Outbreak News Radio

My first guest, who has been on the show previously in 2013 (Chagas disease) and2014 (Leishmaniasis), was Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at theBaylor College of Medicine and the President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Dr Peter Hotez. Dr Hotez came on to talk about his recent appointment by the U.S. Department of State as U.S. Science Envoy. We also talked about anticipating the next “Ebola” and his concerns about ISIS controlled territories and the risk of a serious outbreak. During the second half of the show, MaydayProject co-founder, Josh Cutler joined me to talk about Lyme disease advocates disagreements with theInfectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) over diagnosis, treatment and the existence of “chronic Lyme” or “persistent infections”. Mr. Cutler also talked about the upcoming protest scheduled later this month at the IDSA headquarters.

During the first half, I spent some time with BluePearl Veterinary Partner’s of Clearwater veterinary internist, Dr Melinda Larson discussing keeping our pets healthy and safe. With National Poison Prevention Week just past, Dr Larson talked about some of the toxic risks found here in Florida and in every household–bufo toads, sago palms, marijuana and chocolate were some of the pet dangers we looked at. In addition, Larson answered questions on rabies vaccination, heartworm testing and other tests that vets use to keep our animal companions healthy. During the second half, Executive Director for theNational Center on Sexual Exploitation, Dawn Hawkins joined me to talk about a new study, a disturbing study that shows an increasing trend of young children, some 10 years old and younger, that are producing their own sexual content online using a webcam. Hawkins talks about the “ification of our culture’ and the harm it is doing to our children.

An article published in Forbes last week in time for International Women’s Day looked at this ancient bacterialdisease from a very different angle–the disproportionate burden the disfiguring disease, leprosy, has on the world’s poorest women. Joining me on the Sunday, Mar. 15 airing of the Outbreak News This Week Radio show, author of the article, Leprosy Isn’t Gone — And Women Bear The Burden, Dr. Judy Stone joined me to discuss the disease and her findings concerning how an already stigmatizing illness affects women on a whole different level.

Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the causative agents of TSEs are believed to be prions. The term “prions” refers to abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins that are found most abundantly in the brain. On Sunday, March 8 on the Outbreak News This Week Radio Show, host Robert Herriman was joined by two great guests to discuss these relatively rare, always fatal and somewhat misunderstood diseases. Ryan Maddox, PhD, Epidemiologist with the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic InfectiousDiseases at the CDC came on first to go over the nuts and bolts of prion diseases with some emphasis on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). In addition, the President of the CJD Foundation, Debbie Yobs enlightened the radio audience with the great work of the support organization.

Assistant professor of entomology at the Kansas State University Research and Extension Center, Sarah Zukoff, PhD joined me to answer some of the most common questions concerning these nuisance creatures: Where are bedbugs found?, Do they spread disease? What are the signs of infestation? and how do you get rid of bedbugs?

On Sunday’s Outbreak News This Week Radio Show, Daniel Brooks, PhD, the co-author of the article “Evolution in action: climate change, biodiversity dynamics and emerging infectious disease” published in  the journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, joined host, Robert Herriman to discuss his statements and conclusions ofthe article. Brooks talks about the “parasite paradox”, why new pathogens find us faster than we find them and how emerging infections will not be the “Andromeda Strain”, that will wipe everybody out on the planet, instead It will be the death of a thousand cuts.

Joining me on yesterday’s Outbreak News This Week radio show to discuss the cases, the new meningitis B vaccines and the wonderful work of the organization, Meningitis Angels, was the Founder/National Executive Director of Meningitis Angels, Frankie Milley. Mrs Milley talked about the work of Meningitis Angels, her upcoming testimony with the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and her own personal tragedy with losing her teenage son to this devastating disease. In the second half of the show I talked to Science and Health journalist, Tara Haelle about her interesting article published in Forbes that looks at the financial and manpower costs of measles: Measles Outbreak in Dollars and Cents: It Costs Taxpayers Bigtime.

According to a recent study in the journal MIS Quarterly, Craigslist’s entry into a market results in a 15.9 percent increase in reported HIV cases. The author of the study, Jason Chan, PhD, Assistant Professor ofInformation & Decision Sciences at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota joined me on the show Sunday to discuss the research in more detail. Of course, vaccines are the hot topic of the day and my second guest looked at the H1N1, or swine flu vaccine from the 2009-2010 pandemic and Americans’ views on a then-new vaccine. Ohio State University Sociology professor, Dr Kent Schwirian, the coauthor of a paper published  in the journal Health Promotion International joined me to talk about it.

A story that caught my eye was of one of a young lady from California who contracted the rarely encountered parasite, Balamuthia mandrillaris in March 2013. Her name is Koral Reef Meister Pier and she lost her battle against the 95% fatal amoeba in Oct. 2014. I had the opportunity and honor to talk to her mother, Sybil Meister and family friend, Ebony Parker about Koral’s life and her Balamuthiainfection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Balamuthia infection is very rare but often causes fatal disease. Since Balamuthia was first discovered in 1986, about 200 cases of infection have been reported worldwide. This number includes at least 70 confirmed cases in the United States.

