Background Articles

Case counts for Oropouche virus are still low but rising dramatically. What's going on? And then there's a study that raises the possibility that insect bites aren't the only way the virus can spread.

In 2023, tularemia occurred in a wildlife volunteer after exposure to a deceased, infected harbor seal, the first known report of tularemia acquired through contact with a marine mammal, and the first detection of F. tularensis in a marine mammal.

As bird flu cases go underreported, health officials risk being slow to notice if the virus were to become more contagious. A large surge of infections outside of farmworker communities would trigger the government’s flu surveillance system, but by then it might be too late to contain.

These worms, present in halibut, cod, salmon and other saltwater fish, are increasing. If the worms are well frozen or cooked, they don’t pose a health threat.

For nine years, Alaska health officials have been aware of an unusual virus causing rare, relatively mild illnesses in the Fairbanks area. But a recent case in another part of the state — this one resulting in a man's death — has brought new attention to the Alaskapox virus.

This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers — and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the water table and flow into the ocean.

The air quality index, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency metric for air pollution, exceeded a staggering 400 at times in Syracuse, New York City and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. A level of 50 or under is considered good; anything over 300 is considered “hazardous,” when even healthy people are advised to curtail outdoor physical activity.

Tenants in the Forest Park trailer court say they have few, if any, affordable options. Some officials see a warning sign of a worsening housing crisis to come.

The Institute of Public Health is expanding the area where they recommend that people take the vaccine against the tick borne encephalitis.

Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study says.

The City of St. Mary’s and its two tribes, the Yupiit of Andreakfsiy and the Algaaciq Tribe, held a community meeting on June 9. There, resident Geraldine Beans said that community leaders chose an optional evacuation for elders and people who are considered vulnerable. Other residents will have to wait. The fire is the largest in the history of the Lower Yukon valley. It’s been burning for a week and a half, since May 31, and has grown to about 50,000 acres.

ConocoPhillips' massive Willow project would emit 284 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over its 30-year lifetime.

By Saturday, the East Fork fire had grown to just over 108,000 acres but triggered no mandatory evacuations.

Dengue is erupting in South America — and has even found its way to the US.

A Bering Strait study, part of a program examining ear infections and hearing loss, links lack of running water to childhood ear diseases.