Free Republic

An outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus in India's West Bengal state has sparked concern in parts of Asia, with some tightening screening measures at airports. Thailand has started screening passengers at three airports that receive flights from West Bengal. Nepal has also begun screening arrivals at Kathmandu airport and other land border points with India. Two cases have been confirmed in West Bengal since December, reportedly in healthcare workers. Some 196 people who were in contact with them have been traced and tested negative for the virus, India's health ministry says. The virus can spread from animals to humans....

Indian authorities are rushing to contain a Nipah virus outbreak after five cases were reported and nearly 100 people quarantined in the eastern state of West Bengal, Azernews reports via The Independent. Among those infected are two nurses, a doctor, and a healthcare worker, raising concerns over hospital-based transmission. Health officials said some patients remain in critical condition, while others are showing signs of recovery. The Nipah virus is classified by the World Health Organization as a priority pathogen due to its high epidemic potential and fatality rate. At present, there is no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for...

The South Carolina measles outbreak is growing at an astounding speed. “Over the last seven to nine days, we’ve had upwards of over 200 new cases. That’s doubled just in the last week,” Dr. Johnathon Elkes, an emergency medicine physician at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina, said during a media briefing Friday. “We feel like we’re really kind of staring over the edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse.”... The number of cases is expected to grow. The health department’s report only reflects the number of people whose illness has been confirmed as measles by...

The measles outbreak in South Carolina is “accelerating” with no end in sight following Thanksgiving and other large gatherings, state health officials said Wednesday. As of Wednesday, 111 measles cases had been reported in what’s known as upstate South Carolina — an area in the northwest of the state that includes Greenville and Spartanburg. “We are faced with ongoing transmission that we anticipate will go on for many more weeks,” Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist for the South Carolina Department of Public Health, said during a news briefing Wednesday.

DAKAR, Senegal — (AP) — Congo’s health ministry on Thursday announced a new Ebola outbreak, the 16th in the central African country, after a case was confirmed in the southern Kasai province. “To date, the provisional report shows 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including 14 in Boulapé and 1 in Mweka, as well as four healthcare workers,” said Samuel-Roger Kamba, Congo’s health minister. He added that the case fatality rate, estimated at 53.6%, showed the gravity of the situation. He said that the figures were provisional and research was ongoing. The suspected cases and deaths presented symptoms such fever,...

Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting. Read Full Bio Edited By Updated on: August 21, 2025 / 11:48 AM CDT / CBS News If you look up at the sky in Texas and see what could be a flying burrito, you may not be imagining things: Chipotle on Thursday launched an autonomous aerial delivery service for digital orders in the Dallas area. Through a partnership with Zipline, a drone...

Texas health officials on Monday declared the measles outbreak that began in West Texas earlier this year is now over after more than 700 cases were confirmed. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said that as of Aug. 18, 762 measles cases were confirmed since January, with the majority of infections occurring in children and most cases involving people who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination statuses. Two deaths occurred in unvaccinated school-age children who lived in the outbreak area, marking the first U.S. measles death in more than a decade. “The Texas Department of State Health Services...

The outbreak, linked to an imported case, has prompted authorities to urge mosquito control and early medical attention.China is experiencing an outbreak of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne infection, with thousands of cases reported in the south. Chikungunya fever cases jumped to 4,014 on Friday (Jul 25), representing a rapid rise in numbers since authorities started tracking cases two weeks ago, according to public records released by health departments in districts in Foshan. The city in China's southern province Guangdong has been heavily impacted by the surge in infections. The chikungunya outbreak remains "quite severe", Sun Yang, deputy director of the National...

OTTAWA - Canadian health authorities are worried an outbreak of West Nile virus infection in Louisiana, which has killed four of 58 infected people, could mean the mosquito-borne illness is changing the way it spreads. "Something seems peculiar about Louisiana with such a large number of human cases," said Harvey Artsob, head of zoonotic diseases at Health Canada. "It's important for us to understand why, so that all our messages of reassurance in other parts of North America still hold. What's changed in Louisiana?" As Canadians head to summer cottages this weekend, the official government message remains that West Nile...

-Local farmers report huge financial losses as many yaks in the area have fallen ill -GB authorities say veterinary team has been sent with medicines to treat the animals Over 100 yaks have been killed after a mysterious disease broke out in the high-altitude pasture of Shimshal Pamir, local residents said on Wednesday, as officials confirmed the situation and said a medical team had been dispatched for rescue. Located at 3,100 meters above sea level, Shimshal is the highest settlement in Pakistan’s northern Hunza region and the last village before the country’s border with China. “A disease broke out in...

