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The car that transported Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan to the hospital is wrapped in plastic on Friday as a hazmat team prepared to clean the apartment in Dallas where he had been staying. Hazmat trucks pulled up outside the apartment, five days after he was admitted to the hospital and days after relatives, including children, were confined there by state officials.

A Sacramento hospital announced Tuesday that one of its patients may have Ebola. Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center said in a release the patient is isolated. The hospital's Dr. Stephen Parodi said in the release 'We are working with the Sacramento County Division of Public Health regarding a patient admitted to the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be testing blood samples to rule out the presence of the virus.

TALLAHASSEE — With thousands of immigrant children seeking shelter in a growing humanitarian crisis, Florida's surgeon general on Friday raised the specter that they could pose a threat to public health.

(English-language translation) The Department of Health declared a Chikungunya virus epidemic in Puerto Rico since it is a new virus in the island, the population does not have the antibodies to fight it, and cases are concentrated in the same zone. As of June 25, 206 cases were reported in the island. It was [also] reported that 89% of cases in Puerto Rico were registered in the Metropolitan Area: San Juan, Carolina, and Bayamón. So reported Health Secretary Ana Rius this morning, explaining at the same time that, through Administrative Order 324 that declares the epidemic, all health plans must...

**SNIP** Drug-resistant tuberculosis also appears to have spread, with several counties in southern Texas reporting twice the usual average number of cases. TB is a disease that needs to be carefully monitored and screened for, a prospect that is not possible under the current circumstances. Dengue fever, a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease that causes fatigue, pain in the bones and muscles, and fever, and infects close to 100 million people worldwide every year, has been detected this year in southern Texas for the first time since 2005. Illegal immigrants, possibly from Mexico, are a likely source. If infected mosquitoes begin...

Many of the thousands of illegal immigrant children and teens crossing the United States border are carrying deadly contagious diseases that could easily create a major health crisis in this country, doctors say. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Dr. Jane Orient, an internal medicine specialist and the Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), said that by admitting these huge groups of children who come from countries where medical screenings are minimal and hygiene is poor, the United States is at risk for epidemics of serious diseases and viruses that the nation has not...

Several U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector have reportedly contracted scabies from contact with detained illegal immigrants. According to a report by Action 4 News, about 10-15 percent of apprehended illegal immigrants have scabies in the RVG area. "A lot of people [are] coming in with the disease, and it seems to be spreading, not just within the McAllen station, but throughout the Valley and to some of our agents," Chris Cabrera, a spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, told the local media outlet. Zack Taylor, Chairman of the National Association of Former Border...

Backward step in fight against HIV/AIDS Story Updated: May 25, 2014 The T&TMedical Association wishes to express its disappointment with the decision by The UWI to terminate Prof Brendan Bain for statements he made while delivering expert testimony in a court in Belize. This is clearly a case of shooting the messenger! There is irrefutable evidence that MSMs are at a higher risk of contracting (and spreading) HIV/AIDS. As a matter of fact they were one of the four original groups to be identified as being at risk when HIV first appeared on the scene in 1981 (remember the original...

Last year, Magic Johnson found out that he had the virus that causes AIDS in his body... ...hounded by a new wave of rumors that he must be bisexual, fearing the rejection of NBA players and aware that a $2 million lawsuit from a onetime lover that accuses him of giving her HIV was sure to burst public, Johnson last week rescinded his decision to return to the Los Angeles Lakers.... Of all the turmoil that drove Johnson back out of basketball, it is the grievous lawsuit in Michigan filed by a woman called only Jane Doe that threatens most...

UNICEF’s new campaign, “Poo2Loo,” targets India’s public defecation problem with a series of music videos, pranks and advertisements featuring a giant feces mascot. According to the campaign, 620 million Indians are defecating in public every day. “That’s half the population dumping over 65 million kilos of poo out there every day. If this poo continues to be let loose on us, there will be no escaping the stench of life threatening infections, diseases and epidemics,” the Poo2Loo website says, while asking visitors to sign a pledge to ending public defecation. YouTube videos for the campaign feature giant, walking, talking, dancing,...

