Polio Resurgence in New York State Prompts Rapid Public Health Response

Polio Resurgence in New York State Prompts Rapid Public Health Response

The July 2022 announcement of a case of paralytic polio in a young adult in New York spurred a rapid public health response. Because only unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated persons are generally at risk of symptomatic polio, and because antiviral or other treatments for polio do not currently exist, vaccination is key to preventing further disease spread.

Posted on thenib.com on September 9, 2019.  Taken from: Naro M, Francis M.  When “Peanuts” Went All In On Vaccinations. Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious virus that has no cure and can cause paralysis or even death. After nearly 40 years of no sustained poliovirus transmission in the United States (US), a case of paralytic polio was confirmed in New York, prompting a rapid public health response by local, state and national authorities. The World Health Organization declared the US polio-free in 1994. But on July 21, 2022, public health officials announced a case of paralytic polio in an...
What are Spotted Lanternflies, Why You Should Kill Them, and What Haverford Researchers Are Doing to Fight Them

What are Spotted Lanternflies, Why You Should Kill Them, and What Haverford Researchers Are Doing to Fight Them

Are you not from the Mid-Atlantic? Have you been terrorized by a brown, spotted bug with the thick black legs? Congratulations, you are in the spotted lanternfly’s hotspot, where this invasive species first came to America a few years ago. Learn more about this insect and what is being done to prevent the spread of its population.

A mature spotted lanternfly. Photo by Matt Rourke on AP Images, via CNN.  Have you seen an insect with dots crawling on campus? When you try to kill it, does it jump and become a bright, flashing red? Does this insect escape easily, and when it does you feel deeply unsettled? Do your pacifist friends yell out when you try to stomp on it? Well, welcome to Pennsylvania, where the invasive species, the spotted lanternfly has completely taken over the state. Learn more about them, and why you are right in killing them. If you are not from around Pennsylvania...