Sloth fever reported in NY: What you should know

Thursday. Back to you. >> All right. Well, the Centers for Disease Control is issuing a warning about deadly mosquito-borne viruses. One that's made its way to New York S last fever can also lead to more serious conditions like in satellite, us and meningitis. >> So joining us this morning is the director of infection prevention at Northwell Health Hanuman. So good morning, Hanna. Thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. All right. So let's talk about this loss fever. It's native the Caribbean Central and South America. 21 people returning from Cuba all tested positive for this. So what is slotted fever working to get its name from sure. So this is a vector borne illness. So this is something that >> can be transmitted from an insect bite. They call it slots fever because when it was discovered in the 50's it was found in slots. But don't worry, we don't have to worry about slot bytes. This is really something that's insect. >> Important, OK? All right. And it's spreading as well. What's what's causing the spread? And is this a stronger virus than some of the others that, you know, we've been concerned about West Nile, those type of things. >> So it's very similar to West Nile, another vector borne illnesses like chicken going ending a the good news is it's really travel-related right now. We're not seeing local transmission. So this is happening in these and demick areas or areas with their outbreaks expectant mothers really should be concerned about this right? Yeah. There is a concern for expectant mothers because of the potential for a mother to fetus transmission. It can cause very severe congenital defects like microcephaly or even fetal death. >> Yeah, actually looking at one case in Brazil right now. That's seems to be a transmission from a from a mother to the fetus. So again, this is something that, you know, pregnant women should really think about traveling to these countries. Absolutely. And you know, if they are going to be traveling to areas that experience any of these actor born on a says, really prevention is key. So we want to make sure that insect repellent is used long sleeves and pants avoiding, you know, times are mosquitoes are active like dusk and dawn. And then, you know, if there are concerns for the ski, tows and lack of mosquito control, you can use things next over beds in keeping the windows and screens close. Yeah, here at home. It's obviously something that we're all very familiar with, especially being familiar with West Nile virus. But the thing that's a little bit different. The symptoms show up or they take longer to show. So they usually show up within 4 to 10 days. That's the incubation period. However, what's different about this is you could have recurrent symptoms days or even weeks after the initial illness, OK, what are some of those symptoms? So about 60% of people who are infected will be or will be symptomatic. Excuse me. And that manifest in ways like fevers, chills, body aches, muscle pains, joint pains, things of that sort. There are other symptoms like sensitivity to light pain behind the eyes. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and in very severe cases, of course, you know, we talked about and stuff like and meningitis and in very rare cases test for that and differentiate between West Nile slot fever, it's hard because a lot of these illnesses manifest the same way. you know, the health care providers going to look at things like the symptom presentation and travel history and rule out other causes. So right now the recommendations from New York State Department of Health and CDC is to rule out saying a first. And if that is, you know, tested negative. There is a test available that it can be sent out to look specifically for this illness. All right. So, you know, we wouldn't talk about slots fever, moral push virus But the mosquitoes also carrying a lot of other things. Now we're looking at Tripoli, right, the eastern and quiet and stuff a lot is what exactly is that? >> This is another vector borne illness and it's very rare, but it can be very serious. There's a higher mortality associated with This is something transmit between mosquitos and birds. And then with that by can actually infect mammals like humans and horses. That's where, you know, quite comes from and this, you very similar manifestations in terms of symptoms. But the concern is that there are more under a logical symptoms that are associated with this and it can be more severe higher proportion of the cases West. Now, though, is obviously more common in our area. That's definitely the most common mosquito-borne illness. But we still have to be concerned about Absolutely. There was actually a case New York. So this is something that's very rare. It's a low-risk, the general public, but it still existed. It's important to know the risk factors and the symptoms to be aware of. All right. Let's talk about the other elephant in the room. Yes, or school back in. There's been an uptick in COVID cases. What should we be looking out for you? >> Well, the good thing about COVID is that we've experience for a while. I feel like we're very familiar with the symptoms. You know, the winter months common school gets we're going to have more people congregated inside together. And of course, anytime you have people together, there's concern for more spread. So really here, you know, looking for the common symptoms of COVID, the respiratory illnesses, making sure that if they show up and you have access to testing, that's really the best way to to figure out if you're sick, really with any febrile illness. He want to be isolating, especially from people who are at higher risk and then consulting or healthcare provider. If they're serious, serious symptoms that occur. Is there an updated vaccine? And should we wait for that? But what was school starts? There is an updated vaccine. And, you know, we have been anxiously awaiting this availability and just yesterday, I believe CBS actually mentioned that they were receiving that. So Vaccine Finder is a great resource to look and see where it's available. It's recommended for everyone above the age of 6 months to get this because it's protecting against new strains that previously protected from. And that's a good time to also put a plug for the flu at a that season as well. Coming All right, Hannah Newman, as alwa