NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The Centers for Disease Control says a deadly superbug fungus has hit hospitals in the United States, primarily in the Tri-State Area.
As CBS2’s Meg Baker reports, it’s an infection that can easily be misidentified and become deadly, and now health officials are on high alert.
“The organism can be spread patient to patient as well as environmental surfaces which make it unique in that regard,” Dr. Neil Gaffin said.
Gaffin is an infectious disease specialist at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey — which has not had any cases of the dangerous superbug.
He explains it’s a yeast known as Candida auris that is being spread around hospitals, mainly around New York and New Jersey.
Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today announced The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) a $727,688 competitive grant to enhance efforts to curb the opioid crisis through a series of initiatives and the New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS) approximately $6.9 million to target prescription and opioid misuse.
“Today is International Overdose Awareness Day, a reminder that the disease of addiction is preventable through education and intervention,” said Governor Christie. “These funding grants are another important step in combating opioid misuse and abuse in New Jersey while strengthening our ability to positively impact the opioid crisis in our state by saving lives.”
Funding for DOH will enable the agency to enhance its data access and analysis; improve prevention planning, including implementing a statewide strategic plan; assess the impact of state-level policies on the opioid crisis; identify and engage communities most impacted by the effects of the opioid crisis; and maximize the New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program’s public health surveillance potential.
The CDC’s Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention grant helps states combat ongoing prescription drug overdose challenges. The purpose is to provide state health departments with resources and support needed to advance interventions for preventing prescription drug overdoses.
Through 2019, CDC plans to give selected states annual awards between $750,000 and $1 million to advance prevention in four key areas: maximizing prescription drug monitoring programs; community, insurer or health systems interventions; policy evaluations and Rapid Response projects.
Through SAMHSA, DHS will receive a Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs five-year grant award for approximately $1.9 million to target prescription drug misuse. The program is designed to raise awareness about the dangers of sharing medications and educate pharmaceutical and medical communities on the risks of overprescribing to young adults.
This grant also will fund prescription drug abuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents, prescribers, and their patients. SAMHSA will track reductions in opioid overdoses and the incorporation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) data into needs assessments and strategic plans as indicators of the program’s success. The cooperative agreement between DHS and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) calls for up to 25 awards of about $371,616 annually.
The reports developed from the DHS’ Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) data analysis will be shared with other state agencies and with DMHAS’ Regional Prevention Coalitions to inform planning in local communities.
In addition, DHS is receiving $5 million to target the reduction of the number of prescription drug/opioid overdose related deaths and adverse events among 18 year olds and older. The grant will focus on training key community sectors on the prevention of prescription drug/opioid overdose related deaths and implementing prevention strategies, including the purchase and distribution of naloxone kits. A cooperative agreement between DHS and SAMHSA calls for up to 11 awards of $1million annually.
International Overdose Awareness Day is a global event held annually on August 31 that aims to raise awareness of overdoses and reduce the stigma of drug-related deaths. It also acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends who have experienced death or permanent injury as a result of drug overdoses.
Federal health officials on Monday advised pregnant women to avoid a Miami neighborhood— marking the first time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against travel to any area within the continental United States — as a Zika outbreak in South Florida has led to 10 more local cases spread by mosquitoes.
The advisory extends to all expectant mothers, and women planning on becoming pregnant who have traveled to a one-square-mile area north of downtown Miami — including Wynwood, Midtown and the Design District — on or after June 15, said CDC Director Tom Frieden.
Washington (AFP) – The Zika virus has been linked to birth defects in the foetuses and babies of six women in the United States who were infected while pregnant, US health officials said Thursday.
Three of the women gave birth to infants with congenital defects such as microcephaly — an abnormally small head — and brain damage that are linked to Zika, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, citing figures as of June 9.
Of the other three women, one had a miscarriage, one terminated her pregnancy, and the third gave birth to an infant that was stillborn. All three cases showed instances of Zika-related birth defects.
The six women mentioned Thursday were all infected while traveling in countries where the virus is circulating.
The CDC said it will publish weekly results of women who are pregnant and infected with Zika.
A total of 234 pregnant women in the United States had tested positive for Zika as of June 9, the CDC said.
US scientists believe that a woman infected with Zika during the first trimester of her pregnancy has a one to 13 percent chance that the fetus develops microcephaly.
The mosquito-borne Zika has spread rapidly across Latin America and the Caribbean in the past months, and experts warn that the continental United States will likely see an increase in cases as summer begins in the northern hemisphere.
There is also growing evidence that Zika can be transmitted sexually.
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Mosquitoes that can transmit the Zika virus have been found to live in nearly all U.S. states, according to maps released this week by authorities trying to assess the public health threat.
