Updates: Mozzies and Coffee

Updates on previous posts and COFFEE!

AH, a nice cup of coffee or two to lower your risk by 10% of getting COVID-19. Even if you get a get infected, lower risk of severity. Seems even decaffeinated works. Yeah, I have questions too but it’s coffee! Enjoy these two talking about it.

Coffee as a dietary strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection

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Vector-borne Diseases: Arthropod-borne diseases and Arthropod-borne Diseases #2

• Covered quite a bit on Mozzies in first one but news on Cache Valley virus (CVV). Mainly studied as a teratogen in ruminants, thought to be rare in humans. Once suspected as a pathogenesis of human neural tube defects, an study in 1997 did not confirm this. However, it leaves open the question in an epidemic situation. However, we have new evidence that it maybe more common due a new test for detecting immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies, develop by the CDC. Testing of 16 undiagnosed serious illness showed 6 indicating CCV. Nice resource site to bookmark.

https://www.idse.net/Zoonotic-Diseases/Article/11-23/New-Evidence-of-Wider-Infections-in-North-America-With-Rare-Mosquito-Borne-Virus/72192

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Hickam was right, you can have a many diseases as you desire, apparently so do ticks.

• One man, three tick-borne illnesses

Abstract

A 70-year-old man presented to the emergency department with fevers, ankle edema and nausea following a presumed insect bite on his ankle 1 month prior. On examination, he was febrile and had left leg pain with passive range of motion. Laboratory studies revealed anemia, thrombocytopenia, acute kidney injury and elevated aminotransaminases. Due to his recent travel to the Northeastern United States, he was suspected of having a possible tick-borne illness. Serologies were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti, and the patient was diagnosed with Lyme disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis. He was treated with doxycyline, atovaquone and azithromycin, leading to resolution of symptoms. While co-infection with Lyme disease is common, infection with three tickborne illnesses at one time is relatively rare.

Arthropod-borne Diseases #2 has details on the diseases.

• ‘Manhattan Project’ for Ticks

Today an estimated 490,000 people in the United States are infected annually by tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, an increase that researchers said has been fueled by the return of formerly depleted forests and a dramatic increase in populations of tick-hosting white-tailed deer. Climate change (my edit)

“Toward this goal, we must have a multidisciplinary, One Health approach that will harness the vision of molecular biologists, entomologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians and vaccinologists,” the authors concluded.

Keep in mind we don’t have vaccines nor specific treatment for most of these diseases.

https://www.idse.net/Zoonotic-Diseases/Article/10-23/%E2%80%98Manhattan-Project%E2%80%99-for-Ticks/71843

Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS)

The CDC reports that between 2010 and 2022, there were more than 110,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome identified. However, because the diagnosis of alpha-gal syndrome requires a positive diagnostic test and a clinical exam, and some individuals with alpha-gal syndrome may not get tested, it is estimated that as many as 450,000 people might have been affected by AGS in the United States, according to two reports issued today by the CDC in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Studies show that many healthcare providers in the United States are not familiar with an emerging and potentially life-threatening allergic condition called alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), also known as the red-meat allergy or the tick bite meat allergy. Of those aware of AGS, knowledge about diagnosis and management is low.

Could it be that the range of ticks and disease have expanded into new areas?

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0727-emerging-tick-bites.html

I actually guessed this before it was revealed. Think it's relatively unknown previously in her area, she is in Canada.

• AMR

Clostridioides difficile spores tolerate disinfection with sodium hypochlorite disinfectant and remain viable within surgical scrubs and gown fabrics 

https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001418