Updates on New Infectious Disease Threats: What You Need to Know
Information about COVID-19 as well as other infectious diseases is constantly evolving. I am hoping to summarize some of that in these newsletters. New information will be in
BOLD.
COVID-19
General Information
The current dominant strain of the virus causing COVID-19 in the U.S. is called "KP.3.1.1," in case you are interested. The symptoms of this variant seem to be similar to the prior strains.
Our current surge of COVID cases is ongoing and wastewater levels remain quite high.
So please pay attention to any symptoms you may have of a cold and test yourself for COVID promptly. If you are negative, you may try re-testing 3 days later, just to make sure. If you do test positive, then consider yourself infectious for 5 days at least.
In the Sutter system, 28% of outpatients tested for the virus come back positive! And if you look only at people aged 60 and above, 35% of outpatients test positive for the virus....please note that presumably most of the people who are being tested actually feel sick...so it's not like 35% of seniors are infected with the virus!
The COVID-19 virus ("Sars-Cov-2") can now be found frequently in wildlife in the U.S. in animals such as rabbits, mice, and bats (Nature Communications). Luckily, it doesn't seem that the virus is transferred from animals back to humans, so -for now- we don't need to fear that the animals can infect us.
COVID-19 is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., down from the 4th leading cause of death in 2022. Most of the people who still die of COVID are over 85. The leading causes of death (if you're interested): heart disease, cancer, and injuries caused by guns and drug overdoses.
Yesterday the FDA approved the latest round of COVID vaccinations, that will be reflecting the currently circulating SARS-Cov-2 virus; Pfizer and Modera plan on shipping the vaccines to pharmacies "within days." In addition, Novavax hopes to have it's latest vaccine version to be available in the near future.
An article published in JAMA Psychiatry found that people who have severe cases of COVID-19 are more likely to go on to have mental illnesses including anxiety and depression. This increased risk is particularly pronounced in people who have not been vaccinated.
LONG COVID:
The National Institute of Health recently studied 25 common blood tests to see if any of them could be used to diagnose Long COVID (aka PASC)....sadly, none could help make that diagnosis (Annals of Internal Medicine).
Children and teenagers have been found to have different symptoms of long COVID compared to adults (JAMA): kids aged 6 to 11 are more likely to have headaches (57%), trouble with memory/ sleeping/ focusing (44%) and abdominal pain (43%). Adolescents suffer more from fatigue and sleepiness (80%), body/ muscle/ joint pain (55%) and memory issues (47%).
Incidence/ Prevalence:
Local officials report a record high amount of COVID virus found in wastewater samples in the Bay Area. Similarly, medical offices and hospitals are reporting near record incidences of COVID-19. Nonetheless, due to vaccinations and prior exposure, many fewer people are being hospitalized for the disease. Death rates due to the disease have increased slightly in the last several weeks, but are still much lower than they were during the heyday of the epidemic
Treatment
A new vaccine that is administered nasally (and known by the poetic name "MPV/S-2P") is now being tested in humans, having been found to be safe in primates previously. If this vaccines proves to be as safe and effective as hoped, then we will have some great new options in preventing this nasty disease.
Testing
I recommend you always have some at-home COVID tests in your household. And check yourself if you are feeling ill, especially now, when COVID rates are sky-rocketing. I do ask that anyone with cold-like symptoms check themselves for COVID prior to coming to my office.
Other Infectious Diseases:
RSV:
Scientific advisors to the CDC have recently changed their recommendations for who should get this vaccination: at this time, they recommend the RSV vaccination for people who are older than 75 or are at high risk for hospitalization.
New data (European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology) suggest that if you are infected with RSV, you are more likely to get COVID-19 and more likely to get very sick from COVID-19.
West Nile Virus (WNV):
West Nile virus is an infection acquired from the sting of an infected mosquito. Most people bitten by mosquitos will NOT be infected, and most people who do get infected don't feel ill. But about 20% of people will develop a mild fever and achiness. And about 1 in 150 people will get seriously ill and could die.
Unfortunately, we are seeing lots more mosquitoes around than in past years. A recent study from Las Vegas found a record-breaking number of mosquitos there. In addition, about 169/ 24,000 of the "mosquito pools" tested positive for West Nile Virus.
A number of counties in California have found birds that were infected with WNV.
