While the media is focused on pandemic Swine Flu, here along America’s North Shore, we must be wary of other diseases. Here are several articles to remind us all about them.

West Nile virus season returns

It looks like another wet summer for the Rochester, N.Y. and the Monroe County area. Wet summers mean mosquitoes. Mosquitoes mean the West Nile virus is again a threat in the region.

The West Nile virus was first discovered in central Africa in 1937. It was studied and characterized in Egypt in the 1950′s, hence the name. It was first discovered in the United States in 1999, and has been found in every state but Hawaii, Alaska and Oregon.

Rabies and upstate wildlife

Rabies. The name conjures images of large dogs foaming at the mouth and tearing their victims to shreds. In reality, wildlife are the primary sources of rabies and attacks on humans by rabid animals.

On July 16 a seven year old boy and his grandfather were attacked, separately, by a fox at the grandparent’s home in Webster. The grandfather shot and killed the fox during the second attack and a laboratory later confirm that it was rabid.

Plague still to be feared

A second man has died from plague in the city of Ziketan, in northern China. The local authorities have quarantined about ten people who were exposed to either of the dead men.

Plague is the Black Death. It decimated cities and countrysides, and entire nations as it swept across the continent in repeated waves. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases suggests that it killed one third of the population of Europe, 30 million people, in the 1300′s. In the mid 1800′s it killed 12 million Chinese.

Around a dozen cases, 3 deaths, as pneumonic plague kills up its heels in NW China. This is a disease that hygiene can help prevent. Get rid of the rodents and their fleas and plague disappears.

Plague is spread in two main forms, pneumonic – which is the form reported in China, and bubonic. Pneumonic plague is spread like many respiratory diseases, by being coughed or sneezed on by a sick person.

Bubonic plague can be found in the United States, almost entirely in the Southwest. It is spread by the bites of fleas, usually fleas from rats, mice or other rodents. The number of human cases varies with the natural increases or decreases in rodent populations. The NIH reports 10-20 cases of bubonic plague in the U.S. on average each year. 1 of 7 cases is fatal.

Pneumonic plague appears as a rapid onset pneumonia, with all the related symptoms, fever, shortness of breath, coughing and sometimes bloody sputum. It is very contagious for people who have close contact with the patient. The Y. pestis bacteria cannot survive longer than about an hour in open air and sunlight so personal contact is the most risky.

More at Examiner.com

Centers for Disease Control

The incidence of communicable diseases is such that they are unlikely to prove a hazard for international travelers greater than that found in their own country. There are, of course, health risks, but in general, the precautions required are minimal.

Certain diseases occasionally occur, such as plague, rabies in wildlife, including bats, raccoons, foxes, and other wild animals. Coccidioidomycosis is endemic in the southwestern United States and can occur in visitors to the area. Its incidence has increased in Arizona and California in recent years. Histoplasmosis is highly endemic, especially in the Mississippi, Ohio, and St. Lawrence River valleys. Sporadic cases and large outbreaks occur.

Cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome have been widely distributed in North America, with the greatest concentration in the western and southwestern United States. Infections in animals were reported in agricultural regions of the United States and Canada in 2006; infection in humans is rare.

Lyme disease is endemic in northeastern, north central (upper Midwest), and Pacific coastal areas of North America. West Nile fever was first documented in the United States (New York) in 1999 and has since spread throughout continental United States and southern Canada.

Outbreaks of diarrhea caused by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 have occurred in many areas and have increased in the past decade. Campylobacter and Salmonella are the most common causes of acute bacterial diarrhea.

Isolated cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE/mad cow disease) have been reported in Canada and the United States. For more information, see http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/ and http://www.usda.gov.

Outbreaks and cases of pertussis have been increasing for more than a decade.

AP

A campground at Natural Bridges National Monument has been closed because of bubonic plague detected among field mice and chipmunks.

Plague also has been found this spring in rodent populations at Mesa Verde National Park and Colorado National Monument.

Rangers plan to insecticides to kill fleas in the campground area. Humans usually contract bubonic plague after being bitten by fleas that have bitten infected rodents. The campground could be reopened as soon as next week.

Plague occurs throughout the West, but is concentrated in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. An average of 18 cases involving humans are reported each year in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in seven victims die.