Flash floods in Texas killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left scores still missing, including girls attending a summer camp. The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced H5N1 bird flu updates are being streamlined with its routine influenza data given the low public health risk and lack of person-to-person spread. Data on the number of people monitored and tested for bird flu will be reported monthly. Bird flu detection data in animals will no longer be reported on the CDC website; instead, it will be publicly available on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website.
Measles cases in the United States are the highest they’ve been since the country eliminated the disease in 2000. The U.S. has reported 1,277 cases since the start of the year, according to NBC News’ tally of state health department data. Earlier this year, the U.S. also recorded its first measles deaths in a decade: those of two children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico. All were unvaccinated.
On June 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded its participation in a 36-hour nuclear emergency exercise organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The exercise was part of the IAEA’s Level 3 Convention Exercise (ConvEx-3), the highest and most complex level of its emergency exercises. These large-scale exercises are conducted every three to five years to test emergency preparedness and response capacities and identify areas in need of improvement.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, have found that fine-particulate air pollution, which includes pollution from vehicles and industry, was strongly associated with increased genomic changes in lung cancer tumors among people who have never smoked. By assembling the largest-ever whole-genome analysis of lung cancer in individuals who have never smoked, researchers were able to link air pollution exposure to increased cancer-driving and cancer-promoting genetic mutations.
Mondelēz Global LLC announced a voluntary recall of four carton sizes of RITZ Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches (8-pack, 20-pack, and 40pack cartons of RITZ Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches, as well as the 20-pack RITZ Filled Cracker Sandwich Variety Pack carton) manufactured in the United States and sold nationwide. The affected cartons include individually wrapped packs that may be incorrectly labeled as Cheese variety even though the product may be a Peanut Butter variety.
Identify, Isolate and Inform: It is important to continueto ask travel questions. The purpose of this notice is to remind healthcare providers about actions to take in Georgia when evaluating patients for possible serious communicable diseases!
Travel Clinical Assistant (TCA)
TheTravel Clinical Assistantprovides post-travel clinical information on travel-related diseases for 231 countries. Diseases with recent outbreaks occurring in the last two years are listed first.
Violent Actors and Cyber Criminals Threaten Emergency Services Sector
The Office of Intelligence and Analysis sent anassessmentof threats to the Emergency Services Sector— police, firefighters, and other first responders— from violent extremists, other physical threat actors, or malicious cyber actors.