The maps show the two breeds of virus-carrying mosquitoes, the yellow fever and the Asian tiger mosquito, can live in the nation’s northernmost states of Michigan, New Hampshire, Washington state and Minnesota, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Zika, which has been linked to numerous cases of the birth defect microcephaly in Brazil, has spread rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Microcephaly is marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
In the United States, Zika has only been found in the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The mosquitoes, whose scientific names are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, were concentrated most heavily in the U.S. Southeast and Southwest, according to the CDC maps that break each state down to its individual counties.
The maps (https://tmsnrt.rs/1U5njHx ) utilized data back to 1995, including information from the CDC, university researchers and local health departments.
Hackensack NJ, According to the Bergen Record , “A 31-year-old woman from Honduras, a nation ravaged by the Zika virus, gave birth to a baby suffering from the devastating effects of the virus on Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, the first apparent case in the tri-state area, her physician said.”
It is believed the mother contracted the disease in Honduras after being bitten by a mosquito early in her pregnancy, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed she was infected with the Zika virus, according to Dr. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack.
Dr. Alvarez said that the baby delivered by Cesarean-section on Tuesday suffered from low birth weight and severe microcephaly, in which the baby’s head is smaller than expected. This condition can lead to seizures, developmental delays, hearing loss and severe mental disabilities. The baby was also born with intestinal issues and visual issues,
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously issued a travelers alert for Honduras.
According to the CDC website a total of 591 cases of Zika virus have been reported in the United States, including 14 in New Jersey and 127 in New York, and in each case the victims contracted the virus while travelling abroad.
(CNN)The results are in from the one of the largest and broadest surveys of health in the United States. And although many of the findings are encouraging — more Americans had health insurance and fewer smoked cigarettes in 2015 than in previous years — the gains were overshadowed by rising rates of obesity and diabetes.
Every year since 1957, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been asking Americans 18 and older about their health and the health of their family members as part of the National Health Interview Survey. The new report contains data from the 2015 survey, which included more than 100,000 people.
April 25 (Reuters) – – Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to many countries in the Americas.
The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbreak:
How do people become infected?
Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found.
How do you treat Zika?
There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but the World Health Organization (WHO) had said it would take at least 18 months to start large-scale clinical trials of potential preventative shots.
How dangerous is it?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years.
According to the World Health Organization, there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. In addition, the agency said it could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis. Conclusive proof of the damage caused by Zika may take months or years.
Brazil has confirmed 1,113 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 3,836 suspected cases of microcephaly. Colombia has confirmed two cases of microcephaly linked to Zika.
About 450 people in the United States have been infected with the Zika virus, the White House’s top health official told The Hill on Thursday.
The figure, which includes Puerto Rico and the continental U.S., shows an increase of about 90 cases from the department’s latest Zika report about one week ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to release updated data later Thursday afternoon.
Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Sylvia Mathews Burwell has put her department into overdrive to halt the spread.
Recently, HHS has focused on outreach to the thousands of college students who will visit Zika-infected destinations on spring break. A total of 69 countries, most in Central or South America, have reported cases of Zika, according to the World Health Organization.
Ironically, all of the CDC’s outbreak warnings on its homepage are currently for items on the so-called “healthy” foods list.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning of four potentially fatal, multi-state outbreaks – all victimizing people who eat foods typically considered healthful:
Alfalfa Sprouts,
Organic Shake and Meal Products,
Packaged Salads, and
Cucumbers
Nine people in either Minnesota or Wisconsin who ate alfalfa sprouts have been diagnosed with the outbreak strain of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157), which can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially-fatal type of kidney failure. The CDC has linked the infections to sprouts produced by Jack & the Green Spouts.
“This outbreak does not appear to be related to the ongoing multistate outbreak ofSalmonella Muenchen infections linked to alfalfa sprouts produced by Sweetwater Farms of Inman, Kansas,” the CDC reports.
Thus far, 13 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Muenchen have been reported from four states have been linked to Sweetwater Farms sprouts.
Following the influx of illegal immigrant minors from Central America, an official at the federal agency charged with protecting public health describes Barack Obama as “the worst pres we have ever had,” an “amateur” and “Marxist,” according to internal emails obtained by Judicial Watch.
JW got the records as part of an investigation into the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) activation of anEmergency Operations Center (EOC) to deal with the barrage of illegal alien minors last summer. Tens of thousands of Central Americans came into the United States through the Mexican border and contagious diseases—many considered to be eradicated in the U.S.—became a tremendous concern. The CDC, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), responded by opening an emergency facility designed to monitor and coordinate response activities to eminent public health threats.
This special emergency division was created after the 2001 terrorist attacks and has responded to more than 50 public health threats, including hurricanes, food borne disease outbreaks, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and the Haiti cholera outbreak. Scientists from across the CDC are brought together to analyze, validate, and efficiently exchange information during a public health emergency and connect with response partners. The EOC also coordinates the deployment of CDC staff and the procurement and management of all equipment and supplies that agency responders may need during their deployment.
