If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call or text 988.
In the U.S., floods actually kill more people each year than tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning. Flooding can pose serious health risks, including physical dangers like drowning (floodwaters can move faster than expected), electrocution due to hidden downed power lines, and other physical hazards that people can’t see through the murky water, from sharp objects to animals. There are less tangible threats, too, including water- and food-borne illnesses like E. coli, salmonella, or shigella. We’ve seen boil water notices across Hurricane Helene’s path of destruction due to contaminated drinking water, which makes preparing food safely a real challenge. Even after floodwaters recede, there are lingering health impacts from mold and mildew. If your home or business have been impacted by flooding, avoid walking or driving through floodwaters and call in professionals to help with cleanup. And don’t neglect mental health, as well. Check in with employees, family, and friends, and know that there’s help out there for anyone feeling overwhelmed or hopeless.
Marburg disease is a rare hemorrhagic fever caused by a virus that’s biologically very similar to Ebola. It spills over from a specific type of bat to humans, and then spreads between humans through contact with the body fluids of an infected person. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhea, and eventually a rash that’s usually on the torso. As the disease progresses, symptoms can become more severe and include shock, hemorrhaging, and organ failure. Up to 90% of people infected die, so it’s a very serious illness. In the current outbreak in Rwanda, there have been 27 cases and 8 deaths (up two from last week). The majority of the deaths are in healthcare workers caring for sick patients in the ICU, likely due to high levels of exposure to body fluids both directly from the sick person and indirectly from their bedsheets, needles, and equipment. There’s definitely a high risk of Marburg spreading to nearby countries and even throughout sub-Saharan Africa, made more likely due to the fact that this outbreak is in Kigali, a capital city with a large international airport. In fact, there’s a close contact of one patient who traveled to Belgium within the incubation period, but the WHO has said the global risk remains low. The good news is that Rwanda has a robust healthcare system, and the WHO has sent a team of experts to help with their response. For now, we’re just keeping an eye on this, but we are not worried about an outbreak affecting the U.S. right now.
Sources: STAT, CDC
It’s no coincidence that we’ve had to add a mosquito-borne disease section to this newsletter throughout the summer. The problem of mosquitoes and the diseases they carry will only continue to worsen as climate change creates prime conditions for the bloodsuckers. We liked this BBC read to learn more about what to expect: