NPHR Public Health News May 1st 2016

2006 Prof. Frank Hadley Collins, Dir., Cntr. for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Univ. of Notre Dame This 2006 photograph depicted a female Aedes aegypti mosquito while she was in the process of acquiring a blood meal from her human host, who in this instance, was actually the biomedical photographer, James Gathany, here at the Centers for Disease Control. You?ll note the feeding apparatus consisting of a sharp, ?fascicle?, which while not feeding, is covered in a soft, pliant sheath called the "labellum?, which is seen here retracted, as the sharp ?stylets? contained within pierced the host's skin surface, as the insect obtained its blood meal. The fascicle is composed of a pair of needle-sharp stylets. The larger of the two stylets, known as the "labrum", when viewed in cross-section takes on the shape of an inverted "V", and acts as a gutter, which directs the ingested host blood towards the insect's mouth. This female?s abdomen had become distended due to the blood meal she was ingesting, imparting the red coloration to her translucent abdominal exoskeleton. DF and DHF are primarily diseases of tropical and sub-tropical areas, and the four different dengue serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4), are maintained in a cycle that involves humans and the Aedes mosquito. However, Aedes aegypti, a domestic, day-biting mosquito that prefers to feed on humans, is the most common Aedes species. Infections produce a spectrum of clinical illness ranging from a nonspecific viral syndrome to severe and fatal hemorrhagic disease. Important risk factors for DHF include the strain of the infecting virus, as well as the age, and especially the prior dengue infection history of the patient.

Global News

• Ever wonder whose job it is to go around during war to pull people from the rubble and provide emergency care? meet the white helmet brigade in Syria.
•  Does the Zika virus actually cause Microencephaly or reduced brain sizes in children? This week a recent report describes attempts to review everything we know so far on the relationship between the Zika virus and Microencephaly .
• Also related: the first Emergency Zika test has been approved by the FDA – this is happening just as the first Zika related death has been reported in the U.S territory.
•  NASA has joined in the fight to control the Zika virus by providing a potential visualization map of the potential  spread of Zika virus in the U.S.
• In mental health related news this week, the CDC just released a report showing a spike in suicide rates has reached a 30 year high. Naturally this report raises the question, how do you help someone who is at risk  for suicide?
• The Syrian Crises has opened a new chapter with the siege of Aleppo. In this last incident, the central hospital providing care to the region was blown up, killing several patients and hospital workers including the only pediatric physician in the region.

Local News

• Free timed races coming soon. Whereas timed races in the city have traditionally cost $50.00 a person, this summer, runners won’t have to sweat paying to lace up for a series of new runs at three Chicago neighborhood parks.
• The Illinois Department of Public health this week confirmed the tenth case of Zika virus in Illinois.
• A recent study  by Professor Ruchi Gupta of Northwestern published this week in Pediatrics found that food-allergic children from households that earn less than $50,000 a year incur 2.5 times the cost of emergency room visits and hospital stays compared with their peers from families that are in a higher-income bracket.

By Osefame Ewaleifoh