Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 280 video address. My digest is:

Yersinia Pestis (plague)

  • A 73 year-old man contracted bubonic plague from his cat who probably caught it from infected rodent fleas
  • The patient was treated with antibiotics and recovered
  • The cat died at the end of January

Mosquito-borne viruses

  • Europe is seeing a surge of Dengue, West Nile, Zika, Chikungunya, and yellow fever
  • The vectors for these viral infections are the Aedes albopictus (Tiger mosquito) and Aedes aegypti whose populations are in resurgence likely as a result of climate change

Rabies

  • Bats are the animal most associated with rabies transmission in the US
  • A recent (small) trial of applying oral rabies vaccine to bats’ fur has shown that an entire bat colony can be vaccinated this way because bats groom each other

H5N1 Influenza

  • There have been three new cases of H5N1 in cattle
  • The states showing the greatest H5N1 activity recently are Oregon and New Jersey
  • Cases in domestic cats and raccoons have also been reported recently
  • Human antibodies to H5N1 are most often seen in older rather than younger adults
  • Both young and older folks mounted an immune response to trial H5N1 vaccination

COVID

  • COVID cases and SARS-CoV-2 mRNA in wastewater show a very strong correlation
  • COVID in wastewater is especially high these days in CA, NV, FL, and AL
  • Texas, LA, and a few other states may not be far behind the states mentioned above
  • The dominant strain in the US is now XFG accounting for ~49% of cases

West Nile

  • We have 49 cases as of this week
  • Most of them are in Arizona and Louisiana
  • Texas has its fair share and may grow because the recent floods in Central Texas
  • Even NYC now has cases of West Nile

My random thoughts:

  • As relates to getting plague from cats. This is extremely rare. Indoor-Outdoor cats are more likely to bring you Murine Typhus after associating with Possums that are carrying typus-infected fleas. We get a few cases in Austin every year.
  • As relates to oral rabies vaccination of bats and other mammals, I have to wonder whether adding the vaccine to all meals served at White House functions and the vending machines at HHS might improve public policy – making it less bat-shit crazy.
  • As relates to arthropod-vectored viral infections, I’m sure that flood mitigation in Texas is much less important than delivering a more extremely gerrymandered state map to the Governor’s office. Besides, all this climate change nonsense and its relationship to communicable diseases is all part of some hoax that could be better treated by incarcerating Anthony Fauci or maybe sacrificing a virgin. Sigh.
By: llcPosted on