Due to the CDC’s recent health alert for hepatitis A outbreaks, many people are wondering what makes the main types of hepatitis, A, B and C different.
Is one type more serious than another? Do they all present with the same symptoms? Can you catch each of them the same way? Are there any other notable factors which distinguish them?
Let’s find out.
The vast majority of the world doesn’t currently worry about polio. With outbreaks of measles, hepatitis A and Ebola, most countries don’t need to worry about polio.
But, over 60 years after the vaccine was created, three countries still struggle with the disease. Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last three countries in the world where polio is still an active threat.
And after years of trying to end the disease in Nigeria, that list could soon get shorter.
The CDC has now issued a health alert amidst the ongoing hepatitis A outbreaks. The outbreaks have already caused more than 25,000 reported cases of illness in the United States since 2016.
Regions on the east coast have been particularly affected with the largest number of cases currently taking place in Kentucky, Ohio and Florida:
For many around the world, plans to stop malaria may seem like a roller coaster.
Hopes build as possible vaccines or methods to fight off mosquitoes progress. But, that optimism is often ruined quickly with news that the disease is still killing millions with no solution planned.
The serious and often fatal disease continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous. Citizens in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in particular are still rather helpless against the mosquito-borne disease. While the illness is active in more than 100 countries, it’s these regions at the highest risk of malaria. That leaves almost half of the world’s population living in an area at risk of the disease. In 2017, that translated into an estimated 219 million cases and 435,000 deaths.
With these numbers in mind, why are we not on track to eradicate this disease sometime soon?
In 2018 a large outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) spread across the United States, with a reported 233 cases over the span of 41 states. Going into this year, doctors are looking for answers that we don’t have yet to help prevent AFM.
The cases of AFM peaked in the U.S. in September and October, coinciding with the flu season. As the flu season once again approaches, the CDC hopes to have more help in detecting and collecting samples of AFM. A more prepared and active approach may help us fully understand what causes AFM and what exactly it is.
Doctors first started surveilling AFM back in 2014, but 2018 held the largest outbreak of it yet. Within the last five years, there has been one reported death, with a potential case of two earlier this year (the CDC is still currently looking into this case).
