Latest news with #Kemble
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
COVID on the Climb: Health Officials Urge Caution, Not Panic
It's something many of us had hoped we'd left behind. But COVID-19 is making a quiet comeback across the islands. The state is reporting a noticeable increase in new cases this week, along with the flu. But as health officials tells us, this isn't cause for panic, but it is reason to stay informed. It may not be making the headlines like it used to but COVID-19 is still with us – and this week, it's making a bit more noise. According to the State Department of Health, 210 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Hawaii this week. 'I would say compared to past years, it's still a very modest increase that we're seeing this time of year, but we have seen summer surges in Hawaii. So I think it's something to pay attention to,' said Dr. Sarah Kemble, State Epidemiologist. Our senior population is seeing the greatest increase in COVID cases – an average of 23 new cases reported this week. The variant circulating is the LP variant. 'It's something that's been seeing emerging globally. It does seem to have an advantage over other variants, but it's not associated with more severe disease or greater resistance to vaccine,' said Dr. Kemble. Other respiratory illnesses. like the flu, are also seeing a slight rise, accounting for 11% of positive tests and 2% of emergency room visits. Not as high as the peak of flu season when it's closer to a 305 positive rate, but there has been increased activity, particularly in children. 'Technically we're out of the flu season, but we're still seeing cases every day. I'm still seeing a fairly good number of COVID cases as well. I would say the RSV cases are probably the least of those three, but I'm seeing a case here and there,' said Dr. Paul Eakin, JABSOM Pediatric Emergency Medicine Division Chief. The health department's overall disease activity indicator is currently at a medium level. Dr. Eakin says the latest wave isn't unexpected considering that respiratory illnesses occur year round in Hawaii. 'Because we get tourists from the mainland. We also get tourists from the southern hemisphere. So I don't know if flu ever truly goes away. And then I think COVID is also kind of here to stay,' said Dr. Eakin. So what should you do if you're feeling sick right now? The advice is simple – but important. 'I think the biggest take home point is if you're feeling sick, if you're having sore throat, runny nose, cough, and especially if you're having fever, safest thing is to stay home and not spread your germs until you're feeling better,' said Dr. Kemble. Doctors also recommend staying up to date on vaccines. A link to the State Health Department's Respiratory Disease Dashboard is here: Respiratory Viruses Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
You Can Help Plastic Pollution in U.S. National Parks With This App—What to Know
The 5 Gyres Institute is starting its annual initiative to track amounts of trash in National Parks. Any visitor to national parks can help by recording data about the trash they see in any U.S. park or federal land through October. The crowdsourced data is used to make scientific recommendations for reducing waste. On April 22, we'll all celebrate Earth Day. There's no better way to honor this beautiful planet than by doing our part to keep it clean. And the 5 Gyres Institute is kicking off its fourth annual Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz project to do just that. The community science initiative's mission is to track pollution trends in the U.S. National Parks and on federal lands. Of course, it doesn't just leave it there. It also enlists the help of volunteers to collect trash at "any land managed by the federal government, including the National Park Service, National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service," and log their findings in the TrashBlitz app. This data, the organization noted in a statement provided to Travel + Leisure, contributes to its annual report that uncovers the top items, materials, and brands found, which also outlines science-based recommendations to reduce waste. 'For three years, TrashBlitz has served as a valuable tool in tracking waste trends across national parks. From this data, we know that single-use plastic is the worst offender, and we're seeing the same brands commonly identified in waste audits all over the world,' Nick Kemble, a program associate at 5 Gyres, shared. 'Systemic changes, like implementing reuse and refill systems and shifting to better alternatives, can have a real, immediate impact on reducing waste in national parks.' Like Kemble said, plastic has made up the majority of trash logged on the app for the past three years by an overwhelming degree. According to the group, it made up 75 percent of all waste recorded. The most common single-use plastic items included food wrappers, bottles, bottle caps/rings, cigarette butts, wipes, and fragments. As for which brands are most commonly found, that list includes Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Gatorade, Marlboro, and Camel. All this information is then used to help push more environmentally friendly legislation, including the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act, which seeks to "eliminate the sale and distribution of disposable plastic products." And this work is all the more important with the drastic cuts to national park funding. 'The TrashBlitz data from previous years underscores the urgent need to address plastic pollution in our national parks. Now is not the time to cut essential resources and personnel responsible for waste management, education, and park maintenance,' Alison Waliszewski, the director of regional policy and program development, added. 'We can all step up to help our parks during this time, and we're calling on the public to take action by collecting data that can push forward solutions.'Volunteers can take part and collect data now through October 31, 2025. See more about how to sign up at Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Life Before the Measles Vaccine
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic's archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. Many people who contract measles don't know right away that they have it. Days after infection, the symptoms can feel like the flu, until the tell-tale blotchy red rash emerges—usually near the hairline at first, later traveling down the biceps, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands. So far this year, 712 people in America are known to have been infected with the highly contagious disease. This number is already higher than last year's, which totalled 285. The virus has been particularly widespread in West Texas, where two young girls have died—the first measles deaths America has seen in a decade. And the official cause of death of a New Mexico resident who contracted measles remains under investigation. Each of the three people who died were unvaccinated, renewing the controversy over vaccine hesitancy. It is a stance that has been around for as long as vaccines have. But a time before the measles vaccine—before 1963, when the virus was so widespread that virtually every child was expected to fall ill from it—is beyond the memory of most generations today. 'My will I made last week, while I was in bed with the measles,' the 18-year-old Frances Anne Kemble, who later published her letters in The Atlantic, wrote in 1828. 'I lay parched and full of pain and fever in my illness!' Then Kemble's account took an optimistic turn: 'I have been very ill for the last fortnight, but am well again now. I am pressed for time to-day, but will soon write to you in earnest.' Even though measles infected millions of people each year in the 19th century, killing more than 12,000 people in 1900, it was seen as less worrisome than other diseases. Scarlet fever and smallpox had higher mortality rates, and the ubiquity of measles meant that contracting it was almost a rite of passage. (The word measly is derived from the virus, Adam Ratner noted in Booster Shots.) Consider the way in which the disease was written about in this magazine: A book review from 1859 mentions 'a complaint as common to a certain period of life as measles.' And in 1871, a passion for collecting items was described as something that 'befalls most boys, like measles or whooping-cough.' Measles' reputation as a common childhood illness also meant that health officials didn't usually take mitigation efforts as seriously as they did for other diseases. In How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis described the virus's devastating effects in New York City's tenement housing in the 1880s, where impoverished and starving people gathered in close quarters with little access to hygiene: 'Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail—what do they mean? … The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none.' He reported on records showing that respiratory diseases, including the flu and measles, were the most common cause of death in these housing conditions. But diphtheria and scarlet fever were 'considered more dangerous to the public health,' so health officials moved those cases to hospitals, resulting in 'a low death-rate.' Recovery from measles is not always linear; contracting the virus can make people more vulnerable to other diseases. In 1925, one mother recalled pulling from the family's savings to settle the bills for her children's treatment. Those who were unable or unwilling to pay relied on homemade remedies that largely lacked scientific backing. Tansy and pennyroyal leaves could be steeped to make tea, and sometimes catnip would be used as well, according to a 1933 Atlantic article. Anybody bold (or desperate) enough could try 'sheep tea,' which got its name from the main ingredient of dried sheep manure. Though drinking rehydrated animal waste might seem outlandish today, the prospect of using unconventional methods to treat measles hasn't faded from popularity. Take Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Throughout the current outbreak, he has promoted unproven treatments such as cod-liver oil and steroids. Experts widely agree that these are no substitutes for the measles vaccination. No antivirals will cure a patient once they're infected—doctors can only manage the symptoms. Depending on certain factors (age, vaccination status, underlying conditions), in many cases these symptoms will abate; in others, possible complications (pneumonia, brain swelling) can lead to long-term issues or death. 'Measles is not a forgiving virus,' my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote last month. And it's currently spreading in an environment very different from that of the prevaccine era, when primarily kids were infected and people lived in a world less connected by air, rail, and car. The most recent example of a measles epidemic took place in the late 1980s and early '90s. It 'infected 55,000 people, put 11,260 in the hospital, and killed more than 150,' the policy researcher Mary Graham wrote in The Atlantic in 1993. Doctors scrambled to treat a disease they hadn't come across for years; crowded hospitals set aside beds for feverish patients. 'Epidemics are no longer local events,' Graham explained. 'The rapid spread of measles to forty-nine states was a destructive reminder that from the perspective of a virus we have become one community.' When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
17-04-2025
- Health
- Atlantic
When Measles Was Endemic
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic 's archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. Many people who contract measles don't know right away that they have it. Days after infection, the symptoms can feel like the flu, until the tell-tale blotchy red rash emerges—usually near the hairline at first, later traveling down the biceps, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands. So far this year, 712 people in America are known to have been infected with the highly contagious disease. This number is already higher than last year's, which totalled 285. The virus has been particularly widespread in West Texas, where two young girls have died —the first measles deaths America has seen in a decade. And the official cause of death of a New Mexico resident who contracted measles remains under investigation. Each of the three people who died were unvaccinated, renewing the controversy over vaccine hesitancy. It is a stance that has been around for as long as vaccines have. But a time before the measles vaccine—before 1963, when the virus was so widespread that virtually every child was expected to fall ill from it—is beyond the memory of most generations today. 'My will I made last week, while I was in bed with the measles,' the 18-year-old Frances Anne Kemble, who later published her letters in The Atlantic, wrote in 1828. 'I lay parched and full of pain and fever in my illness!' Then Kemble's account took an optimistic turn: 'I have been very ill for the last fortnight, but am well again now. I am pressed for time to-day, but will soon write to you in earnest.' Even though measles infected millions of people each year in the 19th century, killing more than 12,000 people in 1900, it was seen as less worrisome than other diseases. Scarlet fever and smallpox had higher mortality rates, and the ubiquity of measles meant that contracting it was almost a rite of passage. (The word measly is derived from the virus, Adam Ratner noted in Booster Shots.) Consider the way in which the disease was written about in this magazine: A book review from 1859 mentions 'a complaint as common to a certain period of life as measles.' And in 1871, a passion for collecting items was described as something that 'befalls most boys, like measles or whooping-cough.' Measles' reputation as a common childhood illness also meant that health officials didn't usually take mitigation efforts as seriously as they did for other diseases. In How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis described the virus's devastating effects in New York City's tenement housing in the 1880s, where impoverished and starving people gathered in close quarters with little access to hygiene: 'Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail—what do they mean? … The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none.' He reported on records showing that respiratory diseases, including the flu and measles, were the most common cause of death in these housing conditions. But diphtheria and scarlet fever were 'considered more dangerous to the public health,' so health officials moved those cases to hospitals, resulting in 'a low death-rate.' Recovery from measles is not always linear; contracting the virus can make people more vulnerable to other diseases. In 1925, one mother recalled pulling from the family's savings to settle the bills for her children's treatment. Those who were unable or unwilling to pay relied on homemade remedies that largely lacked scientific backing. Tansy and pennyroyal leaves could be steeped to make tea, and sometimes catnip would be used as well, according to a 1933 Atlantic article. Anybody bold (or desperate) enough could try ' sheep tea,' which got its name from the main ingredient of dried sheep manure. Though drinking rehydrated animal waste might seem outlandish today, the prospect of using unconventional methods to treat measles hasn't faded from popularity. Take Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Throughout the current outbreak, he has promoted unproven treatments such as cod-liver oil and steroids. Experts widely agree that these are no substitutes for the measles vaccination. No antivirals will cure a patient once they're infected—doctors can only manage the symptoms. Depending on certain factors (age, vaccination status, underlying conditions), in many cases these symptoms will abate; in others, possible complications (pneumonia, brain swelling) can lead to long-term issues or death. 'Measles is not a forgiving virus,' my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote last month. And it's currently spreading in an environment very different from that of the prevaccine era, when primarily kids were infected and people lived in a world less connected by air, rail, and car. The most recent example of a measles epidemic took place in the late 1980s and early '90s. It 'infected 55,000 people, put 11,260 in the hospital, and killed more than 150,' the policy researcher Mary Graham wrote in The Atlantic in 1993. Doctors scrambled to treat a disease they hadn't come across for years; crowded hospitals set aside beds for feverish patients. 'Epidemics are no longer local events,' Graham explained. 'The rapid spread of measles to forty-nine states was a destructive reminder that from the perspective of a virus we have become one community.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
DOH emergency rule looks to prevent measles outbreak
HONOLULU (KHON2) — As Hawaii's measles vaccination rate continues to decline, Department of Health officials are expanding efforts to protect the islands from a measles outbreak. The DOH said at least 95% of Hawaii's population must be vaccinated to prevent an outbreak, otherwise known as 'herd immunity.' Two Oahu hospitals receive $10M in grants to expand access to critical cancer care In hopes of encouraging more vaccinations, DOH officials sent a letter to parents and guardians of Hawaii students, especially those who attend schools with low immunization rates. The letter outlines DOH's emergency rule, which states that children with a religious exemption can receive the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. Students can also be exempt from other vaccines and continue to attend school. The emergency rule is effective for the next four months. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Pediatrician and state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble emphasized the need for vaccination as measles is a serious and sometimes fatal disease for keiki. 'At the rate it's spreading, it could easily reach Hawaiʻi on the next plane. The MMR vaccine is our best defense against the measles virus,' Dr. Kemble said. Parents are encouraged to vaccinate their children immediately. If a measles outbreak were to occur, the department said children without an MMR vaccine may be prohibited from attending school. All updates to a child's vaccination record should be reported to their school. Check out more news from around Hawaii The DOH is looking to hold on-site vaccination clinics. In the meantime, parents and staff can access vaccines through the child's healthcare provider or a local community clinic. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
