Dr. Klotman’s Week315 video address is available here. My summary follows.
Polio
- Polio is circulating in much of Africa and some of Europe
- If you are planning international travel, check to see whether your itinerary includes places where a Level 2 Polio alert is in effect
- If your itinerary includes such countries
- Get a booster polio vaccine if your initial vaccination was with the Salk (injection) vaccine’
- If you had the live attenuated virus oral vaccine, you are good to go
TEPHI (wastewater) Data
- Rotavirus A and Norovirus virus levels continue to rise
- Human Metapneumovirus is still rising
- RSV A/B virus and Parainfluenza virus levels are increasing in some areas of Texas
- While Influenza A continues to fall, Influenza B is rising
- COVID (SARS-CoV-2) levels continue to be low
Measles
- There has been a large measles outbreak in El Paso related to the ICE detention center and its staff who have spread it in the community
- A similar ICE detention facility, known as Camp East Montana, has hosted a separate Measles outbreak
- See my comments below
- In Utah, there was a high-school wrestling tournament that resulted in 41 hospitalizations for Measles
- There are over 400 cases of Measles in Utah
- Thus far this year, the US has logged 1575 cases (78 hospitalized) – only 4% among people who had two doses of MMR
Influenza
- Most of the Influenza A cases this year have been H3N2 clade K
- The US has had 123 pediatric deaths due to Influenza A this year – 85% were unvaccinated
- The CDC estimates that we have had 29M cases, 360K hospitalizations, and 23K deaths
Influenza D
- First characterized in 2011 among cattle
- Can spillover to other farm animals
- Antibodies to this virus have been found in farm workers
Pandemic potential
- There is a canine corona virus that may pose a human pandemic threat
- Influenza D as well as avian Influenza A (H5N1) are other potential pandemic threats
COVID
- The new strain BA.3.2.2 aka “cicada” originated in S. Africa as a recombinant of earlier B.1.617.2 and XBB.1.5 strains
- This new strain has 75 changes in its spike protein and may require a new vaccine
- COVID cases are increasing in Massachusetts and Florida
On the canine archeological front, dog remains have been found at human, hunter-gatherer sites dating back 16,000 years.
My Comments: If you follow my FB posts, you may recall that sometime in the past 12-18months I posted about the health consequences of setting up ICE detention facilities in building such as warehouses that were not designed with human respiratory hygiene in mind – buildings meant to warehouse “stuff” rather than people. I cautioned that respiratory illnesses, including lethal ones like Meningococcal disease, spread easily in closed quarters. The same is true of Measles, COVID, Influenza, Whooping cough, and many others.
Well, all I can say about the measles outbreaks in ICE detention camps is that even a third-year medical student could have predicted that it would happen. Of course, the outbreaks don’t remain confined to the gulags, the ICE personnel take the diseases out into the community – to hospitals, restaurants, theaters, wherever those people go. If DHS/ICE were working closely with the CDC, they would have made different choices of how to hold detainees. But no, Kristi Noem and her ilk know everything they need to know. Besides, there probably aren’t any industrial hygienists or epidemiologist consultants left at the CDC.
I don’t know whether this feckless administration will kill more people with its incompetence or its malevolence.