MPOX:
The World Health Organization has just declared MPOX as an international health emergency, based on a growing outbreak in Africa, where more than 15,000 people have been infected in 2024. This declaration allows for more research funding as well as additional international public health measures and cooperation to help contain the disease.
You may recall that there was a large outbreak of MPOX 2 years ago...however, that "version" (aka "clade") of the virus was not as contagious or as aggressive as this clade. The earlier clade occurred largely in gay young men. This clade is infecting more kids and seems to also be transmitted via household contacts or via heterosexual contacts.
DENGUE FEVER:
Another infectious disease that is transmitted through mosquitoes is dengue fever. The risk for this disease is now also increasing in the United States. In 2024, countries in North, Central, and South America have reported more than 9.7 million cases of dengue fever. This is twice as many cases as in the previous year. Puerto Rico has already declared a public health emergency due to the unusually high number of cases in the winter and spring. At this time, however, there is no evidence of a dengue outbreak in the continental United States.
AVIAN FLU:
AKA "Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza" or HPAI (or "A H5N1").
Bird flu has become the most recent concerning virus that could lead to an epidemic. The disease can lead to a pneumonia, neurological problems, and conjunctivitis. It has largely been found in animals such as cows, wild birds, and marine mammals, but has spread to many mammals at this point.
The CDC will be trying to vaccinate about 200,000 livestock workers with the regular flu vaccine this fall. The hope is, that vaccination for regular influenza will also protect against the avian flu. Influenza vaccination will not be mandatory, but be made more easily available to these workers.
At this time, there have been 13 human cases of avian flu as of August 7: Four people caught the virus from cows and nine from poultry. All humans have had only mild symptoms so far; no human-to-human transmission has been seen so far.
The pharmaceutical company CSL Seqirus in North Caroline is producing millions of bottles of a vaccine aimed at the bird flu, in case this variant becomes aggressive in humans and begins spreading from person to person.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expanding its testing of beef for the bird flu virus to keep it from entering the food supply.
Measles:
Adults living in the U.S. (and born after 1957) are recommended to get one measles booster. You can get the booster at a pharmacy; no doctor's prescription is required!
If you do get a measles shot at the pharmacy, please call the office or send me an email to let me know, so I can add that to your chart!
At this time, there are three-times as many cases of measles this year compared to last. More precisely, there have been 188 cases in the U.S. and 93 hospitalization - mostly in kids under the age of five. Of the people who fell ill with measles, 85% were unvaccinated or didn't know if they were vaccinated. Many cases were also linked to international travel.
OTHER MEDICAL NEWS:
Research presented at the recent Alzheimer's Association International Conference found that people who regularly ate processed red meat (think hot dogs, bacon, sausage, salami, bologna) are more likely to develop dementia later in life. People who ate as little as two servings of such food per week had a 14% increased risk of dementia compared to those that ate 3 servings per month.
A study in the journal Lancet found multiple risk factors for dementia. The great news is that many of these risk factors can be addressed and modified:
- obesity
- diabetes
- depression
- smoking
- high blood pressure
- elevated LDL cholesterol
- hearing loss
- vision loss
- physical inactivity
- smoking
- less education
- excess alcohol consumption
- air pollution
- social isolation
- traumatic brain injury
The FDA has approved a new oral medication to treat mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease. It's called "Zunveyl," and is related to the Alzheimer's medication galantamine (aka "razadyne"). This medication will be available in early 2025.
A study out of Stanford (published in Nature Aging) found that the human body undergoes significant molecular transformation as part of aging at TWO intervals: the first is around the age of 44, the second is at age 60...so our aging is not gradual and linear, but rather has two major bumps at those ages.
About Dr. Sujansky's Life in These Times
We just got back from a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. It was beautiful! We did a lot of hiking, but also went to the county fair and watched a rodeo, did mountain biking, and kayaking. One exciting time was when a black bear and her two cubs ran across our trail only 10 yards away. I was scared!
My older son is now settled at his new job in Norway. He'll be there for at least a year. My husband and I are already planning a trip to visit. Meanwhile, my younger son is headed back to college for his senior year (I KNOW! how can he already be a senior!!!). So now my husband and I will need to get used to the quiet in the house again...this is a mixed blessing, as you can imagine.