March                  111 765 841            1,2,8,840                              12,709,918           112,443

             

UPDATED WEEKLY – Worldometer, Last updated on 31 March 2024

 

U.S. POPULATION - is 341,367,653 of 1 April 2024, 8:49 p.m. PST based on Census U.S. and World Population Clock.

      * updated information

    ** no updated information at this reporting

 

                              Worldometer

Cases Worldwide  

• TOTAL CASES       -    704,539,977

              Recovered        -    675,397,262

• TOTAL DEATHS     -        7,008,958

 

Cases in the U.S.

• TOTAL CASES       -   111,765,841                                  

              Recovered        -   109,701,168

• TOTAL DEATHS     -       1,218,840

   

       Cases in California

• TOTAL CASES       -      12,709,918

              Recovered        -     12,571,320

• TOTAL DEATHS     -          112 443

 

                     *   Correction

                     **   No updated information

 

3/31/2024 (WHO)                      Cases            Deaths       Recovered    

• Texas                     -    9,179,697        104,668        9,043,774        
• Florida                   -    8,041,946          95,015        7,793,427        
• New York              -    7,581,876          83,374        7,491,823
• Ohio                      -    3,737,176          43,859        3,679,153
• Georgia                -    3,287,483          44,069        3,228,339       
• Tennessee            -    2,727,766          30,707         2,694,049
• Arizona                 -    2,605,520          34,402         2,565,738 
• Louisiana              -    1,684,058          19,270         1,662,287          
• Nevada                -       922,630          12,463           907,184
• W. Virginia            -       702,808            8,247            687,229

 

 *                   *   no updated information at this reporting. Listed are states deleted from list due to no

                          updates  for an extended period.

            **   correction no updates for an extended time and deleted from list

 

Effective September 29, 2023, weekly updates to maps, charts, and data provided by CDC for COVID Data Tracker will occur on Fridays by 12 p.m. ET. This change aligns with the timing of CDC’s weekly updates for respiratory viruses (https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/index.html).

 

Changes in Vaccination Data Reporting

On June 16, the COVID-19 vaccination reporting system will track only two types of vaccinations–primary series and CDC’s new up-to-date measure. The reporting system will update data monthly and stop publishing average doses administered and doses on hand.

 

• https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
• https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/ - fullyVaccinatedhttps://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
• https://www.edd.ca.gov/newsroom/unemployment-may-2021.htm
• https://www.bls.gov/
• https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
• https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

 

 

 

MARCH  BLOG

 

 

HEALTH  UPDATES

 

Excuse me………..say what??????????

Measles Now Spreading in 9 States Amid "Staggering" Outbreak, CDC Warns.  THE AGENCY RECENTLY ISSUED AN ALERT ABOUT THE RISING NUMBER OF CASES IN THE U.S.  Post-COVID-19 has made us more aware of viruses and other ailments.   Health officials are spotting troubling trends or developing crises, such as the latest - measles.   Measles is spreading in nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.

 

Nine states have reported measles cases during the outbreak.  Shutterstock.  One case has been reported each in California, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, and Ohio.  Washington State has seen three cases.  Pennsylvania has recorded nine confirmed cases, including eight in Philadelphia.  Delaware has seen 20 to 30 cases in New Castle County, per USA Today.

 

Measles symptoms sometimes are difficult to spot.  Shutterstock.  The notorious rash can develop three to five days after other symptoms start.  First appearing as red dots on the face and hairline before spreading down the neck, torso, arms, legs, and feet.  Some patients develop Koplik spots, tiny white dots in the mouth, two to three days after signs of illness. 

 

The CDC indicates symptoms typically show up seven to 14 days after infected, beginning with: 

• a high fever,
• cough,
• runny nose
• and watery eyes

 

Measles was officially declared eliminated in the U.S. Jan. 25, 2024, the CDC warned of 23 confirmed measles cases since Dec. 1, 2023.  A report from the World Health Organization, WHO, Dec. 2023, saw an “alarming" jump in Europe, rising from 1,000 the previous year to more than 30,000 in 2023.  The number of countries with significant outbreaks leaped from 32 in 2022 to 51 last year, NPR reports.

