Common respiratory virus that dwindled during the pandemic is on the rise, CDC warns, with higher risk for certain groups | CNN A seasonal respiratory virus named parvovirus B19 – sometimes also called fifth disease – is increasing in activity, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday. Katherine Dillinger CNN

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Mpox never stopped spreading in Africa. Now it’s an international public health emergency. Again. The mpox outbreak never ended in Africa. Now a deadlier strain is spreading. Jess Craig Vox

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WHO declares mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency as a new form of the virus spreads The World Health Organization has declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency. AP News

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency on Wednesday, with cases confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading. Few vaccine doses are available on the continent.

As heat waves hit U.S., poll finds most can't locate local cooling station (medicalxpress.com)

... new poll finds many people can recognize the signs of heat sickness if it strikes them or someone else.

However, many more don't know crucial information that could help them during a heat wave, such as the location of cooling centers where they can seek relief from the pounding heat, researchers discovered.

"Communities must do a better job of making the public, especially the most vulnerable, aware of these centers," said Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research at the Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia.

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Study: COVID vaccines saved 1.6 million lives in Europe New estimates published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine show that at least 1.6 million European lives have been directly saved by COVID-19 vaccinations, with 60% of those lives saved when Omicron became the dominant strain of the virus—and those numbers may be an undercount.  CIDRAP

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As of March 2023, 2.2 million COVID-19–related deaths have been reported across Europe. 

Florida’s RSV Season Has Started, and It’s Coming Soon to the Rest of US. Here's a Primer. - KFF Health News Florida’s RSV season begins earlier and runs longer than anywhere else in the U.S., according to the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. New vaccines can help, but most older adults, who are vulnerable to RSV, haven’t gotten them yet. khnkit KFF Health News

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10 states that will likely face the most financial losses from climate change

With a variety of environmental events affecting the wide stretch of the United States, each state is subject to its own risks. Particularly, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, landslides, lightning and drought, among other events, can cause damage to buildings, agriculture and individuals alike. When considering insurance, residents and business owners in each state should account for historic and projected losses due to environmental events in their financial plans.

With this in mind, SmartAsset set out to determine which states are most at financial risk due to various weather events. States were ranked by the total expected annual financial losses per person across all major environmental events according to the latest data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Key findings:

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COVID activity continues at brisk pace across much of US US COVID activity continues a steady rise across most of the nation, according to the latest indicators today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CIDRAP

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Intersection of long COVID and disability highlighted in CDC study (medicalxpress.com)

Just as coronavirus transmission fluctuated in waves, so too have our responses to it. The world is four years from the acute phase of the pandemic, but not without lasting impact—including those who have maintained debilitating symptoms from COVID, adding to a large population of people with disabilities.

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The largest study conducted by the CDC to capture the scope of disability in the U.S. and representing 245 million people, the authors found that nearly half of those over 65 reported being disabled, and that long COVID symptoms were present in 11% of those who reported disabilities, versus 7% of those without disabilities.

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Healthy pre-COVID lifestyle may protect against severe infection A University of Oxford-led study links a healthy pre-infection lifestyle to a 36% lower risk of long COVID, a 41% lower odds of death, and 22% lower chance of hospitalization. CIDRAP

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The researchers assessed the association of modifiable lifestyle factors (eg, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, physical activity, time spent in sedentary activities, sleep duration, diet) with long COVID, death, and hospitalization among 68,896 adults in the UK Biobank cohort who tested positive for COVID-19 from March 2020 to March 2022.

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