Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Lead to 23,000 Deaths a Year, C.D.C. Finds

Via New York Times, excerpt :

" Federal health officials reported Monday that at least two million Americans fall ill from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year and that at least 23,000 die from those infections, putting a hard number on a growing public health threat. 

It was the first time that federal authorities quantified the effects of organisms that many antibiotics are powerless to fight."

Malaria-like disease appearing in New York

Via UPI :

" VALHALLA, N.Y., July 26 : Babesiosis, a rare malaria -like disease commonly transmitted by infected deer ticks, is on the rise in the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, doctors say.

Dr. Gary Wormser, chief of infectious diseases at Westchester Medical Center, says microscopic parasites known as Babesia infect red blood cells and cause anemia. The New York Health Department reports cases have been reported in Westchester, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan and Rockland.

The parasites are transmitted via infected deer ticks or blood transfusions.

Symptoms may begin with fatigue, loss of appetite and a general ill feeling, but as it progresses, patients may have fever, drenching sweats, muscle aches and headache, which can last for several days to several months."

Dengue Re-emerges in U.S., Spurring Race for Vaccine

Via The New York Times , except :

" For the first time in more than 65 years, dengue has returned the continental United States, according to an advisory the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in late May. While a few cases were reported earlier, they were primarily in Americans who had caught the virus abroad or at the Texas-Mexico border.

The upsurge is not unexpected. Experts say more than half the world's population will be at risk by 2085 because of greater urbanization, global travel and climate change. Over the past 30 years, a global outcry against using the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, has led to the resurgence of the mosquito, a voracious consumer of human blood and carrier of infectious disease."