Tag Archives: epidemic

Infectious disease outbreaks rise with opioid epidemic

Leave a reply

Photo: Courtesy of the San Diego Union TribuneTent “cities” have swelled in southern California, creating crowded and unsanitary conditions.

Cases of infectious diseases such as hepatitis A, B and C, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have surged as the opioid epidemic has worsened over the past several years, two public health officials said during a Aug. 23 webcast for AHCJ members.

The increasing number of infectious disease cases are likely due to infected needle injections, unprotected sex, homelessness, lack of access to medical care and other socioeconomic challenges associated with people who have physical addictions to drugs and opioids.

Continue reading →

Bara Vaida (@barav) is AHCJ's core topic leader on infectious diseases. An independent journalist, she has written extensively about health policy and infectious diseases. Her work has appeared in the National Journal, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, McClatchy News Service, MSNBC, NPR, Politico, The Washington Post and other outlets.

Opioids the topic of daylong training for D.C. journalists

Leave a reply

Photo: Ryan Basen Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen, right, helps demonstrate how naloxone is administered.

Health journalists in Washington, D.C., participated in an all-day training session about reporting on the opioid crisis, hearing from treatment experts, medical providers and public health advocates.

The event took place Feb. 23 at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and was a partnership between the D.C. chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the National Press Foundation. Continue reading →

Kimberly Leonard (@leonardkl) is a member of AHCJ’s Right to Know Committee and past co-chair of the Washington, D.C., chapter. She covers Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services as a senior health policy reporter for the Washington Examiner.

Veteran journalist offers advice on covering disease outbreaks

Leave a reply

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This year is starting off with one of the worst flu seasons in a decade. As of the week ended Jan. 27, the number of hospitalizations due to the flu is the highest it has been in nearly a decade, and flu activity has been as highest reported since the peak of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the CDC said. The CDC was also quick to note that this outbreak isn’t a pandemic.

It is likely that flu won’t be the only outbreak in 2018. Over the past year, there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Brazil, plague in Madagascar, cholera in Yemen and measles in Minnesota. While no one knows what else might occur in 2018, there is likely to be another infectious disease outbreak somewhere in the world in the coming year. Continue reading →

Bara Vaida (@barav) is AHCJ's core topic leader on infectious diseases. An independent journalist, she has written extensively about health policy and infectious diseases. Her work has appeared in the National Journal, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, McClatchy News Service, MSNBC, NPR, Politico, The Washington Post and other outlets.

AHCJ Atlanta panel discusses antibiotic resistance

Leave a reply

The rise of deadly, drug-resistant superbugs is one of the world’s most pressing public health concerns. The dangerous development is driven by overuse and misuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, resulting in a dramatic increase in people infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

By 2050, 10 million people globally could die from drug-resistant bugs, which could lead to a loss of productivity of $100 trillion. Continue reading →

Katja Ridderbusch (@K_Ridderbusch) is an Atlanta-based independent journalist who contributes to newspapers, magazines, online media, and public radio stations in Europe and the United States. She frequently reports about the politics and business of health care.

Journalists must succeed where politicians fail in risk communication

1 Reply
Image: wackystuff via Flickr

Image: wackystuff via Flickr

With no new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in South Korea since July 2, the outbreak appears to have ended. Commentaries such as a recent Nature editorial are assessing the damage and the response – and the damage of the response.

In total, 186 people became sick with the virus and 36 died. Yet the response to the virus in South Korea shared something in common with the response to Ebola in the United States during the West African outbreak last year: It was over the top, largely because public officials have yet to master adequate risk communication. Continue reading →

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.