It’s a major and costly operation that can stick American taxpayers with a huge tab. That’s why JW launched a probe when the Obama administration took in the illegal immigrants, initially coined Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), with open arms last summer. JW has sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for planning records involving the border crisis as well as information relating to the solicitation of “on-demand escort services” for the 65,000 UACs that remain in the U.S. Last year JW also reported that the illegal immigrant minors have brought in serious diseases, including swine flu, dengue fever, possibly Ebola virus and tuberculosis.
The CDC records obtained by JW this week include email exchanges between agency officials directly involved in the activation of the EOC to handle the health threats created by the influx of illegal alien minors last summer. In an email dated June 9, 2014, CDC Logistics Management Specialist George Roark wrote to CDC Public Health Advisor William Adams that “no country in the world would allow” the influx. Adams replies that “in ten years or less, they’ll all be voting…Commander’s intent…” Roark fires back by describing Obama as “the worst pres we have ever had…he truly is ‘the amateur’ but a Marxist too.”
CDC reports potential Ebola exposure in Atlanta lab
Researchers studying Ebola in a highly secure laboratory mistakenly allowed potentially lethal samples of the virus to be handled in a much less secure laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agency officials said Wednesday.
One technician in the second laboratory may have been exposed to the virus and about a dozen other people have been assessed after entering the facility unaware that potentially hazardous samples of Ebola had been handled there.
The technician has no symptoms of illness and is being monitored for 21 days. Agency officials said it is unlikely that any of the others who entered the lab face potential exposure. Some entered the lab after it had been decontaminated. Officials said there is no possible exposure outside the secure laboratory at CDC and no exposure or risk to the public.
Number of People Under “Active Monitoring” for Ebola in NYC Triples, City Officials Say
The number of people under “active monitoring” for Ebola symptoms has increased from 117 on Monday to 357 people Wednesday, health officials said.
The vast majority of those being monitored arrived in New York City within the past 21 days from the three Ebola-affected countries, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation said in a statement.
Others being monitored are the staff caring for Dr. Craig Spencer, the physician being treated for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, the lab workers who conducted his blood tests and the FDNY EMTs who transported the doctor.
All of those being monitored showed no symptoms but are being checked on out of “an abundance of caution,” the statement said.
CDC admits droplets from a sneeze could spread Ebola By Bob Fredericks October 29, 2014 | 4:48am
Ebola is a lot easier to catch than health officials have admitted — and can be contracted by contact with a doorknob contaminated by a sneeze from an infected person an hour or more before, experts told The Post Tuesday.
“If you are sniffling and sneezing, you produce microorganisms that can get on stuff in a room. If people touch them, they could be” infected, said Dr. Meryl Nass, of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington, DC.
Nass pointed to a poster the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released on its Web site saying the deadly virus can be spread through “droplets.”
“Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose or mouth of another person,” the poster states.
UTA grad isolated at New Jersey hospital as part of Ebola quarantine By KACI HICKOX Special Contributor Published: 25 October 2014 12:00 PM Updated: 25 October 2014 08:56 PM
(Editor’s note: Kaci Hickox, a nurse with degrees from the University of Texas at Arlington and the Johns Hopkins University, has been caring for Ebola patients while on assignment with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Upon her return to the U.S. on Friday, she was placed in quarantine at a New Jersey hospital. She has tested negative in a preliminary test for Ebola, but the hospital says she will remain under mandatory quarantine for 21 days and will be monitored by public health officials. Dr. Seema Yasmin, a Dallas Morning News staff writer, worked with Hickox as a disease detective with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With Yasmin’s help, Hickox wrote this first-person piece exclusively for the News.)
I am a nurse who has just returned to the U.S. after working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone – an Ebola-affected country. I have been quarantined in New Jersey. This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me.
I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine.
I arrived at the Newark Liberty International Airport around 1 p.m. on Friday, after a grueling two-day journey from Sierra Leone. I walked up to the immigration official at the airport and was greeted with a big smile and a “hello.”
I told him that I have traveled from Sierra Leone and he replied, a little less enthusiastically: “No problem. They are probably going to ask you a few questions.”
He put on gloves and a mask and called someone. Then he escorted me to the quarantine office a few yards away. I was told to sit down. Everyone that came out of the offices was hurrying from room to room in white protective coveralls, gloves, masks, and a disposable face shield.
One after another, people asked me questions. Some introduced themselves, some didn’t. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal.
Two other officials asked about my work in Sierra Leone. One of them was from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They scribbled notes in the margins of their form, a form that appeared to be inadequate for the many details they are collecting.