MOORPARK (CBSLA.com) — A 2-year-old Moorpark boy is the latest to be diagnosed with a mysterious polio-like illness. When Lucian Olivera was 11 months, he had an ear infection. Then, he couldn’t stand or use his legs. For months, doctors didn’t know what was wrong. “I felt helpless. It was extremely frustrating. It was hard to sit and not be able to help him,” Olivera’s mother, Erin, said. On Friday, the family went to Stanford University, where it was confirmed Olivera had the polio-like syndrome. “You don’t realize what you have until something goes really, really wrong,” Erin said. So...

Dr. Keith Van Haren, a pediatric neurologist at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital who has worked with Glaser’s team, will present the cases of five of the children at the American Academy of Neurology’s upcoming annual meeting. He said all five patients had paralysis in one or more arms or legs that reached its full severity within two days. None had recovered limb function after six months. “We know definitively that it isn’t polio,” Van Haren added, noting that all had been vaccinated against that disease. Glaser wouldn’t provide the number of illnesses. Van Haren said he was aware...

Wilmington, Del., has a big problem: Large groups of black people are going crazy. And this collective “mental illness” is causing record levels of crime and gun violence in this mostly black town of 70,000. That is the official diagnosis of the city council, which, by unanimous agreement earlier this month, asked the Centers for Disease Control to investigate a wave of psychological mayhem that has turned this historic and once-charming city into an unrecognizable husk of its former self. Chief diagnostician of this crisis in public health is city council member Hanifa G.N. Shabazz: “There is a well known...

A push by activists to ease the 30-year-old blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men faces a key test this week as a federal panel hears results of the latest research. The findings will be released amid growing pressure from politicians and advocates, including college students, to change the policy. Critics say the ban is a hangover from the early, fear-filled days of AIDS, stigmatizing gay men and ignoring advances in treatment and detection in the decades since...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Deadly diseases, once nearly wiped out, are making a frightening comeback in Maryland and across the country. Now — a warning that parents who don’t vaccinate their children are putting others at risk. Linh Bui explores an alarming and controversial trend. Measles, mumps, whooping cough — all deadly diseases. Until recently — virtually eliminated thanks to vaccines that prevent kids from getting sick. But now doctors see an alarming trend — more and more people are coming down with these diseases. “Kids die from measles on a regular basis. Kids are in hospitals and can die from...

How activist misinformation wastes time, money, and harms AmericansDavulcuHealth activists, nutrition nannies, medical paternalists, and just plain old quacks regularly conjure up a variety of menaces that are supposedly damaging the health of Americans. Their scares ranging from the decades-long campaign against fluoridation to worries that saccharin causes cancer to the ongoing hysteria over biotech crops to fears of lead in lipstick. The campaigners’ usual “solution” is to demand that regulators ban the offending substance or practice. Here are five especially egregious examples.5. Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, in order to reduce everybody's...

It's a basic human act, and it says a lot about society -- and the state of homelessness in Santa Cruz in the year 2013 -- that a discussion about keeping people from doing it in public places is even warranted. But here we are. The problem: An increasing amount of human waste is being found along the San Lorenzo River levee and in downtown-area open space. People relieving themselves in public spots is apparently a growing problem in the city, one that has residents who regularly walk the levee path and business owners along Front Street -- many of...

German doctors are calling for gay men to be allowed to donate blood. Currently a Europe-wide ban prevents them from doing so, but the German Health Minister said he would welcome a relaxation of the rules. The German Medical Association (BÄK) said that it would do everything “within its means” to remove the blanket ban on men who have sex with men, those with lots of sexual partners and prostitutes, from donating blood. …

The recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report regarding dietary sodium1 has generated considerable interest and debate, as well as misinterpretation by advocates on both sides. Further discussion is necessary to inform the public and the health care community and to inform public health strategies for sodium reduction. CURRENT PUBLIC HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING DIETARY SODIUM Dietary sodium intake averages approximately 3400 mg/d in US adults, far in excess of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommendation of less than 2300 mg/d for those older than 2 years and less than 1500 mg/d for certain high-risk subgroups, including African Americans, individuals with...

The federal blood donor agency is lifting its lifetime ban on gay men giving blood. Canadian Blood Services announced Wednesday it has received approval from Health Canada to reduce its restriction on men who have sex with men donating blood from indefinitely to five years. ... Both the United States and some European countries have kept their lifetime bans, while the United Kingdom and Australia have reduced the restriction to a one-year deferral.