Over 60 deaths linked to ‘unknown disease’ in Congo: WHO
A general view of the World Health Organization (WHO) on April 28, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)
(DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO) — At least 60 people have died and over 1,000 more have been sickened by a deadly “unknown disease” spreading in a region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said.
Local health officials in Congo are partnering with the World Health Organization to investigate.
The phrase “unknown disease” primarily means that the disease has not yet been identified.
In previous cases, the cases are linked to a known disease, but a lack of available testing leads to lack of certainty.
For example, there was a separate report of an “unknown disease” in December of last year in Congo that was later attributed to illnesses from malaria and respiratory illnesses.
Local health officials have identified a surge of cases and deaths three times in different areas of the country in recent months.
A total of 1,096 sick people have been identified along with 60 deaths. Symptoms include fever, headache, chills, sweating, stiff neck, muscle aches, multiple joint pain and body aches, a runny or bleeding from nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.
Initial lab tests have been negative for Ebola and Marburg. Around half of samples tested have been positive for malaria, which is common in the area. Tests continue to be carried out for meningitis. Officials are also looking into food and water contamination.
Early investigations traced the outbreak’s origin to three kids, all under 5 years old, who developed symptoms after eating a bat carcass.
Symptoms included fever, headache, diarrhea and fatigue – which later progressed to signs associated with hemorrhagic fevers and death.
“The remote location and weak healthcare infrastructure increase the risk of further spread,” the WHO notes in its report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring an unknown disease that has killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said in a statement on Monday.
“CDC is monitoring the situation closely and engaging with DRC officials on what support the agency can offer,” the agency’s spokesperson said.
At least 1,096 people have been sickened and 60 people have died from the disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday in its most recent update.
This is the third time in the past few months officials have identified increases in illness and deaths in a different area of Congo, triggering “follow-up investigations to confirm the cause and provide needed support,” the WHO said in a statement on Thursday.
For example, there was a separate report of an unknown disease in December of last year in the central African country that was later attributed to illnesses from malaria and respiratory illnesses.
The symptoms for this latest cluster of disease include fever, headache, chills, sweating, stiff neck, muscle aches, multiple joint pain and body aches, a runny or bleeding from the nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea, the WHO said.
Initial lab tests have been negative for Ebola and Marburg virus disease, the WHO said.
Around half of samples tested have been positive for malaria, which is common in the area, according to the WHO. Tests continue to be carried out for meningitis, and officials said they are also looking into food and water contamination.
The WHO said it has delivered emergency medical supplies, including testing kits and “developed detailed protocols to enhance disease investigation.”
“The WHO is supporting the local health authorities reinforce investigation and response measures, with more than 80 community health workers trained to detect and report cases and death,” the organization said.
(WASHINGTON) — Measles is continuing to spread across the United States, as outbreaks grow in western Texas and New Mexico.
Between the two states, 256 cases have been confirmed as of Thursday, mostly in those who are unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status, according to state health officials. At least one unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas has died and another suspected death is being investigated in New Mexico in an unvaccinated adult. At least 10 other states have also confirmed cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As health care professionals work to care for patients, they are also attempting to combat the proliferation of misinformation about how to prevent and treat the disease, some tell ABC News.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of the prominent voices on measles, making comments that public health experts say are not accurate.
In multiple interviews, Kennedy has claimed that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective treatments for measles. He also said that poor diet contributes to severe cases of measles and that — while vaccines prevent illness — they also cause severe illnesses and even death.
Some public health experts told ABC News these statements are not rooted in scientific evidence and could be quite dangerous for the public.
“I think it’s really important to try to stay away from these ideas of fringe theories or ideas that have not been scientifically proven,” Kirsten Hokeness, director of the school of health and behavioral sciences at Bryant University, in Rhode Island, told ABC News.
Vitamin A as a form of treatment
During an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Kennedy said that HHS was currently providing vitamin A to measles patients for treatment. He claimed vitamin A can “dramatically” reduce measles deaths.
The World Health Organization recommends two doses of vitamin A in children and adults with measles to restore low vitamin A levels, which can help prevent eye damage and blindness.
However, experts who spoke with ABC News said it is not an antiviral treatment against measles (meaning it does not prevent infections), nor is there one available.
“Because it has been described that patients with vitamin A deficiency can have a more severe course, the WHO recommends low doses of vitamin A for children diagnosed with measles,” Dr. Carla Garcia Carreno, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Medical Center Plano in Texas, told ABC News. “This is a supplementation in case of deficiency, and it is not intended to treat the virus. High doses of vitamin A can have serious consequences.”
“Neither vitamin A nor cod liver oil will treat measles,” she concluded.
Poor diet linked to severe measles disease
Kennedy has claimed that poor nutrition plays a role in causing severe measles disease and that a healthy diet can lessen severity.
While malnutrition can be a factor in severe disease, malnutrition and nutritional deficits in measles patients have historically been seen in underdeveloped countries, according to experts.
Additionally, studies have found that mass nutritional supplementation “followed by an increase in vaccination coverage” can reduce measles infection and mortality.
“Certainly, good nutrition can promote a healthy immune system, and it’s a good idea for everyone to try to maintain good nutrition, but it’s certainly not a substitute for vaccination,” Dr. Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told ABC News. “There’s no evidence that it can prevent infection, no evidence that it can prevent an infected person from spreading the virus and contributing to one of these outbreaks.”
“So, I want to be very clear, good nutrition is absolutely no substitute for vaccination to prevent someone’s own risk for developing severe, maybe fatal, measles,” he added.
Claims about the safety of the measles vaccine
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.
Kennedy has said vaccines do “stop the spread of the disease” but also said they cause “adverse events.”
