Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trichophyton Fungus, Capable Of Dodging Drugs, Becoming A US Threat
In a new JAMA Dermatology report, researchers describe 11 Trichophyton indotinea infections in New York City from May 2022 to May 2023. The fungus represents a new emerging public health threat that causes extensive tinea infections often unresponsive to terbinafine, a first-line oral antifungal. (Soucheray, 5/17)
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today that it is monitoring reports from three countries of invasive meningococcal disease linked to Saudi Arabia travel. Nearly all cases are in patients who performed the Umrah pilgrimage while in Saudi Arabia, and most cases belong to serogroup W and involve no history of meningococcus vaccination, the ECDC said in a statement. (Schnirring, 5/17)
Los Angeles County health officials are investigating a reported case of hepatitis A in an employee of a Whole Foods supermarket in Beverly Hills and are warning of possible public exposure to the highly contagious liver infection. Officials warned that anyone who purchased products from the seafood counter at the grocery store on Crescent Drive between April 20 and May 13 could be affected and urged those not already immune to hepatitis A to get vaccinated as soon as possible. (Queally, 5/17)
A study published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)details a measles outbreak that sickened 57 people at a Chicago migrant shelter this year and how a prompt and coordinated mass-vaccination campaign helped contain it. (Van Beusekom, 5/17)
On the spread of bird flu —
Fragments of a highly contagious virus that has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the globe and sickened dairy cows from Michigan to Texas have made their way into local milk, though experts say commercial milk supplies remain safe. The inactivated remnants of H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, were identified in one of 40 samples of milk purchased from 20 local grocery stores and analyzed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard on behalf of The Boston Globe. (Piore, 5/17)
Poultry and cows risk exposure to sick wild birds migrating across the Americas. Here is how annual bird migration could spread avian flu. (Levine and Hartman, 5/20)
