Health officials warn of looming epidemics and rodent infestation in Gaza Occupied Jerusalem, April 5 (SANA) – Health conditions in the Gaza Strip have reached a critical breaking point as continuous displacement, extreme overcrowding, and the collapse of basic infrastructure create a high-risk environment for the massive spread of infectious diseases. Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan issued a stark warning regarding the proliferation of rats and mice amidst the vast mounds of untreated medical waste and rubble. He emphasized that the current environment has become a breeding ground for rodents, significantly increasing the risk of outbreaks of deadly diseases such as plague, leptospirosis, salmonella, and tularemia. The Minister noted that over one million Palestinians are currently living in fragile conditions within tents or in the open air, doubling their vulnerability. The health crisis is particularly acute among children, with thousands suffering from permanent disabilities and malnutrition, leading to higher mortality rates, especially among infants. UN warnings of “sharply escalating” risks The World Health Organization (WHO) previously warned that the risk of disease transmission is “escalating sharply” due to the disruption of health facilities and water and sanitation systems. Dr. Luca Pigozzi, acting director of the WHO office in Gaza, stated that local communities remain highly vulnerable to extreme weather conditions,...

Health officials warn of looming epidemics and rodent infestation in Gaza
->Syrian Arab News Agency | More on "Gaza health crisis disease outbreak" at BigEarthData.ai | #IsraelWar #Epidemic #Health #Gaza

The coward only threatens when he is safe. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The coward only threatens when he is safe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Those “tough guys” aren’t tough, they are cowards.

The #USA has a #POS #coward #epidemic and #problem.

youtube.com/watch?v=Bpwu...
“It’s extremely difficult to to be patient with the people who still believe Bill Gates or any billionaire is interested in the “good” of humanity or the planet.”

“By the time people realise they own an apology to conspiracy theorists it’ll be too late.” #epidemic #poor

Optimization of infectious disease intervention measures using reinforcement learning with UK COVID-19 epidemic data In recent years, the outbreak of COVID-19 has demonstrated the colossal destructive potential of infectious diseases1. It has inflicted not only grievous harm upon human health but has also flung down a stern gauntlet to the global economic edifice and social stability. As per the statistics provided by the World Health Organization, COVID-19 has precipitated the demise of millions of individuals and engendered losses amounting to trillions of US dollars in the global economy2. The rapid transmissibility traits and extensive reach manifested by infectious diseases urgently beckon us to pioneer innovative endeavors in the devising of public health policies and the execution of control modalities. Conventional infectious disease prevention and control strategies encompass isolation, vaccination, social distancing impositions, and travel curbs3. Although these measures do possess a certain degree of efficacy in some scenarios, their effectiveness is frequently circumscribed under circumstances characterized by resource paucity or fragmentary information4. During the outbreak of infectious diseases, decision-makers are in urgent need of formulating control strategies with promptness and precision so as to mitigate the number of infections and fatalities5. Traditional decision-making paradigms predominantly relied on expert insights, yet they were unsuitable for addressing the complexities of infectious disease transmission6. In a complex...

Optimization of infectious disease intervention measures using reinforcement learning with UK COVID-19 epidemic data
->Nature | More on "Reinforcement learning optimizing pandemic response" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic #Health #InfectiousDisease #Covid19 #Data

