�鶹Ů��

Three North Carolina residents died this month from infections from bacteria naturally found in warm seawater and brackish water, state health officials said Friday. (7/28)

A Georgia resident has died from a rare brain-eating amoeba after they were likely infected while swimming in a freshwater lake or pond, officials said. The resident, who has not yet been identified, died after being exposed to Naegleria fowleri, which can cause a rare infection that "destroys brain tissue, causing brain swelling and usually death," the Georgia Department of Public Health said in a news release Friday. (Da Silva, 7/31)

As Americans find ways to cope with an unusually sweltering summer, many of them have taken to bodies of water to cool off. But at least two people who ventured to freshwater swimming holes this summer have died after contracting an amoeba that devours brain tissue. A man died after he was infected by the amoeba, whose scientific name is Naegleria fowleri, the Georgia Department of Public Health said Friday. Earlier this month, Nevada public health officials said a boy died of the same infection after he probably came into contact with the amoeba at Ash Springs, a hot springs about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. (Pietsch, 7/31)

Yet another summer COVID-19 wave may have started in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."After roughly six, seven months of steady declines, things are starting to tick back up again," Dr. Brendan Jackson, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, tells NPR. The amount of coronavirus being detected in wastewater, the percentage of people testing positive for the virus and the number of people seeking care for COVID-19 at emergency rooms all started increasing in early July, Jackson says. (Stein, 7/28)

The new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that her agency would likely come out with guidance in the fall that Americans should get an annual COVID-19 booster shot. "We’re just on the precipice of that, so I don’t want to get ahead of where our scientists are here and doing that evaluation work, but yes we anticipate that COVID will become similar to flu shots, where it is going to be you get your annual flu shot, and you get your annual COVID shot," Dr. Mandy Cohen told Spectrum News. (Musto, 7/28)

A new round of Covid vaccines is coming to the U.S. this fall — but many Americans may not roll up their sleeves and take one. That’s largely because pandemic fatigue, the belief that Covid is “over” and confusion over personal risk levels could deter some people from getting an additional shot, experts in public health and health policy told CNBC. (Constantino, 7/29)

The state Supreme Court on Thursday said it will take up a dispute about whether the University of Florida should return fees to students because of a campus shutdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic — one of numerous similar cases filed in Florida and across the country. Justices issued an order saying they will consider what is known as a “certified question of great public importance” in the potential class-action lawsuit filed by UF graduate student Anthony Rojas. The order did not set a date for arguments. (Saunders, 7/28)