In The News: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
A listeria outbreak tied to deli meats has sickened nearly three dozen people across the country, killing two, officials said. Meanwhile, several varieties of bagged and bulk vegetables have recently been recalled over listeria concerns. An estimated 1,600 people get listeria food poisoning each year, and about 260 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a nationwide recall of Boar’s Head deli meats on July 26 that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recall includes 207,528 pounds of Boar’s Head liverwurst and other deli meat products. A widespread Listeria outbreak in the United States has resulted in two deaths and 28 hospitalizations across 12 states.
If you've notice pea-sized brown bugs on your plants that are leaving holes from munching, it could be kudzu bugs. Closely related to stink bugs, kudzu bugs are plant munchers that will feed on everything from foliage to vegetables.
It’s in the air, and now in the water. Samples from Southern Nevada’s wastewater have shown an increase of the COVID-19 virus in areas of the valley, indicating a possible summer surge of the illness that has spread across the country.
Richard Oxborough plucked a vial of human blood from the rack on his lab bench. The 51ԹϺ researcher warmed the blood and fed it to a colony of mosquitoes. The critters won’t be quite as voracious as normal because Oxborough didn’t have the chance to starve them, he quipped.
The Southern Nevada Health District is encouraging the community to “fight the bite” this summer, as the Southern Nevada Health District announced in May the detection of the first West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes in Clark County of the 2024 season.
Rats in New York City are becoming more than a nuisance. The New York City Department of Health has released a health advisory after recording six cases of human leptospirosis, an infection with Leptospira bacteria that can be spread through rat urine. In 2023, the city recorded 24 cases, the highest number in a single year.
Ticks are the worst kind of pest. Tiny and hard to spot on bare skin, they look like freckles or moles to the naked eye but latch onto hosts, sucking their blood and possibly spreading diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Rabbit fever (tularemia) and Lyme disease.In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported approximately 63,000 cases of Lyme disease.
Earlier this month, an assortment of Planters peanuts and mixed nuts were recalled over concerns they contained Listeria. Similarly, a variety of chocolate-covered pretzels and cookies were recalled due to fears the snacks were riddled with Salmonella. Recently, over 16,000 pounds of raw ground beef sold at Walmart were pulled from the shelves due potentially being contaminated with E. coli.
Many follow home remedies that are not effective. We Verify three of them.
Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.
Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.