 

 

The dropping vaccination rate could be playing a part in the latest increase.  CHBD/iStock.  In its latest alert, the CDC indicated most reported cases were "among children and adolescents who had not received a measles-containing vaccine, MMR or MMRV.  Existing shots for the contagious virus are 97 percent effective at preventing infection when both doses are administered.  WHO data indicates 61 million measles vaccine doses were missed in 2021. 

 

Anyone who thinks they or their child have been exposed to measles should call their healthcare provider immediately.  "Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this disease," Hans Henri P. Kluge, MD, WHO's regional director for Europe, said. 

 

 

Cases of syphilis hit dangerous record high, CDC says. Why it’s not just another STD.    February 1, 2024 at 1:44 PM.   A report published Jan. 30 examined the total cases of three sexually transmitted diseases in the United States.  “The most alarming concerns center around the syphilis and congenital syphilis epidemics, signaling an urgent need for swift innovation and collaboration from all STI prevention partners,” indicated the CDC.

 

Syphilis, caused by the Treponema pallidum bacteria and most commonly spread person to another through vaginal, anal and oral sex.  It’s also transmitted from a pregnant person to an unborn child, where a particularly dangerous increase in congenital syphilis cases has been noted.

 

The disease has four stages and starts with sores around the sex organs or mouth, which progresses to rashes, fever, sore throat and muscle aches.    Left untreated, sometimes for decades, the disease attacks internal organs before manifesting in severe neurological symptoms, blindness and deafness.

 

• 2018 to 2022, syphilis cases rose 80%, the highest number of cases since 1950.
• South Dakota led the country in cases per 100,000 people in 2022.
• California had the highest number of cases overall, followed by Texas and Florida.
• Southern states made up nine of the top 20 states.  In total, 22 states reported cases higher than the national average in 2022.
• Data shows in 2022, 102 out of every 100,000 babies born in the U.S. were born with congenital syphilis, more common than perinatal HIV and hepatitis B.  Congenital syphilis can be particularly hard to treat, if one day’s dose is missed, the entire treatment regimen must be restarted.

 

‘Real lives at stake’!  The CDC’s latest STI data shows “our nation is facing a rapidly deteriorating public health crisis with real lives at stake,” disease experts with the National Coalition of STD Directors wrote in an open letter.  “STI’s, especially syphilis, will continue to spiral out of control until the administration and Congress provide communities with the funding to provide the basic screening, treatment and prevention services.”

• Americans in regions with declining maternal health care and racial and ethnic minorities are making up the majority of cases.
• American Indian or Alaska Native people experienced the highest rate of congenital syphilis for every 155 births in 2022, there was one congenital syphilis case.
• Black or African American’s people experienced about 30 percent of congenital syphilis cases in 2022. 

​

​Surge in Syphilis Cases Leads Some Providers to Ration Penicillin.  FEBRUARY 1, 2024.  The surge has been even more pronounced in Tennessee, where infection rates for the first two stages of syphilis grew 86% between 2017 and 2021.

 

Last spring, a shortage of a specific penicillin injection that is the go-to treatment.  The shortage is so severe, public health agencies recommend providers ration the drug, prioritizing pregnant patients, the only treatment considered safe.  Congenital syphilis, occurs when the mom spreads the disease to the fetus, possibly causing birth defects, miscarriages or stillbirths.  Providers are only required to test for syphilis at the beginning of a pregnancy.

 

Two antibiotics are used to treat syphilis:

• injectable penicillin and
  • Patients allergic to penicillin are often prescribed the oral antibiotic
• doxycycline, an oral drug.
  • The World Health Organization strongly advises pregnant patients to avoid doxycycline.
  • It can cause severe bone and teeth deformities in the infant.

 

Lupus and other autoimmune diseases strike far more women than men. Now there's a clue why.  February 1, 2024.  WASHINGTON (AP).  Women are more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, when the immune system attacks its own body.  It’s all about how the body handles females’ extra X-chromosome, Stanford University researchers reported. 

 

“This transforms the way we think about autoimmunity, especially the male-female bias,” said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry.  More than 24 million Americans, have an autoimmune disorder such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and more.  4 of every 5 patients are women, baffling scientists for decades.

 

One theory, the X-chromosome may be a culprit.  Females have two X-chromosomes, males have one X and one Y.  DNA is carried inside each cell, in 23 pairs of chromosomes, including the pair that determines biological sex.  The X-chromosome is packed with hundreds of genes, more than males’ much smaller Y-chromosome.  

