Bird Flu News:

• H5N1 was in Oregon wastewater weeks before the first confirmed outbreaks in poultry and wild birds. (CIDRAP)
• California’s bird flu spread is slowing, with dairy herds and poultry flocks coming off quarantine faster than they’re getting infected for the first time in months. (Politico) 
• More detections were linked to two live bird markets in Queens, NYC. (APHIS)

Measles News:

• An unvaccinated adult in New Mexico died while infected with measles this week. They tested positive after death in Lea County, which borders Texas. (NM Health)
• The West TX outbreak has grown to 198 cases, which is about 13 new cases per day. CDC is on the ground to help contain the outbreak.  (TX DSHS, Hill)
• North America is on track to lose its measles elimination status, the Pan-American Health Organization warned this week, with 4.5x cases this year compared to last. (CBS)
• A Miami area high school student has measles, the first this year in FL. (WLRN)
• Here’s a current map of U.S. measles cases:

Health News:

• A second cluster of Ebola cases in Uganda are linked to a child who died last week. (CIDRAP)
• Norovirus is still sky-high across the U.S. with a major hotspot in Florida, possibly because of its role as cruise ship terminal. 7 cruises had confirmed noro outbreaks so far this year after docking or departing from FL. (Tampa Bay Times)
• A common vaginal condition that affects one in three women is actually an STD, a new study found, and treating male partners may be key to preventing spread. (CNN)
• Postpartum depression affects one in seven women who give birth, and research shows that they had physical changes in their brains during pregnancy. (NY Times)
• The FDA is investigating a new Listeria outbreak with 3 cases, and no contaminated product identified yet. (FDA)

Best Questions:

Is “immune amnesia” a real thing or misinformation? Why haven’t we heard about it before?

“Immune amnesia” caused by measles is a real thing, though we only just discovered it in 2012. You probably haven’t heard of it until now because measles really hasn't been an issue in the U.S. since it was first identified thirteen years ago, and unless you’re an immunologist or a very unlucky parent, you had no reason to. The theory around immune amnesia began a long time ago, when doctors and parents noticed that kids who recovered from measles were sicker and died more often from other illnesses in the year or two after they recovered from measles. Then, when a vaccine was developed, scientists noticed something miraculous: vaccinated kids died a lot less, from…well…everything. The likelihood of death was slashed by between 30% (in richer areas) and 86% (in poorer areas) in the few years after kids got their shots. Doctors theorized that something about the measles wiped out the immune system’s memory, so, for a few years after infection, it’s like the body is meeting each pathogen for the very first time - a cold, flu, pneumonia, E. coli, you name it. A 2019 study found that measles infection wipes out anywhere from 11% to 73% of the antibodies a child had previously developed against both viral and bacterial pathogens. It turns out that measles doesn’t bind to cells in the lungs, like other respiratory viruses, but to the immune cells themselves. It specifically binds to the memory T cells, the ones that stay in the body for a long time to remember previous infections, and blocks them from recognizing those - other than, of course, the measles. That’s part of why you’ll never get the measles again if you’ve had it once. 

Long story short: measles can be mild for some, but deadly for about 1 in 1000 people (mostly kids) who get it. But the impact goes far beyond the initial infection and can seriously increase the chance that your child dies from another illness for years to come. The good news: the MMR vaccine slashes the risk of getting measles (two doses is 97% effective at preventing infection) and the risk of death from any cause for years.  

Sources: BBC, Science, Harvard, National Geographic, PLOS, NIH

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Why has this flu season been so severe?

We are finally seeing flu start to decline, though we aren’t out of the woods yet - flu cases are still higher than most years’ peaks. Here are some of the reasons why:

• A poor flu shot match to circulating strains. This year’s vaccine is okay but not great - only about 35% effective at preventing hospitalizations compared to last year’s 51%.
• Lower vaccination rates. The U.S. is only at about 44% of adults and kids vaccinated. While about the same as recent years for adults, that’s lower than normal for kids. 
• Mostly Flu A, which is more severe. Flu B is quiet so far this year and generally more mild. Flu A is more severe, and we’ve seen more serious cases, especially in kids this year. (But flu B tends to have a bump in early spring, so we’re not totally out of the woods yet). 
• Pandemic fallout. So few people were exposed to flu during the pandemic that it’s possible our population still hasn’t gotten back to normal levels of immunity yet. This rough flu season may change that. 

Flu season isn’t done yet, and even though we’ve finally peaked, lots of employees out there are still getting sick. It’s not too late to benefit from a flu shot if you haven’t gotten one, but you’ll need to go soon to get any major benefit. 

Sources: CBS, Beckers Hospital Review, Washington Post, Time

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Best Read:

We’ve got a fun and snarky best read this week. We don’t usually use Op Eds for this, but we can’t resist a cartoon, and this one from the LA Times is too cute to pass up!

Vaccines are out, measles is in - Los Angeles Times Op Ed

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