The Effectiveness of Contact Tracing to Reduce Transmission of Infectious Diseases During #Epidemic or Pandemic Response: Rapid Systematic Review Background: Contact tracing (CT), the process of identifying and managing contacts of infected cases, is one #PublicHealth and social measure that may reduce the spread of infectious diseases. While previous systematic reviews of CT exist, a comprehensive review of both the effectiveness and potential unintended consequences has not been undertaken to our knowledge. Understanding effective CT strategies could help governments and health authorities prepare effectively for emergency #Epidemic or pandemic situations. Objective: This study aims to systematically review the evidence on the effectiveness of CT across infectious diseases with #Epidemic or pandemic potential. Effectiveness is measured in terms of impacts on disease transmission, health care use, mortality, or unintended consequences. Methods: We searched 6 bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, CINAHL Ultimate, Cochrane, and Scopus) between November 29 and December 3, 2024, with supplementary citation searching. We sought human studies comparing CT with interventions with no CT or other forms of CT, delivered in the community, in prespecified diseases of #Epidemic or pandemic potential. We included studies with any measure of disease transmission, related health care use, or unintended consequences of CT and prioritized studies with concurrent comparators. Screening, data extraction, and critical appraisal were performed in duplicate. Due to substantial heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis was performed. This review was informed by meetings with a patient and public involvement and engagement group. Results: After deduplication, a total of 12,816 titles and abstracts were screened, with 198 records assessed for eligibility at full text. Five additional studies were found through supplementary searching. Finally, 88 reports (of 86 studies) were included, of which 57 reports (of 55 studies) were prioritized. Two main routes of transmission were represented: respiratory (tuberculosis [TB], 15 studies; #COVID19 #coronavirus, 5 studies) and blood-borne or sexually transmitted infections (STIs; 35 studies, of which 13 were in #HIV, and 22 were bacterial or parasitic infections). No evidence was found on vector-borne, direct contact, or food- or water-borne routes of transmission. Evidence was highly heterogeneous, and more than half of the studies had notable methodological limitations. While there was no difference between CT and comparator interventions for most outcomes, there was some evidence of reductions in disease prevalence in TB and for provider-initiated CT to be superior to patient-led approaches in STIs. Only 2 studies reported measures of unintended consequences. Conclusions: We found inconsistent evidence for the effectiveness of CT, focused primarily on TB and on contrasts between provider-initiated CT and patient-led referral in STIs and #HIV. High heterogeneity in study design precluded clear assertions regarding optimal strategies for CT, including with respect to relevant subgroups. Future work should consider generalizability of CT mechanisms across contexts, including by route of transmission and from the Global South, and a more thorough account of unintended consequences. Trial Registration:

JMIR Public Health: The Effectiveness of Contact Tracing to Reduce Transmission of Infectious Diseases During #Epidemic or Pandemic Response: Rapid Systematic Review

@ashleyaviola.bsky.social | Ashley Viola: "The 'Soft Girl' Trend Is Just Red Pill Content for Women" | #Epidemic #SexualizationOfGirls #InfantilizationOfWomen #Oppression #Embarrassing #PickMe
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6WC...

A flesh‑eating fly is advancing towards the US border – can it be stopped? | The-14 A deadly flesh-eating fly nears the US border, raising fears of outbreaks, economic losses, and urgent need for stronger pest control and global cooperation now

A flesh‑eating fly is advancing towards the US border – can it be stopped?
#Mexico #USA #Screwworm #FleshEatingFly #Biosecurity #AnimalHealth #PublicHealth #Agriculture #Livestock #FAO #ClimateChange #PestControl #FoodSecurity #Outbreak #Insects #Epidemic
the-14.com/a-flesh-eati...

The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available.

The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish
projects.propublica.org/childhood-va...

A #pandemic is still a #epidemic.

A woman adjust her mosquito net.

When a #malaria upsurge occurred in #Ethiopia in 2024, we responded swiftly with the Ministry of Health through the Accelerating Burden Reduction to #MalariaElimination project, laying a strong foundation for #epidemic response & disease control.

📹 Watch our video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0f...

Preprint: Mapping global emergence of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential . . . We've a preprint today from the WHO and international partners which attempts to map the global emergence of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential. This is an ambitious project, and in its first iteration is limited to 17 priority pathogens drawn heavily from the 2017-2018 WHO List Of Blueprint Priority Diseases and 2024's Pathogens Prioritization Report. As a result, disease threats from some regions of the world (e.g. Americas, Western Pacific, Europe) may be under represented. In this preprint, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are identified as high risk areas. When evidence was overlaid for multiple pathogens in a composite map, our results demonstrate that the greatest potential for emergence of the largest number of pathogens are in locations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results provide evidence that some areas of South Sudan,for example, are at risk of exposure to emergence of all priority pathogens considered (Figure1). Large geographic areas in Western Africa, including Nigeria and Ghana, in Central and in Southern Africa (from Gabon and Cameroon, to the United Republic of Tanzania and Mozambique) similarly have areas with evidence to support emergence potential for the different pathogens evaluated, with important foci for Lassa virus (LASV), Yersinia pestis,monkeypox virus (MPXV), Rift...

