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As we dive into autumn we’re re-entering the season when traditional cold weather illnesses spike. There’s the usual round of flu, the winter sickness bug norovoris, the common cold, RSV, and of course covid which, while it tends to surge in summer, also hits us in cold weather simply because we spend more time together indoors.
This season there are also mpox warnings popping up in several countries and Ecoli, which menaces us all year round, is also in the news. So let’s take a look at the nasty winter 2024 illnesses that clean, safe, simple UVC light is so good at killing.
Because the illness can be asymptomatic for as long as 17 days, mpox can be hard to spot early. India recently reported its first suspected case, someone who’d travelled from elsewhere and brought it with him. He’s been isolated in a designated hospital, and is reported to be stable. The Indian government has already issued a directive suggesting mpox screening, testing, and contact tracing, public health preparedness is under review, and they’re busy getting vaccines ready just in case.
In Malaysia they’ve been busy with extensive testing. So far they’ve been lucky, with 46 suspected cases all turning out to be negative. So far they’ve screened an impressive 5.2 million people at airports and other ‘international entry points’ since mid-August.
As reported by
The Mirror, here in the UK health chiefs are urging UK schools to follow new guidance because half of all UK mpox cases are being found in children.
We had some cases of the more dangerous variant, clade 1b, here in 2022, the same strain that’s now active in Africa and Sweden. Meanwhile the World Health Organisation has called the spread a ‘public health emergency’.
In another piece of worrying news, a document written by the UKHSA says there might already be a ‘more serious strain’ of mpox circulating in the UK. Meantime, scientists are trying to find out if, like covid, mpox comes with long term health ongoing effects like Long Covid. So far the jury’s still out.
E. coli is surging in the UK, mostly directly down to water companies’ neglect of the sewerage infrastructure they’re supposed to maintain. 288 cases were confirmed in July alone. Now, new data reveals dangerously high levels in Bristol's Floating Harbour.
A group of citizen scientists in Cornwall say their water quality tests show dangerous amounts of e. coli at St Agnes beach, previously given an ‘excellent’ bill of health by the Environment Agency. Another piece of research, this time by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, investigated a UK e. coli outbreak and identified contaminated lettuce as the most likely source. Heavy rain had probably carried the infection from farm animal poo to the lettuce in the fields. Because climate change means more heavy rain is on the way - the new normal - there could be ‘increased impacts on health and food security’.
A team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA has shown how vaccinating people aged 60 and above against Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV ‘substantially reduces’ their risk of having to go to hospital.
It matters because RSV was previously thought to affect infants and toddlers worst of all. But RSV in older people, COPD sufferers and those with a compromised immune system comes with the same sort of symptoms as flu, and like covid it can lead to hospitalisation with complications like bronchitis and pneumonia.
The UK Covid inquiry has resumed, now delving into how managers led the pandemic response, the role of primary care and GPs, NHS backlogs, and how the vaccine programme was integrated. Meanwhile, as £15 billion-worth of ‘profound’ corruption has comes to light over covid, the disease itself is still circulating.
The USA is currently suffering a ’huge’ late summer covid spike. Two schools in Alabama and Tennessee have shut down days into the new term began thanks to an ‘uptick' in covid cases. A report in New Scientist magazine says that unlike flu, RSV and norovirus, covid cases worldwide have risen every summer. As far as the UK goes? There are no actual news reports about the current status of covid, although you can check out the latest numbers on the
government website.
UVC light, at a certain special wavelength, kills a huge collection of viruses, bacteria, moulds, spores and more in just minutes. That’s why it has been used in healthcare settings for so many decades. Now you can fit simple, affordable UVC disinfection units into existing light fittings, in aircon units and elsewhere, designed to keep people safe from infection. In today’s world, with climate change on the rampage and some infectious diseases flourishing, it’s well worth considering for your business.