Measles News:
- NY Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency as measles cases jump, with 92 new cases reported since July and concerns about spillover from PA. (KFF Health)
- The US is closing in on 4000 measles cases as Pennsylvania nears the 1000-case mark. (CIDRAP)
- Pennsylvania, with only 7 county health departments, is bracing itself as measles spread continues. (The Guardian)
Health News:
- Flu positivity rates keep jumping across parts of the West, including California, Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada. (CDC)
- A Russian lab worker’s death raised concerns about plague, but so far there are no confirmed cases, and testing of her contacts has been negative. (AP)
- CDC is remembering Dr. Nancy Cox, who spent 37 years helping build its world-class influenza program. ZHH joins so many in the public health community in mourning her loss and honoring her incredible legacy. (CDC)
- Florida’s dengue fever outbreak, associated with mosquitoes, is now the largest in decades. (The Hill)
- The mumps outbreak spreading among the San Diego State football team has climbed to 14 cases. (ESPN)
- The FDA announced Cyclospora was found in the Taylor Farms processing facility in Mexico and in a wastewater ditch at the nearby farm where the suspected iceberg was grown. (WRAL)
- Recent studies show that fasting before routine bloodwork may matter less than we thought. (JAMA)
Best Question:
How long can an employee really keep coughing after flu, COVID or whooping cough, and are they still contagious?
This is one of those cases where sounding sick and still being contagious aren’t necessarily the same thing. A cough can hang around for weeks after a respiratory illness, so the cough alone isn’t a reason to keep someone out of work.
For flu and COVID, the first few days are when we’re most concerned about spread. But when it comes to returning to work, we’re looking at more than the cough: how long they’ve been sick, whether they’ve had a fever, whether their other symptoms have resolved, and whether that cough is still severe or is now mild and lingering.
Whooping cough is a little different. The cough can last for weeks or even months, long after someone is no longer contagious. But a confirmed case of pertussis is one where we want to know that they’ve been evaluated and treated before making the call on when they can come back.
So, don’t let the cough alone make the decision for you. If you’re a client and have someone who’s been out with flu, COVID, whooping cough, or another respiratory illness and they’re still coughing, you can chat in the ZHH App for support from 6am to midnight Eastern from our clinical team.
Sources: Cleveland Clinic, CDC
Best Read:
So much for the slow start to flu season...in just a week, flu positivity rates in ERs and urgent cares doubled in some parts of the country. This is a good look at what changed so quickly and why; if you’ve been putting off your flu shot, now is probably a good time to get it.