Preprint: Mapping global emergence of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential . . .
->Avian Flu Diary | More on "Global pandemic pathogen emergence mapping" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic #Pandemic

#IDSky #MedSky #Medicine #InfectiousDisease #PublicHealth #Epidemic #Zoonosis

Localized transmission of an aquatic pathogen drives hidden epidemics and population collapse in a terrestrial host In his seminal paper on the problem of pattern and scale in ecology, Simon A. Levin emphasizes the universal variability of patterns and their underlying mechanisms across spatial scales in natural systems1. Unsurprisingly, examples of multiscale spatial patterns of parasite infection are common2. For instance, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (hereafter, Bd)—a pathogen that is one of the primary drivers of contemporary amphibian declines and extinctions and is responsible for the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a pathogen3,4—has been detected on every continent where amphibians occur5, yet its spatial distribution appears heterogeneous across all spatial scales examined to date. At global and regional scales, Bd occurrence is closely associated with climatic variables5. At the national scale in Chile, however, Bd infections show a stronger association with human footprint than with climate6. These observations are consistent with ref. 2, who showed that the factors shaping the distribution of Bd and other pathogens, including West Nile virus and Borrelia burgdorferi, vary with the spatial scale of observation. Specifically, they found that biotic factors predicted pathogen distributions only at local scales (~10²–10³ km²), while climate and human population density were significant only at larger, regional scales (typically >10⁴ km²). Understanding the mechanisms that shape...

Localized transmission of an aquatic pathogen drives hidden epidemics and population collapse in a terrestrial host
->Nature | More on "Amphibian pathogen spatial spread collapse" at BigEarthData.ai | #Collapse #Epidemic

Mapping #global emergence of #pathogens with #epidemic and #pandemic #potential to inform and accelerate pandemic #prevention, #preparedness, readiness and response

Mapping #global emergence of #pathogens with #epidemic and #pandemic #potential to inform and accelerate pandemic #prevention, #preparedness, readiness and response, etidiohnew.blogspot.com/2026/03/mapp...

New mass massacre in Siberia Russian farmers lose their livestock as the authorities are culling cattle in all private households due to suspected foot-and-mouth…

New mass massacre in Siberia

medium.com/@sensmedia.s...
#disaster #siberia #russia #epidemic #agriculture #health

The Work of the Gods was abandoned after an #epidemic the remaining pagan chiefs convert to #Christianity (1955)

Free-range chickens roaming across a grassy farm field.

#BirdFlu can already get inside human #cells. So why hasn’t it sparked a #pandemic? A recent study offers important clues. In PNAS Journal Club: https://ow.ly/pVPN50YvX4g

#AvianInfluenza #H5N1 #ZoonoticSpillover #RNAVirus #epidemic

'My lungs had nothing left.' Inside the epidemic killing countertop stonecutters For more than 15 years, Oscar worked nearly seven days a week in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, cutting and polishing stone countertops for kitchens and bathrooms. He didn’t know the engineered stone he was fabricating was rapidly killing him. At the age of 45, Oscar began to have difficulty breathing. He felt extremely tired and weak, unable to lift the stone slabs he once carried with ease. “My lungs couldn’t take it anymore,” Oscar said in Spanish. “They were already collapsing.” Oscar spoke on condition that he be identified only by his first name in order to protect his privacy. In 2022, he said he was rushed to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with silicosis, a progressive and incurable occupational lung disease. He said he cried when the doctor delivered the news and told him he would never be able to work again. “I was always a hardworking person who helped my parents, my children, my family,” he said in the living room of the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his sister and niece, which is dotted with toys, drawings and family photos. A statue of Jesus decorated with rosaries peers over his shoulder...

'My lungs had nothing left.' Inside the epidemic killing countertop stonecutters
->Capital and Main | More on "Silicosis killing engineered stone workers" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic

Interactions of SARS-CoV-2, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus influence epidemic ... Interactions between SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at the population level remain poorly understood. This study aimed to quantify potential interactions among these viruses and assess their influence on transmission dynamics. Methods We analyzed weekly surveillance data on SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B viruses (IAV and IBV), and RSV from seven regions from October 2021 to May 2024. Distributed lag nonlinear models within a spatiotemporal Bayesian hierarchical framework were used to assess the exposure-lag-response associations among virus pairs. Additionally, we developed a two-pathogen, meta-population mechanistic transmission model to capture the co-epidemic dynamics of IAV and SARS-CoV-2, and to quantify the strength and duration of their bidirectional interactions. Results Among all virus pairs examined, a statistically significant association is identified only between IAV positivity and subsequent SARS-CoV-2 risk. When IAV positive rate percentile is between the 52nd and 88th percentiles, the relative risk (RR) of SARS-CoV-2 infection is significantly reduced. The lowest RR for SARS-CoV-2 (0.58, 95% CrI: 0.40-0.85) occurs at a 5-week lag when IAV positivity reaches the 70th percentile. The fitted mechanistic model using incidence data in Beijing shows that IAV infection substantially reduces infection to SARS-CoV-2 by 94.24% (95% CrI: 88.50%–99.24%), with the protective effect...

