Infectious Diseases

Swine Flu

Louisiana is clear for the moment, but human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control have created a Swine Influenza (Flu) page at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/index.htm

It includes incidence of U.S. Swine Flu Infection, currently at 20 cases in California, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and New York City.

More from CDC:
Interim CDC Guidance for Nonpharmaceutical Community Mitigation in Response to Human Infections with Swine Influenza (H1N1) Virus: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/mitigation.htm

Guidance for Clinicians & Public Health Professionals: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidance/

For international information & global statistics, see the the World Health Organization’s Swine flu page:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

For folks in Louisiana, the State Dept. of Health and Hospitals encourages “Aggressive Prevention” Against Swine Flu:
http://wwwprd.doa.louisiana.gov/LaNews/PublicPages/Dsp_PressRelease_Display.cfm?PressReleaseID=2019&Rec_ID=0

The White House also issued a press briefing on Swine Influenza:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Briefing-On-Swine-Influenza-4/26/09/

April is STD Awareness Month

April is STD awareness month! That?óÔé¼Ôäós Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The CDC estimates that there are approximately 19 million new cases of STDs each year in the United States, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.
Let?óÔé¼Ôäós look at how Louisiana is doing. (Reports from the CDC – STD Surveillance, 2007)

Chlamydia ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ Reported cases and ranked by rates: United States, 2007
1 Mississippi: 21,686 Cases & a rate of 745.1 per 100,000 Population
2 Alaska:
3 South Carolina:
4 Alabama:
5 New Mexico:
6 Georgia:
7 Louisiana: 19,362 Cases & a rate of 451.6 per 100,000 Population
8 Tennessee:
9 Hawaii:
10 Illinois:

Gonorrhea ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ Reported cases and ranked by rates: United States, 2007
1 Mississippi: 8,314 Cases & a rate of 285.7 per 100,000 Population
2 Louisiana: 11,137 Cases & a rate of 259.7 per 100,000 Population
3 South Carolina:
4 Alabama:
5 Georgia:

Primary and secondary syphilis ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ Reported cases and ranked by rates: United States, 2007
1 Louisiana: 533 Cases & a rate of 12.4 per 100,000 Population
2 Alabama: 380 Cases & a rate of 8.3 per 100,000
3 Georgia:
4 Maryland:
5 Tennessee:

World TB Day

March 24th is World TB Day. Although TB rates continue to decline in the United States (according to the CDC), the pace of that decline is slowing. Louisiana continues to have a higher than average number of cases. And while it didn’t rate a special Google logo, World TB day is featured from their search page.