there’s no reason to panic just yet. The U.S. has dedicated nearly $30 million to the effort to limit the population, though some in the beef industry say that’s not enough for the scale of the problem.