Interactions of SARS-CoV-2, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus influence epidemic ...
->Nature | More on "Respiratory virus co-epidemic transmission dynamics" at BigEarthData.ai | #Influenza #Coronavirus #BirdFlu #Epidemic

AI Agents and Epidemic Intelligence on Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Toward a Conceptual Framework Integrating Decision Support Traditional epidemic intelligence relies heavily on human epidemiologists for data interpretation and reporting, which makes it resource intensive, slow to respond, and vulnerable to variability in pr...

Journal of #Medical Internet Research - #AI Agents and #Epidemic Intelligence on #Respiratory Infectious #Diseases: Toward a Conceptual Framework Integrating Decision Support

www.jmir.org/2026/1/e86936

#MedSky #AImedicine #AI #HealthAI #AIinHealthcare #MedTech

Study on the differentiated impact of climate change on plague epidemics in Northern and ... Abstract Based on plague disaster and climate data from China between 1912 and 1949, this study comprehensively employed the Mann-Whitney U test, mutation test, and optimal parameter geographic detector to investigate the relationship between plague epidemic characteristics and climate change across different geographic regions. Findings reveal significant spatiotemporal divergence in plague epidemics between northern and southern China: Southern plague exhibits a clearly defined “high-amplitude stable decline” trend, while northern plague shows a slow downward trajectory amid intense fluctuations, lacking a significant linear trend. Moreover, all three plague hotspots highly overlap with natural reservoirs. This divergence stems from fundamentally different climate-driven mechanisms in the north and south, with interactive detection indicating that synergistic effects between dual factors generally outweigh single-factor impacts. Northern plague is jointly controlled by precipitation fluctuations and thermal variations, primarily driven by the interaction between annual precipitation and trends in annual mean high temperatures (q-value: 31.46%); In contrast, southern plague is more sensitive to warming transitions in the climate system, primarily governed by the synergistic effects of annual temperature difference variations and trends in low temperatures, precipitation, and mean temperature (q-values: 38.44%, 34.92%, and 34.77%). Spatio-temporal coupling analysis further reveals that climate abruptions act as temporal triggers for...

Study on the differentiated impact of climate change on plague epidemics in Northern and ...
->PLOS ONE | More on "Climate change driving plague epidemics" at BigEarthData.ai | #ClimateChange #Plague #Epidemic

How epidemic modeling can make the world safer, post-COVID - Northeastern Global News The pandemic is over but health threats remain. How network scientists are making epidemic modeling more accessible New data reveals how Americans move and mingle post-COVID It’s been nearly three years since the pandemic that took millions of lives officially ended, but Northeastern University network scientist Alessandro Vespignani and his team are not letting their forecasting tools gather dust. When COVID-19 caught the world off guard in early 2020, the Northeastern scientists developed transmission models that predicted pandemic levels of disease by March of that year. Now they have created post-pandemic datasets and maps of what Vespignani called the first study of how Americans interact and move in the post-COVID era. It comes with a mobility platform that serves as a real-time dashboard on population movement, as well as software — called Epydemix — that allows scientists and public health experts to plug in their own data to compare disease transmission modeling scenarios. “During COVID, we built tools while using them,” said Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor and director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, who compared science efforts to model disease transmission during the pandemic to building a plane while flying it. “Now COVID is over and we are...

How epidemic modeling can make the world safer, post-COVID - Northeastern Global News
->Northeastern | More on "Epidemic modeling tools post-COVID" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic

How long before #OpioidPolicy actually reduces deaths?

