Month: August 2021

At the moment there is little data available on the impact of contracting COVID-19 and the respiratory syncytial virus (pictured), and whether together they can make a person sicker. But health officials worry it could put young patients — who are not eligible for the coronavirus vaccine — at greater risk. BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images/Universal Images Group via Getty hide caption toggle caption BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images/Universal Images Group via Getty ...

The first case of the much-talked-about Lambda variant of Covid-19 was reported by Los Angeles health officials on Thursday. But for all the fanfare, Lambda doesn’t seem to have been much of a match for Delta – yet. “We’ve only seen one Lambda variant among tests sequenced in our labs, and this was a sample from June,” said L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer. The fact that Lambda was sequenced in June and has not been found since would seem to indicate it’s not spreading rapidly — if at all — in the county which, according to Ferrer, saw the powerful Delta variant account for “99% of all sequences last week.” More from Deadline Lambda was first identified in Peru in December 2020, according to the World Health Organization. It’s become the dominant strain in South Ameri...

In the month of August, the US has so far reported more than 1.5 million new cases of Covid-19, more than three times the numbers for Iran and India -- which now hold second and third place, JHU data shows. And the seven-day average has topped more than 135,000 cases, well ahead of other nations. On a state-by-state comparison, Louisiana has the highest rate of new cases per capita, followed by Florida. "That's how badly things have gotten out of hand. There is a screaming level of transmission across the southern states right now. And now we're starting to see this happening among younger age groups," Hotez said. Florida on Friday broke its own record high in Covid-19 cases over the past week, reporting 151,415 new cases -- the most infections recorded during a seven-day period since t...

North Texas 4-month-old in ICU battling COVID-19 and RSV simultaneously Hudson Hooten is battling both COVID-19 and RSV, the two viruses that are packing children's hospitals across North Texas. DALLAS - In one of the limited pediatric beds in the North Texas region is a 4-month-old Greenville boy.  Hudson Hooten is battling both COVID-19 and RSV, the two viruses that are packing children's hospitals across North Texas. His mom says it all began with a cough. Things quickly got worse.  The boy is in the ICU at Children's Medical Center Dallas and is breathing with the help of oxygen. Brooke Hooten, who is a registered medical assistant, says her son started coughing Saturday night. Mom and dad took Hudson to the emergency room on Sunday where th...

A child infected with an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a Northern California lake died in a hospital, his family confirmed Friday. David Pruitt, 7, of Tehama County, died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, on August 7, said his aunt, Crystal Hayley. The boy was rushed to the emergency room on July 30 and then flown to UC Davis Medical Center where he was on life support with severe brain swelling, Hayley said in a fundraising site she created for the family to raise funds for his care and funeral. The infection is extremely rare, and there have only been 10 cases reported in California since 1971, the Tehama County Health Services Agency said in an August 4 news release. It said the boy was likely infected in a lake in Tehama County but didn't ...