Oh Nova! As if we didn't have enough worries about our food supply, now a lethal (to salmon) virus that previously had only been seen in fish farms has been found in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest. This could be really bad, and not just for fans of bagels. Farms hit by the infectious salmon anemia virus in the past decades have seen 70 percent or more of their stock wiped out. In the wild, such a blight could be disastrous not just for the fish, but also for animals in their ecosystems (like bears) that live off them. What's worse, the disease wasn't even lethal until we started forcing salmon into fish farms. more ›

Consider your shiny new $104 MetroCard your express pass to... poor health. Yep, it's one more reason to hate the MTA and consider becoming a bike commuter. According to a new British study, public transit riders are six times more likely to suffer from acute respiratory infections. Only take the subway sometimes? Well occasional riders aren't safe either, in fact the study showed they are most at risk. Those who ride public transit everyday may build up an immunity to viruses, making the occasional straphanger the one to get sick more often. more ›

With Bed Bug Plague 2010 raging on, entomologists are facing mounting pressure to figure out where the bugs come from and how the hell to kill them. And at this point, they're looking even more resilient than Twinkies. In an attempt to see if the bugs may be able to transmit disease, South African researchers fed the insects blood containing the AIDS virus. The virus died. Time to panic? more ›

In July the Department of Health had already detected West Nile virus in city mosquitoes in three of the boroughs: Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn. Now they're reporting the first human case of the virus for the season has occurred in the Bronx; a 61-year-old man was hospitalized with meningitis (the 199th West Nile case in a New Yorker since 1999). more ›

With city health officials marking their calendars for a possible swine flu resurgence this fall, plans are now being laid to dole out the soon-to-be-ready flu vaccine. The NY Daily News reports today that children, pregnant women, and health care workers are top priority for the vaccine, the supply of which is expected to be "ample." Says Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley: "It's on track. We're told it may be available in mid-October." He explains that the first shots will go to kids, possibly even via "special immunization clinics in schools," since kids tend to be little walking disease vectors, spreading flu among themselves and bringing it back home to their families. Farley also adds that the city will need more than a million doses to avoid vaccine shortages, though his office has since clarified that number "wasn't based on data or calculations" and that "the city has no real idea of how much H1N1 vaccine is coming, or when." more ›

If swine flu makes a comeback this fall, city officials want to be prepared. They've been conducting a postmortem review of the spring's swine flu outbreak as they come up with plans for a possible "second wave," plans which the NY Times reports are focusing on preventing city ERs from being swamped. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley says the spring outbreak caught hospitals off-guard: "The thought that there would be large numbers of people in emergency rooms hadn’t been well thought through, so that’s one thing we need to address." So, in order to stop everyone with a stuffy nose from heading to the nearest ER, officials are considering a daily "public messaging system" that would give updates on vital swine flu information, not unlike the way winning lottery numbers are announced. Other swine flu countermeasures—like closing schools or even mandating staggered work hours—are also being readied in the event the virus comes back with a vengeance. At this point, Dr. Farley says it's basically a waiting game: "If you look at the history of new strains of influenza...almost all of them have had a second wave. It doesn’t necessarily occur within the next six months; it might occur a couple of years later. But almost all returned." more ›

An eleven-week-old boy in the Bronx has become the fifth swine flu fatality in NYC, according to his family. Steven Montanez's mother, 28-year-old Gissele Montañez, says her baby seemed fine when she left him in the care of her sister Thursday afternoon. But he was found dead about an hour after he fell asleep at 3 p.m. Montanez's sister tells the Daily News, "I went in to check up on him, I turned him around and he was purple. He was a completely healthy baby. The Health Department told us he died because of swine flu." (Officials at the Health Department have not yet officially confirmed that the H1N1 virus caused Steven's death.) His father, Louis Montanez, is devastated, telling the News, "I have nothing to live for anymore. You don't know how painful this is. We're going through such a bad situation right now." more ›

Yes, there's still swine flu/H1N1 infection going around—yesterday, State Health Commissioner Richard Daines reported that the state's total is now at 214: With three new cases in NYC and three new cases outside (all in Westchester), the breakdown is 167 cases in NYC and 47 in the rest of the state. If you're really curious about where the cases are by county, here's a PDF. The NYC Health Department emphasizes, "To date, nearly all confirmed and probable cases have been mild, and all of the affected people have recovered or are recovering. No deaths have been associated with the illness in New York City," and adds that everyone should practice good hygiene (cover your sneezes! wash your hands!). Globally, the WHO says "33 countries have officially reported 6497 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection," with a total of 65 deaths (60 in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica). more ›