More measles. More screwworm. More bird flu. 🐦
Health News:
- An infant in Wisconsin died of measles, the state’s first measles death since 1990 and the third in the U.S. this week. (NBC)
- Pennsylvania reported its sixth measles-associated death. (Washington Post)
- New World screwworm cases in the U.S. jumped to 113, with 42 new cases in one week. (CIDRAP)
- Mexico is dealing with its first H5N1 outbreak in more than two years, and 225,000 chickens were culled. In the U.S., it spread to dairy cattle in a 21st state (IN), and CA reported seven new poultry outbreaks in one month. (Reuters) (USDA)
- A Salmonella outbreak grew to 65 cases this week, and the FDA still doesn’t know what is causing it. (Newsweek)
- The FDA closed its investigation into 43 cases of Salmonella likely from romaine lettuce without naming a source or providing any other information. (FDA)
- Anyone flying into the U.S. now has to confirm they haven’t been in the DR Congo in the past 21 days, but there’s good news too: two new vaccines made just for this Ebola strain are being added to a trial there. (CDC) (UN News)
- Cold storage for blood banks has become the latest target for refrigeration cyberattacks in Europe. No one has claimed responsibility. (CNBC)
- More than a third of Americans have little confidence in the safety of food sold at grocery stores after this summer’s abundance of outbreaks. (APHA)
- Two common “forever chemicals” were linked to a higher risk of an aggressive type of breast cancer. (NIH)
Best Question:
We have an employee whose child has hand, foot and mouth disease. Can they work?
This is a question even we were asking…hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), which many of us used to just call “Coxsackie,” passed through my granddaughter’s daycare classroom this month, and not a single baby was spared. It was a long stretch for her to stay home. Fortunately, with some good precautions, her older brother didn’t get it and neither did we!
The answer regarding an employee working is yes, as long as the employee is symptom-free themselves, they can continue to work. They should self-monitor for symptoms for a week or so and take extra care with hand washing. Many adults whose children have HFMD don’t actually end up getting it, and it can really run rampant in childcare centers, so it’s a relief to know that adult caregivers can continue to work if they aren’t sick. If the employee does happen to develop symptoms, they should be excluded until the telltale rash is completely healed, usually about seven to ten days. They don’t need a doctor’s note to return to work in most cases.
Source: CDC
Best Read:
We’ve been talking about H5N1 for years now, had a recent H5N1 death, and it’s becoming clear that bird flu may be something we have to deal with every fall. Migrating birds can carry the virus across such long distances, making it difficult to contain and raising the possibility that seasonal bird flu outbreaks are here to stay.