 

Every female cell must switch off one of its X-chromosome copies, to avoid getting a toxic double dose of all those genes.  The X-chromosome inactivation is a special type of RNA, Xist, (pronounced “exist”).  This RNA parks in spots along a cell's extra X-chromosome, attracts proteins that bind to it in weird clumps and silences the chromosome!

 

Beyond mice, researchers examined blood samples from 100 patients and uncovered auto-antibodies targeting Xist-associated proteins scientists hadn't linked to autoimmune disorders.  

“You may have auto-antibodies to Protein A, another patient auto-antibodies to Proteins C and D.  Knowing they’re part of the larger Xist complex allows doctors to better hunt disease patterns. 

 

 

Scientists May Have the Ancient Answer to Why Women Get More Autoimmune Diseases.  Sun, February 11, 2024 at 7:00 AM PST.  A team of researchers led by Stanford scientists found a molecule, Xist,  (pronounced "exist"), may be responsible for triggering a defense response in females that makes their immune system attack healthy cells.

 

The study explains that Xist, made up of long strands of RNA intertwined with DNA and proteins, wraps around one X-chromosome in females to inactivate or "silence" the second set of code.  If not silenced, it would produce double the proteins needed to live, which can be fatal.  Xist molecules only exist in women because they have two X-chromosomes.

 

Researchers think it's too early to determine if an antibody response to Xist is actually the culprit and more research is required. 

 

 

Washington state experiencing 1st known outbreak of potentially deadly fungus: Health officials.  February 1, 2024.  Washington state is experiencing its first known outbreak of a potentially deadly fungus, according to public health officials.  Four patients have tested positive for Candida auris, or C. auris, Public Health, Seattle & King County stated. 

 

The first case, admitted to Kindred Hospital Seattle, was identified through a screening program.  Additional screenings found two new cases, as well as a case with links to Kindred Hospital, who originally tested negative for C. auris.  C. auris, a type of yeast that can lead to serious illnesses and spreads easily among patients in health care facilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.  C. auris can spread by person-to-person transmission or by coming in contact with contaminated surfaces.

 

It's unclear what the initial source of the infection is and the investigation is ongoing.  Public Health continues to work with Kindred Hospital to help limit spread, including keeping patients testing positive for C. auris away from other patients to reduce risk of spread and using specific disinfecting cleaning products effective for C. auris.  It is also notifying facilities that receive Kindred Hospital patients and advising they screen for the fungus.

 

To prevent spread, the CDC recommends family members and close contacts of C. auris patients properly sanitize their hands.

 

 

CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines. Sun, (c) 2024, The Washington Post.  Tue, February 13, 2024 at 5:15 AM PST.  Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance planned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The agency is loosening its covid isolation recommendations for the first time since 2021 to align it with guidance on how to avoid transmitting flu and RSV, according to four agency officials.  The CDC plans to recommend people who test positive for coronavirus use clinical symptoms to determine when to end isolation. Under the new approach:

• no home stay if fever-free for 24 hours without medication
• symptoms are mild and improving, according to three agency officials.

 

The new isolation recommendations would not apply to hospitals and other health-care settings with more vulnerable populations, CDC officials said.  Coronavirus levels in wastewater indicate symptomatic and asymptomatic infections remain high.

• 20,000 people are still hospitalized
• 2,300 are dying - every week, CDC data show. But the numbers are falling and lower than in 2021.

 

California recommends wear masks indoors when around others for 10 days after testing positive, even if no symptoms or becoming sick.  You can remove mask sooner, if you have two sequential negative tests, one day apart. 

 

 

You can still be contagious with COVID if you have a negative test — here's why. January 21, 2024.   COVID testing guidelines and how long you're contagious have changed according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   

 

When should you test for COVID?

• If you have COVID symptoms, test immediately, 
• If you exposed to COVID, test at least five days after exposure.
• If no symptoms or any known COVID exposures, consider testing before or after encountering groups of people, someone high risk for severe illness, or immunocompromised person.
• Test right before the event or visit, if possible.

 

Can you be contagious after a negative COVID test?

• If you test negative with a PCR test, you are not contagious.
• If negative, depends "whether the test is at the beginning of feeling sick or on recovery.

 

At the beginning of COVID illness, if negative, you may become infectious as the viral load increases.  You may feel symptoms because the immune system is activating.   

