Author Archives: ceopate

What to Know Unfortunately, with end of the public health emergency, we can no longer see the earliest and best indicator of disease transmission levels – cases (reports to the CDC of all those testing positive by a PCR test performed at a hospital or commercial laboratory). Instead, we now have to resort to wastewaterContinue reading “Cases of COVID-19 are on the Rise”

Planned Parenthood Greater Northwest, et al. v. Raul Labrador in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Idaho, Members of the Idaho State Board of Medicine and Idaho State Board of Nursing, in their official capacities, and County Prosecuting Attorneys, in their official capacities. Case No. 1:23-cv-00142-BLW This case was decided onContinue reading “A Fascinating Case in Idaho”

I have written many times previously on my blog about Long COVID or PASC (post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 infection), its manifestations and potential pathogenesis. Now, a new paper looks at the immunology of Long COVID: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-023-00904-7. In my discussion below, I will include parts of this paper, as well as some other recent information aboutContinue reading “The Immunology of Long COVID”

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a vector-borne disease (recall that this means transmission by an insect rather than human-to-human transmission or animal-to-human transmission (zoonotic transmission). However, unlike the several diseases I discussed in the last three posts that are transmitted by mosquitoes, this disease is transmitted by a tick. The virus responsible for this diseaseContinue reading “Crimean – Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks in Europe”

This is part IV of a blog series that examines recent U.S. outbreaks of diseases that are not yet endemic to the U.S. and for which we usually do not see cases in the continental U.S. other than in international travelers. In part I, I reviewed the history of some of these outbreaks. In partContinue reading “What is Chikungunya?”

In my last two blog pieces, I began a blog series addressing the fact that we have seen a number of diseases that are not endemic to the U.S. pop up and cause outbreaks. Some of these are infections that we have not previously seen people acquire in the continental U.S., but rather were involvingContinue reading “What is Zika virus disease?”

In my last blog piece, I wrote that we have seen a number of diseases that are not endemic to the U.S. pop up and cause outbreaks. Some of these are infections that we have not previously seen people acquire in the continental U.S., but rather were involving international travelers who acquired the infection elsewhere,Continue reading “What is Dengue Fever?”

It should be concerning to everyone that is paying attention that we are experiencing disease outbreaks in the US of diseases that we generally shouldn’t see outside of international travel. In some cases, these are the emergence of diseases that are endemic to other countries of the world, but not the US, and frustratingly, othersContinue reading “The emergence of new infectious diseases and the resurgence of others in the U.S.”

If we were to ask Americans what disease outbreaks the world has experienced in the past 3 years, I suspect almost everyone would be able to identify COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus). Probably a large number, but certainly less would also be able to name influenza, likely by using its colloquial name of theContinue reading “Could this family of viruses that you have never heard of cause our next pandemic?”

I have been preparing for pandemics for more than two decades in my roles as a leader of a major teaching hospital in the Texas Medical Center and subsequently as the President and CEO of the largest health system in Idaho. In pandemic planning, I have found it useful to consider past outbreaks, epidemics andContinue reading “Just when you thought it was safe to come out again”