Maryn McKenna

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A Patient in Minnesota Has Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever. (Don't Panic.)

April 4, 2014 By Maryn Leave a Comment

Daliborlev (CC), FLickr

Daliborlev (CC), FLickr

News from the Minnesota Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: A Minnesota traveler returning from Africa has been hospitalized with what the CDC confirms to be Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever that is often lumped together with Ebola hemorrhagic fever, though they are caused by different organisms.

Given the news from West Africa of the growing Ebola outbreak there — 127 cases including 83 deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s last posted update — I suspect there’s going to be some attention to this case, possibly even some alarm. So, switching from Scary Disease Girl to Scary Disease Killjoy (which is sort of like Phoenix becoming Dark Phoenix, only without any planets blowing up): The Minnesota department says there’s no sign the disease has spread. The CDC says it’s not even likely to have infected passengers on the same airplane.

And if you’re thinking, well, surely this has never happened before, a viral hemorrhagic fever coming to the US via airline: Actually, it’s happened seven times before. And no one caught Lassa from the infected travelers in any of those times — not from sitting next to them, not from living in the same house with them, not from having sex with them. It is a very bad disease. But it is not the threat we like to imagine.

(Sorry to spoil the fun.)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Science, Science Blogs, Superbug Tagged With: CDC, Ebola, minnesota, risk

Goodbye, Team D? When One State's Cuts Hurt Everyone

June 14, 2011 By Maryn Leave a Comment

Here’s a little tip that will make you feel like a public-health insider. The next time you read any news related to foodborne illness in the United States, look for this word:

Minnesota.

The chances are good that you’ll find it, probably buried deep in the footnotes. That’s not because Minnesota has particularly unhealthy food. (Disregard those 47 things on a stick served at the State Fair.) Instead, it’s because Minnesota has excellent food detectives.

Largely thanks to its Scandinavian sense of social responsibility — Minneapolis is still Scandinavian enough that the cashiers in my downtown grocery store spoke Swedish to the older customers — Minnesota has always been willing to support a crack state department of public health.

E. coli in hazelnuts packaged in California? Salmonella-bearing red pepper in salami made in Rhode Island? More Salmonella in peanut butter from Georgia? Even more Salmonella in peppers from Mexico? Anthrax from downed cattle? Crypto from chicken salad? Solved by MNDoH, every one.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Science, Science Blogs, Superbug Tagged With: E. coli, foodborne, minnesota, salmonella, Science Blogs

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