MyMeds Watch is the sister experience to MyMeds AI for fast pathogen awareness. Open the full watch console in a new tab, or install it to your home screen for one-tap access.
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A real-time surveillance view of the May 2026 hantavirus cluster — laboratory confirmations, fatality progression, geographic spread, and the biological pathway behind every case. Built on WHO, ECDC, Africa CDC, and US CDC NNDSS reporting.
Deer mice (SNV), rice rats (ANDV), bank voles (Puumala) carry virus asymptomatically.
Live virus is shed in urine, droppings, and saliva for the duration of the host's life.
Sweeping, vacuuming, or disturbing nests generates virus-laden dust particles.
Inhaled virus targets pulmonary endothelium; capillary leak causes ARDS within days.
147 passengers and crew embark on a Dutch-flagged expedition cruise routed for the Canary Islands via Cabo Verde.
Earliest symptom onset in the cluster: fever and gastrointestinal complaints, later progressing to respiratory distress.
Remains held at Saint Helena pending repatriation to the Netherlands. No pathogen yet identified.
Case 2 disembarks with GI symptoms. Case 3 shows febrile illness, dyspnea, and pneumonia signs in the ship's clinic.
Patient deteriorates mid-flight from Saint Helena and dies on arrival. PCR will later confirm hantavirus.
Transferred to ICU in South Africa. Extensive respiratory pathogen panel returns negative — hantavirus suspected.
NICD South Africa confirms hantavirus by PCR in case 3. Case 4 dies of pneumonia at sea. WHO IHR notification issued by the United Kingdom.
Sequencing identifies Andes virus (ANDV) in one patient — the only hantavirus species with documented human-to-human transmission.
ECDC publishes preliminary risk assessment. EU Reference Lab activated for ANDV diagnostics. Contact tracing extended to flight passengers from Saint Helena → Johannesburg.
The pathogen identified in the Hondius cluster. The only hantavirus species with confirmed person-to-person transmission, last documented in a 2018–19 Argentine outbreak.
The dominant US strain. Endemic across the Four Corners region; cases concentrate in arid rural settings.
Causes a milder form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome — "nephropathia epidemica" — common in Scandinavia.
The prototype hantavirus. Endemic to Korea and northern China; caused the 1950s outbreak that gave the family its name.
Fever, myalgia, fatigue, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting. Indistinguishable from influenza or gastroenteritis.
Dry cough escalates to dyspnea. Capillary leak floods the alveoli. Tachycardia, hypotension. Patients can decompensate within hours.
ARDS, shock, arrhythmias. Survivors enter a diuretic phase by day 7–10. Mortality concentrates at this transition.
Spray rodent droppings and nests with a 1:10 bleach solution. Let it soak for 5 minutes before wiping — never sweep or vacuum dry.
If clearing a shed, cabin, attic, or vehicle that's been mouse-occupied, wear an N95 respirator and rubber or latex gloves. Discard gloves; wash hands.
Mice enter through gaps as small as a dime. Steel wool + caulk on foundation cracks, vents, and pipe openings. Trim brush within 100 ft of structures.
Flu-like illness following any rodent exposure in an endemic region (rural West, South America) is a red flag. Mention the exposure to clinicians.
There is no antiviral. Outcomes depend on early ICU transfer, careful fluid management, and ECMO availability when ARDS develops.
For travel through Patagonia, the Andes, the Four Corners, or rural eastern Europe — avoid sleeping in poorly-sealed rural cabins; check rodent activity.
Outpatient ILI surveillance from CDC FluView (ILINet), refreshed automatically each Saturday after CDC's Friday publication. Weighted ILI activity, week-over-week trend, state-level breakdown, and circulating strain composition.
An animated pathway will show droplet and aerosol transmission, antigenic drift, and the role of birds and swine as reservoirs for novel reassortant strains.
Multi-year overlay of weekly ILI activity to provide context — is this flu season tracking ahead of, in line with, or behind the recent average?
The species responsible for every flu pandemic since 1918. Antigenic shift in animal reservoirs creates novel subtypes humans have no immunity to.
Causes seasonal epidemics but lacks a non-human reservoir, so cannot trigger pandemics. Hits children hardest. B/Yamagata may be extinct since 2020.
Will include high-risk groups (pregnant, immunocompromised, >65, children <5), early antiviral windows (oseltamivir, baloxavir), and red-flag symptoms warranting immediate care.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has expanded into mammalian hosts including US dairy cattle. Sporadic human cases have remained mild, but every spillover increases the chance of a transmissible variant emerging.
In the limited human cases documented since 2003, mortality has been roughly 50%. Most recent US cases linked to dairy exposure have been mild, but the pathogen has not been declawed.
Sustained transmission in dairy herds is unprecedented. Each replication cycle in mammals is another opportunity for a mutation that improves human transmissibility.
Unlike seasonal flu, virtually no one has prior exposure. A pandemic strain would meet a fully susceptible global population.
Will animate the route from wild waterfowl reservoirs through commercial poultry, into mammalian hosts (dairy cattle, marine mammals, domestic cats), and finally to occupational human exposure.
A running log of clade transitions, mammalian spillover events, and human cases — drawn from WOAH, USDA APHIS, and CDC reporting.
Dairy and poultry workers, veterinarians, wildlife rehabilitators, raw-milk consumers, and anyone in close contact with sick or dead birds and mammals.
If you work with potentially infected animals, wear an N95, eye protection, gloves, and waterproof outerwear. Avoid touching face. Shower at end of shift.