 

When are you no longer contagious from COVID?  If a negative at-home COVID test result after testing positive.  How long is "wholly dependent on the person(s):

• underlying medical problems
• immunization status
• severity of illness
• the predominant circulating variant at the time
• isolation.

 

Regardless when you stop isolating, the CDC advises wearing a mask around other people through day 10 of your illness, or with two negative antigen test results 48 hours apart, prior to day 10.

 

 

VACCINE  UPDATES

 

The Updated COVID Vaccines Are Here:  Things to Know.  FEBRUARY 29, 2024.  The new shots are designed to protect against XBB.1.5 and more recent virus strains.  There is better protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death since newly updated 2023–2024 formula mRNA COVID vaccines became available.   

 

The Food and Drug Administration, FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, approved updated vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for everyone 6 months and older.  The Novavax vaccine was authorized for those 12 and older the fall of 2023.  February 2024, the CDC recommended an additional dose for adults ages 65 and older.  

 

An analysis by the CDC suggested that making its vaccine recommendation universal could prevent 400,000 hospitalizations and 40,000 deaths in the U.S. over the next two years.  Yale experts tell you what you need to know about the updated COVID vaccine.

 

• Why would another COVID vaccination help?  The updated vaccines are not expected to prevent all cases of COVID. 
• Older people, especially those 50 and older, are more likely than those younger to get very sick.
• Immunocompromised and those with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, are at the highest risk of severe disease and death. 
• The CDC recommends the vaccine for pregnant women to protect both mother and baby.
• How is the updated COVID vaccine different from the previous one?  The bivalent booster, introduced fall of 2022, is no longer available.  It targeted the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and BA.4 and BA.5.  The updated vaccine is monovalent, to prevent severe disease from the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant.

​

            Scott Roberts, MD, Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist indicated, “…we know from 

            experience that the vaccines hold up very well, even against multiple variants.  You have some

            immunity to a variant and if exposed to a new offshoot of it, you’ll have some protection.

 

• Why isn’t the new COVID vaccine considered a booster?  The FDA is calling the new shots “updated vaccines” in anticipation of needing to provide updated formulas annually, similar to the flu shot. 

​

            A booster shot gives a “boost” to the recipient's existing immunity from a previous vaccination.              Updated vaccines are expected to provide protection against currently circulating variants,                  helping the body build a new response to those variants.

 

• How safe is the updated COVID vaccine?  The safety of COVID vaccines has been rigorously monitored and evaluated since emergency use authorization, EUA, in December 2020.  According to the CDC, the 2023-2024 updated mRNA COVID vaccines are manufactured using a similar process to the previous vaccines.

 

The benefits of the COVID vaccine continue to outweigh any potential risks, and serious reactions after COVID vaccination are rare, according to the CDC.

 

• Are there any special COVID vaccine recommendations for children?  The FDA approved the updated mRNA vaccines for adolescents and teenagers ages 12 and older and authorized them for emergency use in children ages 6 months through 11 years.

 

Respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, vaccines for older adults and pregnant women, can pass the antibodies to their newborns, are brand new this fall with not much.

 

• Where can I get the updated COVID vaccine?  The vaccine will be available at participating pharmacies and provider offices. To find a location near you and schedule an appointment, go to Vaccines.gov. You can also call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).  

 

Current distribution and insurance issues may delay availability of the vaccines in some places.  According to the CDC, the vaccines are covered by insurance, including private insurance, Medicare plans and Medicaid plans.  Uninsured children and uninsured adults also have access through the Vaccine for Children Program and the Bridge Access Program. 

 

 

How to Protect Yourself?  Getting vaccinated is your best bet!

 

IT’S NOT OVER!

 

Stay safe.  Mask.  Social distance.  Frequent hand washing.  Avoid crowds

 

ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL

 

 

• https://www.yahoo.com/news/lupus-other-autoimmune-diseases-strike-163422871.html
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/lifestyle/scientists-may-ancient-answer-why-150000210.html
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/washington-state-experiencing-1st-known-182020553.html
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/still-contagious-covid-negative-test-030656060.html
• https://www.aol.com/cases-syphilis-hit-dangerous-record-214419430.html
• https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/syphilis-penicillin-rationing-shortage-amoxicillin-doxycycline/
• https://bestlifeonline.com/measles-spreading-states-2-8-24-news/
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-plans-drop-five-day-131538480.html
• https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know