The Truth About Mosquitoes And Dengue
Read full article at www.manilastandardtoday.com
Mosquitoes have killed more people than all the world wars combined. Malaria, elephantiasis, yellow fever, encephalitis, the West Nile Virus and dengue are only some of the diseases that we can contract after being bitten by mosquitoes.
In fact, it only takes one bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito to transmit the dreaded dengue, which prevalent throughout the tropics and subtropics. Outbreaks have occurred recently in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Cuba, and in Paraguay in South America, and Costa Rica in Central America. Half of the world’s population is a risk for dengue.
Dengue used to hit during the rainy season, where there is a lot of water in canals, gardens and other places. The truth is that dengue is now a year round threat. It is also believed that dengue-carrying mosquitoes breed in clean water. The fact is that mosquitoes have superior survival skills and can breed anywhere.
Another misconception about dengue is that dengue-carrying mosquitoes only bite during the day.
Several factors may have contributed to the increasing threat of dengue. One crucial factor is the encroachment of human populations into the natural habitat of dengue lamok. Ae. albopictus is known to live in forested areas. With more forested areas being turned into residential developments, people are moving into the natural habitats of these dengue-lamok. This increases exposure of people to Ae. albopictus.
In 2011, a total of 110,257 cases of dengue were reported, resulting in the deaths of 580 people.
This travel season, visit Passport Health’s Baltimore offices to protect you and your family before while on vacation.
Call us at 410.727.0556 to schedule an appointment today
Hepatitis B vaccine recommended for diabetic adults
Adults over 59, who haven’t been vaccinated, can receive the hepatitis B vaccination at their doctor’s discretion. The Dec 23rd issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) includes an outline of the recommendations. According to the report between 700,000 and 1.4 million people in the US are infected with the hepatitis B virus.
Symptoms include abdominal discomfort, nausea and vomiting. Chronic HBV infection damages the liver and can lead to serious illness and death. More than 15 percent of adults with chronic HBV infection develop cirrhosis and liver cancer.
People with diabetes are at an increased risk for HBV infection, which can occur through minute amounts of blood from an infected person who has shared a medical or glucose monitoring device.
The hepatitis B virus thrives outside the body and is easily transmitted. Transmission is possible if finger-stick devices or blood glucose monitors meant for one person are used by more than one person without appropriate cleaning or infection control measures.
The CDC issued in a recent news release that, “Initiatives are ongoing to improve infection control training of staff responsible for providing or assisting with diabetes care, and to improve the design and labeling of devices used in diabetes monitoring and treatment.”
Travelers should get the HBV vaccine if they’ll be engaged in sexual contact or daily physical contact with the local population or are likely to seek medical and dental treatment in local facilities.
Call Passport Health’s Baltimore Offices To Get You And Your Family Vaccinated.
Call Us At 410.727.0556 To Schedule Your Appointment Today!
New Recommendations For Whooping Cough Vaccination
Anyone who comes into close contact with infants is now urged to get vaccinated against whooping cough, or pertussis. Getting the vaccine now will provide enough time for it to start working by Christmas weekend, but cost could be a barrier for many people.
The recommendation for expanded vaccinations for whooping cough — even for those over 65 — is new from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It comes after a nationwide surge in whooping cough infections during 2010.
Many adults mistakenly believe they are protected against pertussis because they’ve had whooping cough before, while others walk around with the virus without realizing it. Also, the vaccine wears off over time, so a booster shot is needed about every 10 years.
Pertussis is most infectious before people think they may have it, because the cough gets progressively worse. It is highly communicable. Eighty percent of those in a household where someone has the disease also will get it.
Doctors start vaccinating infants for pertussis at two months old, but protection requires booster shots. Children need five doses of the vaccine, and three of those occur before the age of 1. Another new recommendation from the CDC is that pregnant women get the shot after the 20th week of gestation if they have not been previously vaccinated. Protection is provided by the Tdap vaccine, the same shot that wards off tetanus and diphtheria.
Whooping cough is one of several winter illnesses that can cause serious complications for infants and people with compromised immune systems. Health officials also recommend that people who have not get gotten flu shots get that vaccination.
Call Passport Health’s Baltimore Offices To get You And Your Family Vaccinated.
Call Us At 410.727.0556 To Schedule Your Appointment Today !
A Double Standard For The HPV Drug
Alyssa Giacobbe, Globe Magazine
With 6 million new cases each year, the human papillomavirus (HPV) – best known as the primary cause of cervical cancer in females – is the most rampant sexually transmitted infection in America, practically as common as the cold. The US Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 50 percent of sexually active men and women will eventually contract HPV, though most won’t ever know it. It can be symptom-free and frighteningly easy to transmit, through intercourse, oral sex, and, some doctors say, even aggressive French kissing, which anyone who’s chaperoned a school dance knows kids are sort of into these days.
Kids are, of course, the issue. There’s a HPV vaccine, but in order to be most effective, it must be administered far in advance of any sort of sexual contact – the CDC recommends starting the series at age 11 or 12. The uptake’s been slow, to say the least: Four years after the Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine, fewer than 11 percent of girls in the United States have received all three shots.
Even the most liberal parents have struggled with the idea of inoculating their often pre-pubescent daughters against a virus that can be contracted only through a sex act; some worry it will give girls a license to be promiscuous. Yet the government obviously requires innocent little girls to get injections all the time. And for that, your kid doesn’t get rubella, for instance. The darker implication, however, is that STDs happen only to those whose behavior asks for it.
But when the CDC issued a recommendation that 11- and 12-year-old boys also receive the HPV vaccine, the backlash was surprisingly muted. Objections to this fall’s announcement focused not on morality or emotion, but on money. “Does it make sense to vaccinate all boys against a sexually transmitted virus that causes a common cancer they are physically incapable of developing?” staffer Marie McCullough wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, despite the fact that the new recommendation was based on findings that the virus can also lead to throat and anal cancers, which are on the rise in both straight and gay men. (Vaccinating boys will also help reduce the incidence of HPV in girls).
In many ways, the HPV vaccine has always been about the money. At the same time, that money seems to be the only issue surrounding the recommendation for boys is evidence that the sexual double standard is alive and well – sex is natural for boys, not for girls.
It’s not all backward steps for female health. Barely two months after the recommendations for boys, the controversy has already subsided, even leading toward a new sort of acceptance. Public health officials hope that now that the vaccine is OK for boys, well, maybe parents will agree it’s OK for girls, too. That’s good news for girls!
Visit Passport Health’s Baltimore Offices To Receive The HPV Vaccine Today!
Call Us At 410.727.0556 To Schedule Your Appointment.
