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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. What Is COVID-19? COVID-19 is a respiratory infection caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, which was recently discovered after an outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 is a type of coronavirus, which is a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe infections in humans. COVID-19 causes a variety of symptoms in people who are infected, and not all people infected with COVID-19 will have the same symptoms. Fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, or body aches are some of the most common symptoms; however, some people have experienced headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and sore throat as well. Symptoms typically appear 2 to 14 days after exposure, although some patients may not develop symptoms until later.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic orthopoxvirus in the same genus as variola (the causative agent of smallpox). 1 A recent global outbreak has led to more than more than 39 000 cases reported as of August 18, 2022. 2 Monkeypox is typically self-limited with symptoms generally lasting between 2 and 4 weeks in prior outbreaks. Hospitalization was required in 13% of patients in a recent study, suggesting the need for effective therapy. 3 Tecovirimat is an antiviral that inhibits p37, a protein involved in release of enveloped virus, dissemination, and viral virulence. 4 In vitro testing has shown activity against both smallpox and monkeypox, and tecovirimat appears to have a favorable clinical safety profile based on the experience of healthy volunteers. 4,5 We assessed adverse events and clinical resolution of systemic symptoms and lesions in an uncontrolled cohort study of patients with monkeypox who were treated with tecovirimat on a compassionate use basis. 6 Methods | Patients were eligible for tecovirimat treatment following laboratory confirmation of orthopoxvirus infection from skin lesions by polymerase chain reaction. Outpatients referred to UC Davis primarily through the Sacramento County Department of Public Health between June 3, 2022, and August 13, 2022, and who had disseminated disease or lesions in sensitive areas including the face or genital region were offered treatment. Oral treatment with tecovirimat for adult patients was weight-based, administered every 8 or 12 hours, and was taken within 30 minutes of a meal containing moderate to high fat content for improved bioavailability. The duration of therapy was 14 days but could be extended depending on the clinical status of the patient. Clinical data were collected at initial inperson evaluation for treatment and by in-person or telephone interview on day 7 and day 21 following initiation of therapy. All patients provided written informed consent. This protocol was approved by the UC Davis Institutional Review Board.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to identify global trends in Listeria monocytogenes epidemiology using ProMED reports. ProMED is a publicly available, global outbreak reporting system that uses both informal and formal sources. In the context of Listeria , ProMED reports on atypical findings such as higher than average case counts, events from unusual sources, and multinational outbreaks. Methods: Keywords “ Listeria ” and “listeriosis” were utilized in the ProMED search engine covering the years 1996–2018. Issue date, countries involved, source, suspected and confirmed case counts, and fatalities were extracted. Data unique to each event, including commentary by content experts, were evaluated. When multiple reports regarding the same outbreak or recall were obtained, the last report pertaining to that outbreak was utilized. Rates of Listeria events over time were compared using a normal approximation to the Poisson distribution; p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: From 1996 through 2018, 123 Listeria events were identified in the ProMED database. Eighty-one events (65%) were associated with two or more human cases (outbreak events), 13 events (11%) were associated with only one human case (sporadic cases), and 29 events (24%) were precautionary food product recalls due to the presence of bacterial contamination without associated human cases. The implicated food vehicle was identified in 69 (85%) outbreak events and in 10 (77%) sporadic case events. Listeria contaminated foods were identified in all precautionary recall events. Overall, 28 events (23%) implicated novel food vehicles/sources. Events associated with novel food vehicles increased over the study period ( p < 0.02), as did international events with more than one country involved ( p < 0.02). Ten reports (8%) described hospital-acquired events. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the use of publicly available data to document Listeria epidemiological trends, particularly in settings where foodborne disease surveillance is weak or nonexistent. Over the last decade, an increasing number of events have been associated with foods not traditionally recognized as vehicles for Listeria transmission, and a rise in international events was noted. Informing high-risk individuals such as pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals of safe food handling practices is warranted. To ensure timely recall of contaminated food products, open data sharing and communication across borders is critical. Changes in food production and distribution, and improved diagnostics may have contributed to the observed changes.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease that can be transmitted via respiratory droplets.

How Is the Novel Coronavirus That Causes COVID-19 Transmitted? SARS-CoV-2 is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets that enter the mouth, nose, or eyes by contaminated hands. There is no current evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through food consumption.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, formulating targeted policy interventions that are informed by differential severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission dynamics will be of vital importance to national and regional governments. We develop an individual-level model for SARS-CoV-2 transmission that accounts for location-dependent distributions of age, household structure, and comorbidities. We use these distributions together with age-stratified contact matrices to instantiate specific models for Hubei, China; Lombardy, Italy; and New York City, United States. Using data on reported deaths to obtain a posterior distribution over unknown parameters, we infer differences in the progression of the epidemic in the three locations. We also examine the role of transmission due to particular age groups on total infections and deaths. The effect of limiting contacts by a particular age group varies by location, indicating that strategies to reduce transmission should be tailored based on population-specific demography and social structure. These findings highlight the role of between-population variation in formulating policy interventions. Across the three populations, though, we find that targeted “salutary sheltering” by 50% of a single age group may substantially curtail transmission when combined with the adoption of physical distancing measures by the rest of the population.