Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week. And I am a day behind…
Truth be told — I am exhausted. On Monday, we took our daughter to her first concert. It was a wonderful evening, but getting out of the parking lot was rough, and we didn’t get home until 3 am. I am still trying to catch up on sleep.
Thanks for your patience as I write Three Things Thursday on Friday…
The health news this week has focused on H5N1 and the listeria outbreak linked to deli meats (details below). Additionally, I want to share what I’ve been listening to and reading and how it is shaping my understanding of healthy communities.
Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Listeria Outbreak
On Monday, the FDA expanded its recall of deli meat. The deli meat is (potentially) contaminated with listeria.
Listeria is a foodborne illness caused by the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. It can be deadly; the CDC estimates it is the third leading cause of death from a foodborne pathogen. Most people who ingest listeria will suffer from a mild intestinal illness; however, when listeria spreads beyond the intestines, it is called invasive. And this is where things become serious. Sometimes life-threatening; sometimes deadly.
The current listeria outbreak is connected with 33 hospitalizations and two deaths in 13 states (including Pennsylvania).
Boar’s Head — a Virginia-based company that produces, among many things, deli meats — is recalling 7 million pounds of meat and poultry. The recall includes 71 Boar’s Head and Old Country items that were produced between May 10—July 29, 2024. At this point —
"Boar’s Head products are the only products implicated at this point,"
Melissa Dibble, a CDC spokesperson told USA TODAY on Wednesday.
A full list of recalled products is available here.
If you have any of these products in your refrigerator,
throw them away and do NOT eat them.
H5N1 Update
H5N1 — also known as avian influenza — continues to be a hot topic. During the past couple of weeks, we have learned a lot (but not everything) about the spread of the virus (from animals to humans).
Poultry-to-human transmission ➡️ There has been an uptick in H5N1 cases among poultry workers in Colorado. These workers were either killing infected chickens or working inside a crowded chicken coop without proper personal protective equipment (PPE). CDC is (strongly) recommending that poultry workers get vaccinated for the seasonal flu vaccine to prevent individuals from becoming co-infected with seasonal flu and H5N1 during the fall/winter flu season. Additionally, individuals who are working with or near chickens need to wear proper PPE.
Dairy cow-to-human transmission ➡️ While we do not understand how H5N1 is transmitted from dairy cows to humans, according to a report in STATNews —
“It's clear to most scientists that milk and milking equipment plays a role in the current transmission dynamics, but respiratory spread between cows could also be happening.”
There is speculation that H5N1 has spread to dairy workers via their eyes when raw milk is splashed or wiped into the eye. This could explain why cases reported earlier this year were associated with conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye.
As we get closer to county fair time, it is going to be necessary for us all to think about surveillance of cows at county fairs as well as how close we let individuals get to dairy cows.
More to come about H5N1 safety at county fairs… Be sure you are subscribed.
Podcasts & Books
I was recently listening to the Surgeon General’s podcast House Calls where he was interviewing Dr. Abraham Verghese.
During the conversation between Drs. Murthy and Verghese, Dr. Verghere (author of My Own Country, Cutting for Stone, and The Covenant of Water) said —
"I have a great belief that fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives.
So you can read about child abuse in Nelson's textbook, but if you want to feel it viscerally, if you want the medical students to feel it, you have them read the novel 'Bastard Out of Carolina' ... Or if you want to understand the end of life, you can look at a textbook, but if you read 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' by Tolstoy, you will feel it.
So fiction has this tremendous way to be larger than the truth and to resonate with us ... and to place us in the story."
This quote pierced my heart.
And it reminded me — of the power of stories. And the importance of books.
“I finished reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver within a week of hearing Dr. Verghese’s quote. This novel takes place in rural Appalachia and follows a child, his friends, and his family, as he navigates abuse, abandonment, the foster care system, addiction, violence, and more. As I wrote on social media —
“I know about addiction, poverty, abuse, loneliness, and how 'the system' fails people. I know the data, trends, and risk factors. I also know there is stigma. But this book brought me into the lives of people who were addicted and dying; those who were suffering losses I couldn't imagine and facing challenges I have never faced.
This book & quote are a powerful reminder that we need to look at health from various points of view -- we need the data and trends; risk factors and up-to-date statistics. But we also need the stories. We need to feel, experience, and understand what is going on in the lives of others.
This is the only way we will create healthy communities for all.”
I want to encourage everyone to pick up Demon Copperhead. It is a wonderful read.
And just a friendly reminder that —
From a health perspective, reading is really healthy for you. It can increase your empathy toward others. It helps you to relax. And it helps you to sleep better (mainly because you get off your screen before bed).
“Reading affects a host of everyday medical processes, everything from understanding discharge paperwork and drug labels, to selecting healthy foods and understanding immunizations, as well as understanding legislation that affects healthcare. Medical literacy also helps patients to have intelligent conversations with healthcare workers about their own bodies.
On the internet, medical literacy also includes being able to determine correct health information from the large amount of medical misinformation available. Doing your own research sometimes makes things worse.”
What books are you reading? Any recommendations?
I’m working my way through a couple of books at the moment. Trying to figure out how to include more books in my classes — to demonstrate the importance of reading, get my students away from their screens, and further demonstrate the need to learn from the stories that others tell through books. More to come as I stitch my syllabi together for the semester…
Epi(demiology) Matters is written by Dr. Becky Dawson, PhD MPH — an epidemiologist, teacher, mom, wife, and dedicated yogi. She is a tenured professor at Allegheny College, Research Director at a community hospital, and an exclusive contributor (all things health & medicine) at Erie News Now (NBC/CBS). Her goal is to create healthy communities for all. She writes Epi Matters — first & foremost because epidemiology does matter (to all of us) and she hopes that each post will help to educate and empower readers to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Be sure you and your friends and family are subscribed so you don’t miss a post —
Epi(demiology) Matters is free — because science, reports, news, updates, and alerts about health should NOT be behind a paywall. EVER. Everyone needs access to up-to-date health information in order to be healthy and create healthy communities for all.