Wider bird flu spread raises concern for humans, animal health body says The spread of bird flu to an increasing number of species and its widening geographic reach have raised the risks of humans being infected by the virus, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Thursday. Sybille De La Hamaide Reuters

...

Testing environmental water to monitor COVID-19 spread in unsheltered encampments

To better understand COVID-19's spread during the pandemic, public health officials have expanded wastewater surveillance. These efforts track SARS-CoV-2 levels and health risks among most people, but they miss people who live without shelter, a population particularly vulnerable to severe infection.

To fill this information gap, researchers reporting in Environmental Science & Technology Letters tested flood-control waterways near unsheltered encampments, finding similar transmission patterns as in the broader community and identifying previously unseen viral mutations.

...

Covid boosters are a gamechanger – if they are free for everyone Only private jabs are available to most, but annual shots could reduce healthcare costs and prevent deaths The Guardian

...

Study describes more severe pediatric mental health crises during pandemic Children visiting the emergency department (ED) for mental health crises during the pandemic had longer stays and more severe diagnoses, according to a new study in Academic Emergency Medicine. CIDRAP

...

The study was based on ED visits to nine US hospitals participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry from 2017 to 2022.

...

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-broadly-coronavirus-vaccine.html#google_vignette

Researchers develop more broadly protective coronavirus vaccine

Scientists have been searching for the optimal coronavirus vaccine since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The mRNA vaccines developed through the federal government's "Operation Warp Speed" program were a massive innovation; however, annually updating those boosters for specific SARS-CoV-2 variants is inefficient for scientists and patients.

SARS-CoV-2 is just one member of the Sarbecovirus (SARS Betacoronavirus) subfamily (others include SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2002 SARS outbreak, as well as other viruses circulating in bats that could cause future pandemics).

Mpox vaccine boosters necessary to restore faded protection, study shows - UPI.com Vaccine protection against mpox fades quickly in the human immune system, even in people who've received the full two-dose regimen, a new real-world study shows. UPI

...

Antibody levels fell to low or near zero within the first few months of getting the vaccine, unless the person had previously received a smallpox vaccine, scientists reported Saturday at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona.