Free Republic

A female employee at Fremont Middle School in Las Vegas died of tuberculosis in mid-July after potentially exposing more than 100 people to the highly contagious disease, school and public health officials said Monday. Ann Schiller, the school’s principal, sent a phone message to parents on July 11 saying that “an individual at our school” had recently been diagnosed with an active case of tuberculosis. It said that public health officials would contact families “within the next few days” if their kids needed to be tested. Lynn Row, the chief nurse for the Clark County School District, said she could...

A deadly mosquito-borne pandemic poses a greater threat to humankind than global war, billionaire Bill Gates warns. In a hard-hitting new documentary, the world's richest man said a killer bug could wipe out 10 million people without warning. Footage seen by MailOnline, set to be aired next week, shows the philanthropist's worries towards the danger of disease-carrying mosquitos. An outbreak could mimic the damage of the Ebola epidemic in late 2014 or the burden of that of the deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, experts worry. Climate change warming the planet is allowing for mosquitos to spread from their usual habitats,...

Be careful where you swim this summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning about a particularly nasty gastrointestinal illness that sounded like an infectious spore from the latest “Alien: Covenant” movie. The alert concerns a parasitic protozoa from the Cryptosporidium family (also known as “crypto”). It can cause “profuse, watery diarrhea that can last up to two to three weeks” and can lead to life-threatening wasting and “malabsorption” in people whose immune system is compromised. Cryptosporidium has emerged as the leading cause of recreational water–associated outbreaks, “particularly those associated with aquatic facilities.” That includes swimming...

The state Senate on Wednesday voted to no longer make it a felony for someone infected with HIV to knowingly expose others to the disease by having unprotected sex without telling his or her partner about the infection.The crime would be downgraded to a misdemeanor, and the bill would also apply to people who donate blood or semen without telling the blood or semen bank that they have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, or have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the precursor to AIDS.The measure, which next goes to the Assembly for consideration, was introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco),...

Health officials in Minnesota have been scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has sickened primarily Somali-American children in the state. So far health officials have identified 34 cases, still mostly in Hennepin County, and they're worried there will be more. In Minnesota, the vast majority of kids under two get vaccinated against measles. But state health officials say most Somali-American 2-year-olds have not had the vaccine — about six out of ten. As the outbreak spreads, that statistic worries health officials, including Michael Osterholm, who directs the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

In a refreshing move, the Trump administration is eliminating one of Barack Obama’s many outrageous amnesty initiatives, this one involving illegal immigrants from African countries affected by the Ebola virus a few years ago. The Ebola amnesty scandal got buried in the hoopla of the administration’s broad executive order protecting millions of illegal alien Mexicans and Central Americans, but it was just as alarming. Launched in 2014, the Ebola reprieve was issued separately—and quietly—via a Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian program that’s supposed to be short-term. Under the plan, the administration designated Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone for TPS...

The Arkansas General Assembly has declared that “pornography has created a public health crisis,” leading to a broad “spectrum” of public health “impacts and societal harms.” The Assembly also stated that pornography can increase “the demand for prostitution and the sex trafficking and slavery of children and young adults, primarily girls.” The Resolution, HR 1042, is an official recognition by the Arkansas government. It is not a law. It reflects the official view of the legislature and a copy of the Resolution is sent to the director of the Department of Health in Arkansas. Similar resolutuions have passed in South...

<p>The specific strain of CRE, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae, was isolated from one of her wounds in August.</p> <p>Tests were negative for the mcr-1 gene—a great concern to health experts because it makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, colistin.</p>

A recent (and first of its kind) study verifies again what many Christians have long warned about the homosexual lifestyle. Published in August of 2016 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study—"Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12"—looked at a wide variety of risky behaviors among U.S. high school students. .. In almost every instance, the risky behavior measured—especially behaviors that are often linked to a moral decision—was much more prevalent among teenagers engaging in homosexual activity. In addition, and unsurprisingly, those students with the healthiest outcomes...

