| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN | Just in time for the kids to go back to school and for pumpkin-spice everything to appear in local markets, circulating viral diseases are already causing absences in many classrooms across the United States. The latest variants of SARS-CoV-2 are responsible for increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, and … Read more
| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN | Several years ago, for the previous edition of The Gale Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, I wrote the foreword from the privileged vantage point of a balcony overlooking a lush, tropical rainforest in South America. Although cognizant of health threats nearby in the otherwise magnificent jungle, including pristine-appearing streams … Read more
| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN | For some time, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic taking center stage, which dominated both the research and clinical scenes for more than three years, scientists were beginning to make progress on another widespread health threat that can affect people of all ages—sepsis. Now, as we enter the … Read more
| By J. Robert Parks | In light of the last three years, the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic may strike many as almost quaint. It led to barely 8,000 known cases and was responsible for just 774 deaths worldwide. At the time, however, it was seen as a potentially devastating new illness … Read more
| By Rebecca Parks | On July 21, 2022, health professionals in New York made the discovery that a man in Rockland County, near New York City, had contracted polio. The discovery was startling because there had not been a diagnosed case of polio in the United States since 2013, and there hadn’t been a … Read more
| By Brenda W. Lerner, RN, ALB | The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is spreading the word for pediatricians to look for signs in their young patients of an unusual disease that attacks the liver, causing a serious hepatitis-like syndrome. So far (as of late April 2022), the disease has killed one … Read more
| By Kathleen J. Edgar | When life’s stresses seem overwhelming, do you ever wonder what it would be like to be a kid again, living a carefree life, full of fun and games, playing outdoors, free of responsibilities? That idyllic life of cheerfulness and enjoyment may exist in your mind, but it is not … Read more
| By Gale Staff | By mid-February 2022 in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic had killed an estimated 918,000 people, and more than 2,000 people continued to die from it each day. About 214 million people, more than 64 percent of Americans, had been fully vaccinated (and 76 percent partially vaccinated) with one of … Read more
| By Jessica McIntosh | COVID-19 has thrown the world into a seemingly never-ending storm. Continuous conversation about societal shifts, the “Great Resignation,” and changes in education are heard daily. This constant communication has trickled down to impact individuals on a level we haven’t seen in decades. And now these changes have become personal. After … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Viruses are constantly undergoing mutation. Genetic mutations, most commonly a set of multiple mutations, produce different viral strains or variants. As we begin 2022, nearing the start of the third year of a global pandemic, the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 disease, is spreading rapidly … Read more