“It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself [causes], encephalitis and blindness, et cetera,” he told Hannity, without providing evidence.
Weaver said there is no vaccine that is without risks but that the MMR vaccine is incredibly safe and effective.
“There’s no evidence that it has severe outcomes … similar to what the measles virus infection causes,” he told ABC News. “It certainly can cause very minor reactions at the site of injection, like just about every vaccine, but it’s one of the safest vaccines that’s ever been developed.”
Weaver added that the risks of complications from a measles infection far outweigh any risks from the MMR vaccine.
As for Kennedy’s unfounded claim that the MMR vaccine causes death, a 2015 CDC review published in the journal Vaccine found such claims are deaths reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System – a voluntary reporting system “that accepts any submitted report of an adverse event without judging its clinical significance or whether it was caused by a vaccination.”
The review found that many of the deaths reported to VAERS claiming to be linked to the MMR included children who has serious underlying medical conditions or had deaths that were unrelated to the vaccine, including accidental deaths.
“These complete VAERS reports and any accompanying medical records, autopsy reports and death certificates have been reviewed in depth by FDA and CDC physicians and no concerning patterns have emerged that would suggest a causal relationship with the MMR vaccine and death,” the review stated.
Questioning ‘benefits’ of measles and fatality rate
Kennedy claimed in an interview with Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Seigel over the weekend that is “almost impossible” for measles to kill a healthy individual.
Some people who contract measles may suffer severe complications as a result of infection. While those most at risk include children younger than age 5, pregnant people and those with weakened immune systems, anybody can experience complications.
About in 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who contract measles are hospitalized and about 1 in 20 children with measles develop pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death in young children who get infected.
About one in 10 children infected with measles develop ear infections as well, which can lead to hearing loss, data shows.
Additionally, about 1 out of every 1,000 children with measles will develop encephalitis — which is the swelling of the brain and can lead to brain damage — and up to 3 out of every 1,000 children with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications, the CDC says.
Recently, Texas health officials reported the death of an unvaccinated school-aged child, the first death from measles recorded in the U.S. in a decade. The child was healthy and had no preexisting conditions, officials said.
“The CDC estimates that 1 in 5 people [who] get infected with measles ends up in the hospital,” Hokeness said. “So, this approach to relying on sort of this natural immunity doesn’t make sense when we have a vaccine which prevents it in the first place.”
“But, in short, there’s really no benefit to this idea of natural immunity and naturally acquiring the virus. That’s why we’ve developed the vaccines that work so well,” she added.
Kennedy also claimed in his interview that natural immunity from measles may protect against cancer and heart disease. There is no evidence to suggest either of those are true, experts said.
“If you want to take your chances with getting natural infection, hoping that there might be some very small benefit to that, it’s a very big risk to take, because you may very well get severe measles infection,” Weaver said.
Overall, experts advised relying on scientifically proven medical information.
“We should leverage the knowledge that we’ve gained over the years and not spend our time focusing on alternative possibilities,” she said.
Scott J. Ferrell/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The federal government has drastically lowered some of the funding that universities and research institutions receive from medical and scientific grants.
News of the cuts rattled the scientific community with many scientific institutions set to lose millions of dollars in funding annually.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country’s primary agency responsible for conducting and supporting medical research, provides federal research grants to universities and research institutions in two separate buckets – direct and indirect costs.
Direct costs are expenses related to conducting research, such as paying for researchers’ salaries or travel as well as funding the equipment and supplies necessary for experiments. Indirect costs, also known as facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, include other expenses such as student services and paying for building expenses like utilities.
Previously, most universities had negotiated indirect cost funds with the federal government, with some acquiring as much as 70% or more. Now, those rates will be capped at 15%.
Attorneys general from 22 states immediately sued to block the NIH from enacting the rate change, arguing the policy would result in “catastrophic financial consequences.”
The lawsuit alleged that the policy would likely result in the closure of research programs, layoffs and furloughs, disruptions to clinical trips and “potentially [jeopardize] people’s lives and health.”
“Indirect costs are the backbone of IHEs’ research programs and cover everything from utilities to facilities and equipment maintenance to payroll for faculty and staff to compliance programs, hazardous waste disposal, and more,” the lawsuit said. “They quite literally keep the lights on.”
The lawsuit asked the Massachusetts District Court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order blocking the policy, arguing the policy would cause irreparable harm and is a clear violation of Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how the federal agencies create and enforce regulations.
In a social media post, the NIH noted that $9 billion of the $35 billion for research that was granted last year were for indirect costs. The agency anticipates that the rate cap will save more than $4 billion annually.
Funding from the NIH supports roughly 412,000 jobs and $92 billion in economic activity, according to a report from United for Medical Research, a coalition of top research universities, medical associations, and biomedical and pharmaceutical companies.
The report argues that NIH funding is not just responsible for university jobs – but also supports local industry and economic activity that bring additional benefits to their communities and states.
In a letter to students and faculty, Harvard University addressed the rate cuts noting, “the discovery of new treatments would slow, opportunities to train the next generation of scientific leaders would shrink, and our nation’s science and engineering prowess would be severely compromised.”
In a similar letter, Stanford University noted that, “a cut of this magnitude would potentially have deep impacts on medical care, human health, and America’s place in the world as the leader of biomedical research.”
Research funding isn’t limited to institutions in the Northeast or California. Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio and Georgia all received roughly $1 billion in funding from the institutes, according to active funding data from NIH.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham, the state’s largest employer, is among the top recipients of NIH funding, and received more than $413 million in NIH awards in 2023.
North Carolina, with more than 3,000 active projects and $3 billion in active NIH funding, and Texas, with more than 4,400 active projects and $2.5 billion in active NIH funding, are also among the GOP-leaning states that received NIH grants and support.