As a powerful storm takes shape just east of the Rockies by the middle of the week, AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting a vast eruption of severe weather, including the potential for tornadoes, Friday and Saturday in the zone from the Great Plains to the Mississippi Valley. Should the storm develop to its full potential, it could be one of the strongest on record for the region in terms of low pressure. The more intense the storm, the greater the amount of energy will be available for severe weather, rain, snow and winds in general. Even a more moderate, typical storm...

New York officials are taking precautions against the avian flu after seven cases were detected at live bird markets in New York City. The markets were ordered on Friday to shut down for about one week to combat the illness, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday. “The order came after seven cases of bird flu were found in poultry during routine inspections of live bird markets in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens,” the outlet said, noting that officials said there have been no cases of the avian flu among New Yorkers. In an...

A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state health official claimed last week.“We would expect to see a handful of cases every year,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Kansas Health System. But the high case counts in this outbreak were a “stark warning," he said.The outbreak has killed two people since it started in January 2024, Kansas state health department spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh said. Health...

People across America are feeling the sting of the rising cost of eggs in part being driven by the bird flu outbreak. In October, Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) pointed to the skyrocketing price of eggs as evidence of President Joe Biden (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) economic policies, per Breitbart News. “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now, a dozen eggs will cost you around $4, thanks to Kamala Harris’ inflationary policies,” he said.

Norovirus cases are surging across the country this winter, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. There were 91 outbreaks reported by state health departments during the week of Dec. 5, up from 69 in the last week of November, according to the CDC. The highest number for the same period over the last several years was 65 outbreaks. But the data are not comprehensive. Currently, state, local and territorial health departments are not required to report individual cases of norovirus illness to the CDC, and only 15 states participate in the National Outbreak Reporting System.

A video recently emerged showing several cows lying dead on roadsides in California’s Central Valley amid an avian influenza outbreak across the U.S., sparking biosafety concerns. The dead cows were close together with swarms of flies buzzing around them, video shows. Dr. Crystal Heath, a veterinary doctor with the Berkeley, California-based nonprofit Our Honor, took the video Oct. 8 and shared it on Twitter on Oct. 17. The dead livestock were in front of Mendonsa Farms and Land O’Lakes Borges Dairy, both in Tulare County, Heath said. There were no visible warning signs of potential biosafety risk that the exposed...

<p>As Mozambique battles to control a fast-spreading cholera outbreak in the cyclone-hit central city of Beira, international assistance is arriving. The number of cholera cases jumped to 271 over the weekend although no deaths from the disease had been reported. More than 500 people have died in Mozambique from Cyclone Idai, which slammed into Beira more than two weeks ago, according to government officials. Another 250 died in neighboring Zimbabwe and Malawi. The Chinese government has sent doctors to battle the cholera outbreak in Beira, a port city of 500,000. Chinese aid workers sprayed anti-cholera disinfectant in parts of Beira Sunday. The World Health Organization has said some 900,000 cholera vaccine doses are expected to arrive on Monday, with a vaccination campaign to start later this week.</p>

Boar's Head on Friday announced that it is "indefinitely" closing the Virginia manufacturing plant that's been linked to the deadly listeria outbreak. "Given the seriousness of the outbreak, and the fact that it originated at Jarratt, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely close this location," which was shut down in late July, the company said. The company's Jarratt facility was linked to the meats sliced at deli counters, including Boar's Head brand liverwurst, that caused the biggest listeria outbreak since 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Several athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, including five Australian water polo players and a British swimmer, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to officials. The uptick in cases has raised questions around the measures in place to stop the spread of COVID at the Olympics. This year's Games are considered the first post-pandemic Olympics. Unlike the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there are no strict protocols or restrictions around COVID-19 in Paris. However, COVID-19 is still spreading around the world. The United States is facing a summer wave, and...

TOPLINE Health officials in India are racing to contain an outbreak of Nipah virus after a teenage boy died from an infection over the weekend, the latest in a series of outbreaks in the region of the incurable virus that kills as many as three in four people it infects and has been flagged as having the potential to seed a new pandemic.Nipah is a rare and potentially deadly virus that was first discovered in 1999 after an outbreak among pigs and pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore.Nipah is a zoonotic virus—meaning it can spread from animals to humans—and can...