Health Alerts

This week 18 more measles infections have been recorded by the CDC – 13 are related to ongoing outbreaks in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The national total now sits at 1,095 cases from 28 states – ‘the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000’.

New Yorkers make up 24 of the 62 Salmonella (Uganda) infections nationally that have been linked to papayas imported from Mexico – the remaining cases are in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. While investigations continue, advice to consumers from the CDC is to avoid ‘whole, fresh papayas from Mexico’.

WEST Nile virus activity in California (and across many parts of the US) is at forecast levels but expected to rise, ‘influenced by many factors, including climate, the number and types of birds and mosquitoes in an area, and the level of WNV immunity in birds’. The California Department of Public Health is advising residents ‘to take every possible precaution to protect against mosquito bites’. Read more.