pandemic

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge say the measles outbreak is a threat to national security.

Throngs of protesters from Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Niguel shouted-down an Orange County Supervisors meeting to force a reversal of the plan to set up homeless tent camps next to local city parks.

The Los Angeles City Council voted last week to develop an “emergency” plan that could operate trailer and tent encampments to house 34,000-homeless — similar to the plan developed by Orange County.

The three cities where Orange County planned to erect tent camps to warehouse evicted Santa Ana River homeless people are threatening lawsuits to block the move.

Orange County found 13,950 used hypodermic needles left by evicted homeless people along the Santa Ana River, confirming public health concerns that led to the camps’ removal.

California reported 36 flu deaths for the week ending February 3, as the influenza pandemic is on track to be worse than the 2009 outbreak of swine flu.

California’s flu pandemic has killed 127 humans already this winter, and it is now rapidly spreading to dogs.

The California hepatitis A outbreak is on the verge of reaching statewide epidemic status, as cases have spread through homeless tent cities from San Diego north to Sacramento.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there have been 43,485 laboratory confirmed cases of the Zika virus in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories.

The mosquitos that can carry the Zika virus have reportedly appeared in 129 California cities. With cold winter weather the only major obstacle to the Zika virus becoming America’s first pandemic since the 1957 Asian Flu, ground zero for a potential pandemic is now the West Coast.

When Hurricane Matthew strikes Florida, it is expected to boost the volume of Zika-infected mosquitos in the U.S., wipe out the effectiveness of anti-Zika pesticide spraying, and potentially spread the so-called Zika “danger zone” up the East Coast.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott pressed President Barack Obama to release the estimated $400 million in federal funds earmarked for Zika preparedness and response to “Zika-prone states.” Abbott highlighted the highly vulnerable Texas southern border where local government leaders fear “sufficient funding is not available for mosquito eradication.”

With Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control rapidly losing the battle to contain the epidemic from the Zika-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, panicking authorities began aerial spraying and may soon bring in bats that can eat 1,000 mosquitoes an hour.

With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issuing their first warning for Americans to avoid travel to an American neighborhood, the U.S. is on the verge of a Zika pandemic that may soon require extreme measures, including aerial pesticide spraying.

Actor Omar Epps hopes an upcoming documentary he is set to executive produce can help call attention to what he calls the “pandemic” of fatherless families in America.

Two prominent Texas hospitals developed the nation’s first hospital-based rapid Zika detection test that will cut wait time on receiving virus test results down to several hours.

Zika is primarily a mosquito-borne virus that is very difficult to detect in most human carriers, currently impossible to cure, spreading very rapidly, and believed to increase the risk of birth defects when contracted by pregnant women.

Texas health officials confirmed three new cases of the Zika virus Wednesday, one in Dallas County and two in Bexar County, bringing the total number of people in the Lone Star State infected up to 13. More test results are still pending from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) Director Zachary Thompson expects local lab to begin Zika virus testing as quickly as next week in an effort to stay ahead of any potential outbreaks in North Texas.

Puerto Rico declared a public health emergency over the Zika virus on Friday afternoon, following the confirmation of 22 cases of the infection, including one pregnant woman, and one man who developed the severe Guillain-Barre syndrome neurological reaction.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending the governments of Europe begin preparations against the Zika virus now, before spring and summer.

The Zika virus outbreak is exposing a ghastly secret that the environmentalist movement wants hidden, even if the cost is more Zika-babies.

Media outlets in Venezuela are reporting that at least eleven patients nationwide have died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, though the government’s Health Ministry has yet to report any of the cases, and most appear linked to the Zika virus pandemic ravaging Latin America.

If Zika–or a possibly mutated strain–can also spread through sex, then it poses a risk of another HIV/Aids pandemic.

There have not been any cases of the Zika pandemic reported in India yet, but health authorities are nervous for several reasons, not least of which is that India has already dealt with Zika in the past, logging some of the oldest known cases of infection.

Meet the Aedes aegypti, a tiny blood-sucking mosquito that is causing panic worldwide for its ability to transmit the Zika virus and a host of other diseases that have recently surfaced in the U.S.

From the BBC: US scientists have urged the World Health Organisation to take urgent action over the Zika virus, which they say has “explosive pandemic potential”. Writing in a US medical journal, they called on the WHO to heed lessons

The Pacific Justice institute warned parents of children in California schools that new legislation progressing through the California State Assembly will force schools to put a positive spin on the HIV and AIDS epidemics.