Vaccine choice — whether to give one’s own children vaccines for various viral maladies — has become a household topic, even working its way into the presidential debates. The debate has been characterized by most media and many politicians as a fight between those who are concerned about public health and those who ignorantly disregard public safety, and endanger others via their decisions not to inoculate, because of overblown fears of vaccine dangers. But the controversy has not been accurately presented. As someone who has been on the front lines fighting for parental choice, it’s apparent to me that it...

<p>Theranos, the biotech company started by a 19-year-old Stanford dropout, has another hurdle to cross in its whole "we're totally a legit blood-testing company" campaign. This time, it turns out that tens of thousands of blood tests were voided, making them totally invalid. Whoops!</p>

We haven't really written much about the insane Theranos scandal, though we discussed it on our podcast. The whole story is pretty crazy -- involving a heavily hyped up company that appeared to basically be flat out lying to everyone about what it could do. The company still exists, but barely. The company's founder and CEO, who was plastered across magazine covers and compared frequently to Steve Jobs, has been banned from running a lab for two years, and the company is now facing a $140 million lawsuit from its biggest partner, Walgreens, who claims that Theranos repeatedly lied to...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

It's worth asking why Elizabeth Holmes is still leading the embattled blood testing company Theranos Inc. But there may be a good reason why she still is in charge, one that has little to do with the scandal-ridden company's performance to date. Forget what venture capitalist Tim Draper — one of the first to invest in the Palo Alto company — implied this week that Holmes is being attacked because she's a young, female entrepreneur. The simple fact is that Theranos has not been able to deliver on its technology from a commercial, scientific or regulatory standpoint, and that falls...

2016 has not been too kind to Elizabeth Holmes, the Steve-Jobs wannabe in charge of fraudulent Theranos. She has thus far been banned for 2 years from operating labs, removed from hosting fundraisers for Hillary and lost her entire net worth. And now, the Wall Street Journal has published the "tell-all" story of the whistle-blower, 26 year old Tyler Shultz, who brought the the whole Theranos farce crashing down. It's a sordid tale complete with all the expected twists and turns of a Jason Bourne thriller including intimidation, coercion and private detectives. Tyler Shultz is the grandson of George Shultz,...

Thirteen cases of mumps have now been confirmed at the State University of New York at New Paltz, an increase of four since last week.At least eight members of the school's intercollegiate swim team, along with one athletics staff member, are among the sick. Swim practices and workouts were suspended as a precaution at the onset of the initial outbreak. 2 Mumps Cases Confirmed on SUNY Campuses; Outbreak Expands It's not clear if the additional four cases are connected to the mumps spread on the swim team, which county health officials first learned of a month ago. Last week, college health...

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Florida health officials have confirmed the first case of locally acquired Dengue fever in Miami-Dade County. The infection is primarily spread through bites of infected mosquitoes. The person infected with the virus has already received medical treatment and is expected to make a full recovery. Health officials are investigating close contacts around the person to make sure more people are not infected. Miami-Dade Mosquito Control says they are conducting aggressive mosquito control efforts in the area of concern. Dengue fever can present itself as a flu-like illness with muscle aches, pain, fever and sometimes a rash. The...

[Puerto Rico] Health Secretary Ana Ríus Armendáriz spoke about the possibility that the mayaro virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, may arrive to the island. This comes following the reporting of the first case in Haiti, which may result in spreading to the Dominican Republic, and, subsequently, to Puerto Rico. "It has a low incidence [and] produces severe pain. Once this virus reaches the Dominican Republic, it is a matter of time before it gets here," Ríus said during an interview with [radio station] WKAQ 580. The mayaro virus, which is common in the tropical zones of...

JURUPA VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — Parents and students in Jurupa Valley could be dealing with a rare disease from the Middle Ages. Scared parents were demanding more information Tuesday after letters were sent went home to parents saying two students at Indian Hills Elementary in Jurupa Valley “might” be sick with leprosy. School officials say the letter was sent Friday out of what they called, an abundance of caution. Some parents refused to send their children to school Tuesday after receiving the warning from the Jurupa Unified School District. It was unclear whether the students are related to each other. Barbara...