Conjunctivitis, fever, respiratory symptoms, or GI illness following animal exposure — call your provider and mention the exposure. Early oseltamivir matters.
H5N1 has been detected in raw milk from infected cows. Pasteurization inactivates the virus. There is no documented benefit to drinking raw milk that justifies this risk.
The 2022 global outbreak (Clade IIb) is now contained in most regions, but Clade I — historically more severe — has driven a multi-country outbreak in Central and East Africa with a higher case fatality rate. WHO PHEIC remains active.
Clade Ib emerged in 2023–24 driving multi-country spread. WHO declared a PHEIC in August 2024 that remains in effect.
The clade behind the 2022 multi-country outbreak that put mpox on the global radar. Now significantly suppressed in non-endemic countries through vaccination and behavior change.
Will detail close-contact transmission via lesions, respiratory secretions in prolonged face-to-face contact, contaminated linens, and the role of sexual networks in clade IIb and Ib spread.
Will trace key events: 1958 discovery, 1970 first human case, 2022 global outbreak, 2024 Clade Ib PHEIC declaration, and ongoing surveillance.
Related to (but distinct from) variola, the eradicated smallpox virus. Smallpox vaccination provides cross-protection — populations vaccinated before 1980 retain partial immunity.
Lesions progress from macules to papules to fluid-filled vesicles to pustules to scabs. Often start on face/genitals/extremities. Lesions in same stage at same site is a key differentiator from chickenpox.
Two-dose vaccine is recommended for those at occupational or behavioral risk. Post-exposure prophylaxis works best within 4 days of contact.
Patients are infectious until all lesions have scabbed, fallen off, and a fresh layer of skin has formed underneath. Cover unhealed lesions; avoid skin-to-skin contact.
PCR from lesion swabs is the diagnostic standard. Don't self-diagnose — many rashes look similar and accurate testing matters for both treatment and contact tracing.
TB remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases. WHO estimates 10.8 million new cases and 1.25 million deaths in 2023. Drug-resistant strains — particularly MDR-TB and XDR-TB — are a growing concern. This page tracks global burden, US trends, and MDR-TB resistance data.
Highest burden countries: India, China, Russian Federation. MDR-TB is substantially underfunded relative to its global impact.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is expelled in tiny droplet nuclei when an infectious person coughs, sneezes, or speaks. These particles can remain suspended in air for hours.
Inhaled bacilli reach the alveoli. The immune system usually contains the bacteria, forming a granuloma (latent TB infection, LTBI). ~90% of immunocompetent people never progress.
In ~10% of LTBI cases, bacteria reactivate — most commonly within the first 2 years of infection, or when immunity is compromised (HIV, malnutrition, immunosuppressants, diabetes, aging).
Multiplying bacteria cause tissue destruction, cavitation, and systemic illness. Without treatment, an infectious person can transmit to 10–15 others per year.
Robert Koch announces the isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, establishing the bacterial cause of TB and earning the 1905 Nobel Prize.
Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is administered to its first human subject. It remains the only licensed TB vaccine to this day.
Selman Waksman's team isolates streptomycin — the first antibiotic active against M. tuberculosis, transforming TB from a death sentence.
Isoniazid becomes the first effective oral TB drug, enabling outpatient therapy and dramatically reducing sanatorium admissions worldwide.
Rising HIV co-infection and the re-emergence of TB in high-income countries prompted the first-ever WHO declaration of a disease as a global public health emergency.
Extensively drug-resistant TB is defined — resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, fluoroquinolones, and second-line injectables. Outbreak reported in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
TB surpasses COVID-19 as the world's leading infectious disease killer. The WHO Global TB Report 2024 flags persistent gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and MDR-TB research funding.
The classic presentation: persistent cough, night sweats, weight loss, hemoptysis. Sputum smear and culture, NAAT, and chest X-ray are the diagnostic cornerstones.
Develops through incomplete or interrupted first-line treatment, or through transmission of resistant strains. Requires longer, more toxic, and more expensive treatment regimens.
Also resistant to fluoroquinolones and at least one second-line injectable agent. Management requires highly specialized centers. Prognosis significantly worse than drug-susceptible TB.
No symptoms. Not contagious. Positive IGRA or TST. Chest X-ray may show old scarring. Treatment of LTBI reduces lifetime risk of progression by ~90%.
Persistent cough (>2–3 weeks), low-grade fever, night sweats, unintentional weight loss, fatigue, loss of appetite. Sputum may be mucoid. Smear may be positive.
Hemoptysis (coughing blood), severe weight loss/cachexia, chest pain, dyspnea, cavitary lesions on imaging. Extrapulmonary spread possible (CNS, spine, kidneys, lymph nodes). High mortality without treatment.
The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine is recommended at birth in high-burden countries. It is ~80% effective against severe TB in children (meningitis, miliary TB) but has variable efficacy against adult pulmonary TB.
IGRA (QuantiFERON) or tuberculin skin test for at-risk groups: immigrants from high-burden countries, healthcare workers, household contacts, immunocompromised individuals. Treating LTBI with isoniazid or rifapentine prevents progression.
Infectious TB patients require airborne isolation (negative-pressure room, N95 respirators for HCW). Masks, ventilation, and UV germicidal irradiation reduce nosocomial transmission.
TB treatment must be completed in full (typically 6 months for drug-susceptible TB). Stopping early leads to relapse and drug resistance. Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) improves completion rates.