About one-hour drive east of San Francisco, an apparent tuberculosis (TB) outbreak has been active for several years.
Contra Costa Health (CCH) today announced that anyone who has spent time inside California Grand Casino since 2018 should consider getting a TB test.
CCH's recommendation is in response to recent casino staff and customers being confirmed with TB at the 5900 block of Pacheco Boulevard location.

The first study to address a World Health Organization (WHO) priority pathogen, gonorrhea, recently found positive preliminary findings that offer hope for patients, particularly in the face of rising antibiotic resistance to current regimens.
If approved, zoliflodacin will be the first new antibiotic for treating 'super-gonorrhea' in decades.

According to a new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, vaccine confidence has significantly decreased over the past two years.
This health survey, announced today, found that the number of Americans who think vaccines approved for use are safe dropped to 71% from 77% in April 2021.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease impacting modern cities in 2023, such as London, England. 
Over the last two years, the 5% annual rate increase goal outlined in the joint UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England TB action plan for England, 2021 to 2026 has not been achieved.
The UKHSA announced on October 26, 2023, there was an 8.1% increase in TB notifications this year compared with the same period in 2022 (3,628 versus 3,402).

Since the Florida Keys began releasing genetically modified mosquitoes a few years ago, various countries have joined this innovative approach to reducing the incidence of diseases such as dengue and Zika.
When infected with Wolbachia, mosquitoes are much less likely to transmit travel-related diseases.
Researchers hope the modified mosquitoes will interbreed with the wild population wherever they are released and pass the bacteria on to their offspring.

Recent reports from various health agencies confirmed the 2023-2024 flu season is off to a slow start in the Northern Hemisphere.
This follows a de minimus flu season in the Southern Hemisphere in countries such as Australia.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that seasonal influenza activity remains low nationally.
As of October 27, 2023, outpatient respiratory illness is below baseline, and all 10 HHS regions are below their respective baselines.

Throughout the global dengue fever outbreak in 2023, a top-rated Mexico destination suddenly became a substantive hot spot for this mosquito-transmitted disease.
According to Mexico's Health Ministry dengue report in October 2023, there were 30,320 confirmed dengue cases on the Yucatan Peninsula between January and October 7, 2023.
This data confirms dengue cases have increased in this area of Mexico by 337% this year.

For the first time, an influenza vaccine sprayed into the nose that protects people against the seasonal flu has been accepted for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
If approved by the FDA, FLUMIST® QUADRIVALENT will be the first live nasal influenza vaccine available to be self-administered by eligible patients or administered by caregivers.

For the first time, scientists deliberately infected women with the Zika virus to learn whether such a strategy could help test vaccine candidates against the pathogen, wrote Mariana Lenharo in a recent article published by the journal Nature.
These study participants who were infected only reported mild symptoms.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a complete response letter in May 2023, it indicated that the agency could not approve the biologics license application (BLA) for a Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC) vaccine candidate, thousands of people impacted by this common cancer were disappointed.