Dr. Sandra Gompf is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of South Florida. In addition, sadly she is the mother who lost a young son to the “brain-eating amoeba”, Naegleria fowleri. Dr Gompf and her husband lost their 10-year-old son, Philip to the parasite in 2009. Dr. Gompf joined host Robert Herriman on the show this week to discuss the amoeba, Philip’s infection,awareness campaigns she is involved in, new developments in diagnostics and treatment and some prevention advise for other parents.

I spent the lion’s share of the hour talking to Paul A. Offit, MD, Director of the Vaccine Education Center and a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The interview consisted of discussing and rebutting the “10 Reasons Not To Vaccinate” article published on the anti-vaccine website, Vactruth.com last month. Dr. Offit was asked to comment on such arguments as “Vaccine do NOT work”, “Are vaccines cause a host of ‘chronic, incurable, and life threatening diseases’? and “Vaccines have never been proven safe or effective”.

In the first segment, host Robert Herriman got us up to snuff on the latest on the flu season here in the United States. He talked to Nicky Klein, MD, PhD, lead author of a12-year measles vaccines safety study and co-director at the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, CA. In the second segment, retired research associate from the University of California in Riverside and lead author of a study that says that spiders are “scapegoated” as the cause of bacterial infections in humans, Richard S. Vetter, came on the show to talk about his research and explain why spiders are getting a bad rap.

On the first show of the year on Jan. 4, Outbreak News This Week Radio show host Robert Herriman looked at some of the top infectious disease news of the week. First was the case of the recent New York City baby who contracted neonatal herpes simplex-1 after receiving direct oral suction during a ritual Jewish circumcision procedure. This was the fourth case of 2014 reported in NYC. A look at Ebola Czar Ron Klain’s appearance on Face the Nation where Mr Klain talked about the recent CDC mishap and the situation in the US and Africa. The recent stories about shigella outbreaks in Brooklyn, Indiana and San Francisco were discussed.

With the enormous amount of news and information concerning avian influenza, or bird flu, avian cases  and human, I thought it was necessary to bring back Mike Coston with Avian Flu Diary on the Outbreak News This Week Radio Show this Sunday to help sort out everything that is happening in Europe, Asia and closer to home in British Columbia and the northwestern United States. In addition, your humble correspondent covered some vaccine related stories– Anti-vaccine website pushes the limits of absurdity suggesting vaccine-homosexuality link and Vaccine against prion disease, chronic wasting disease, developed by NYU researchers.

One year after the chikungunya virus found it’s way into the local mosquito population on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, the outbreak, or some may say the epidemic of locally acquired chikungunya cases in the Western hemisphere has surpassed the one million case mark.  Outbreak News This Week Radio Show host Robert Herriman pulls an interview out of the vault. The discussion, with Roger S. Nasci, PhD, Chief of the Arboviral Diseases Branch in the Division of Vector-Borne diseases at the CDC took place on Dec. 18, 2013, shortly after the first cases in the Caribbean were confirmed.

During the first segment, host Robert Herriman talks to the New Mexico Department of Health’s Public Health Veterinarian, Dr. Paul Ettestad. Dr. Ettestad gave a thorough overview of hantavirus, discussed some of the history of the virus in the US, why hantavirus is more prevalent out west, times of the year when hantavirus peaks and prevention methods. At the bottom of the hour, I was joined by the Colorado Department of Health Public Health Veterinarian, Dr. Jennifer House. Colorado has seen a spike in both human and animal tularemia in 2014 and Dr. House came on the show to give an overview of tularemia, discuss the spike and the history of tularemia in Coloradoand prevention methods for avoiding tularemia.

On the Sunday, Dec.7 airing of the Outbreak News This Week radio show, the main topics covered included meningitis and the work of the Meningitis Foundation of America, a new study concerning the reduction of Baylisascaris procyonis, or raccoon roundworm egg prevalence and the antigenic drift that is affecting the H3N2 component of the 2014-2015 seasonal flu shot.

During the second half of the show,Dr. Racaniello gave us some insight on the hardiness of the Ebolavirus, the 21 day incubation period, the issue airborne vs direct contact transmission and topic of viral mutation.

Joining host, Microbiologist and Editor of the news site, Outbreak News Today,  Robert Herriman to discuss and clarify the situation in West Africa is Tara Smith, PhD, Associate Professor with the Department of Biostatistics, Environmental Health Sciences, and Epidemiology at Kent State University’s College of Public Health. During the segment Herriman quizzed Dr. Smith on topics of how the situation in West Africa got to the point of where it is–unprecedented high numbers of cases and deaths dwarfing all previous Ebola outbreaks. What factors led to the enormous, in Ebola terms, outbreak; how did “patient zero” likely get infected and what did Nigeria do so well to squash a potential disaster in Africa’s most populous country?

Melody Butler, BSN, RN, the founder of the pro-vaccine organization, Nurses who Vaccinate talks about vaccinations and the work of her organization.  University of South Florida, St. Petersburg professor, veterinarian and professional journalist, Mark Jerome Walters discusses his new book, Seven Modern Plagues.