OPOSim #ABM simulates #OpioidUse dynamics in #NorthCarolina to test #prevention strategies and reveals how small shifts can change #epidemic trajectories

Read the full #OpenAccess article in #JASSS: jasss.org/29/1/5.html

'An epidemic of suffering': Why are conservationists breaking down? In December 2024, Rachel Graham, executive director of the Belize-based marine nonprofit MarAlliance, posted on LinkedIn that she knew “5 wildlife & conservation scientists who have taken their lives this year so far.” She called it a “crisis” that needed tackling. The post went viral, garnering about 18,000 impressions and 45 comments. “I’m seeing a true crisis in the conservation community,” Graham tells Mongabay. People become conservationists because they care, Graham says, but that can also lead to huge mental health problems in an age of biodiversity decline, climate change and environmental distress. Add to that the perils of the sector — often low wages, poor job security, overworking, dependence on fickle grants and burnout — and you have a ripe recipe for mental health issues. “If your identity is inextricably linked [to a mission], then when this is imperiled, the threat becomes very personal,” Graham says. “That, to me, I think, is really one of the biggest cruxes of the problem that we’re seeing right now in conservation.” The problem isn’t anecdotal. A 2023 study in Conservation Biology interviewed more than 2,000 conservation professionals and found that more than a quarter of them (27.8%) were suffering from moderate to...

'An epidemic of suffering': Why are conservationists breaking down?
->Mongabay | More on "Conservationist mental health crisis epidemic" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic #Conservationist

‘IT’s an Epidemic’: Britons Using Refund Trick to Steal – and ‘honest Customers Will Pay for IT’ | Money Blog It's an epidemic': Britons using refund trick to steal—honest customers will pay. Protect your wallet! #FriendlyFraud #Britons #Epidemic.

‘IT’s an Epidemic’: Britons Using Refund Trick to Steal – and ‘honest Customers Will Pay for IT’ | Money Blog

It's an epidemic': Britons using refund trick to steal—honest customers will pay. Protect your wallet! #FriendlyFraud #Britons #Epidemic.

Recurrent cholera outbreaks in Nigeria: A review of the underlying factors and redress

Research highlights that systemic deficiencies in WASH infrastructure and environmental factors drive recurrent #Cholera in Nigeria, necessitating integrated public health responses to mitigate future #Epidemic cycles.
#OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...

Opinion: US Biodefense Policy Under Scrutiny as NIH, CDC Pandemic Preparedness Programs Face Cuts | Infection Control Today As debate over COVID-19 origins continues, critics warn that reductions in NIH and CDC biodefense efforts could weaken US pandemic preparedness. From halted CDC databases to shifting NIH priorities, e...

#BiologicalWeapons #Biosecurity #Preparedness #Epidemic #USA #Trump #Budget
US Biodefense Policy Under Scrutiny as NIH, CDC Pandemic Preparedness Programs Face Cuts
www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/opinion...

[...]
If I were a foreign adversary who had a goal of weakening the US’ response to a...

The perpetual fall from grace Can a culture’s fatal flaw be eradicated? Hubris vs. social wisdom. Also, red knit caps.

“Doing my own research” isn’t tapping into common wisdom; it’s asking to have one’s thoughts manipulated” (by algorithms designed to sell stuff)

– The Perpetual Fall From Grace – Dionne Dumitru

dionnedumitru.substack.com/p/the-perpet...

#society #community #individualism #health #epidemic #genAI

#theinterplex #science #scientist #scientific #interview #epidemic #pandemic #biology #social #society #model #modeling #covid19 #belief #misinformation #risk #perception #behavior #dynamics #complex #complexity #infection #data #physics #crisis #cdc #vaccine #communication #media #conspiracytheory

Power Grids to Epidemics: Study Shows Small Patterns Trigger Systemic Failures Newswise — Why do some systems collapse suddenly after what seems like a minor disturbance? A single transmission line failure can cascade into widespread blackouts. A delayed shipment can ripple through a global supply chain, emptying store shelves far from the original disruption. A rumor spreading in a small online network can spark nationwide panic. In nature, a slight environmental shift can throw an ecosystem into chaos, and a local disease outbreak can quickly escalate into an epidemic. New research suggests that in many of these cases, the key isn’t the entire system – but its smallest building blocks. Tiny clusters of interacting components, called network motifs, can act as amplifiers, triggering outsized reactions that ripple through the entire system. By identifying these critical patterns, scientists hope to better predict – and possibly prevent – cascading failures across the complex, interconnected systems that shape our world. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by researchers from Florida Atlantic University, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, and the University of California, Merced. Scientists often study complex systems such as food webs, social networks or infrastructure systems by mapping them as networks of connected...

Power Grids to Epidemics: Study Shows Small Patterns Trigger Systemic Failures
->Newswise | More on "Network failures and systemic collapse" at BigEarthData.ai | #Epidemic