NB: No BC post this week because the are not publishing new data until 3 Jan 2025. This post is kind of short because for some reason there has been less news the past few days. Happy Holidays! Recommended Reading This article from USA (2024-12-26) talks about three issues to watch in global health: H5N1,… Continue reading 2024-12-27 General
Month: December 2024
2024-12-20 BC
Note: The province will not give another update until 3 Jan 2025. There are about 20% more respiratory illnesses than were reported last week. However, they also increased last week’s figures, so this week is about the same as what they now say we had last week. 🙁 The COVID-19 numbers don’t get revised as… Continue reading 2024-12-20 BC
2024-12-20 General
Recommended Reading ⭐❗❗This article (2024-12-17) talks about how cats might be an effective “mixing vessel” and transmission vector for the next pandemic. TL;DR: Cats have avian and mammal receptors and get very very close to humans on a regular basis. COVID-19 Long COVID ⭐ This preprint from USA (2024-12-11) reports that people who went on… Continue reading 2024-12-20 General
2024-12-13 BC
COVID-19 keeps going down! All the numbers (yes, including wastewater) are almost as low as they were 18 months ago. (COVID-19 is NOT “seasonal”!) RSV is up, and is still the most common respiratory infection. Flu is rising a bit more quickly than it had been, but it still is at a pretty low level.… Continue reading 2024-12-13 BC
2024-12-13 General
⭐❗❗ This review paper (2024-12-10) reports that pathogens — including some really nasty ones — hang around in semen from days to years. They found 22 different pathogens which had been reported in semen, including HIV, Zika, Ebola, mpox, COVID-19, Lassa fever, dengue, Hep E, mumps, West Nile, adenovirus, Marburg, and some I’d never heard… Continue reading 2024-12-13 General
2024-12-07 BC
The COVID levels — on all measures — keep going down for no obvious reason. I don’t care why, I think it’s awesome! I haven’t seen levels this low since summer 2023. Flu is creeping up, but RSV is this report period’s leader. Charts From the BC CDC Situation Report: Comparison vs. Other Influenza-Like-Illnesses, from… Continue reading 2024-12-07 BC
2024-12-07 General
COVID-19/MERS Long COVID ⭐ ❗❗This paper from Japan (2024-12-02) reported that oral minocycline significantly helped 89% of long COVID patients in what was effectively a big case study, especially when given in the first six months. There was improvement in fatigue, post-exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, brain fog, disequilibrium, orthostatic intolerance, and neuropathic pain. (Minocycline is… Continue reading 2024-12-07 General