Infectious Disease

H3N2-dominant influenza seasons tend to have higher overall activity and more severe disease outcomes than seasons dominated by other influenza subtypes.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports that mpox clade I is more likely to cause severe illness and death than clade II, with reported fatality rates for clade I ranging from 1% to 10% and for clade II ranging from less than 1% to 4%.

Measles is highly contagious: on average, an infected person can infect as many as 18 other unvaccinated people.

Measles infectious particles can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left a room.

Transmission of avian influenza viruses between humans is extremely rare and human-to-human transmission has not been documented in the United States.

Domestic poultry and wild birds are common sources of human exposure to avian influenza viruses.

Coinfection of a person with seasonal influenza and an avian influenza virus can enable genetic reassortment that could produce an avian-derived influenza virus with increased ability to transmit between people.

Seasonal influenza vaccines do not prevent infection by avian influenza viruses because seasonal vaccines target different influenza virus strains.

Infant botulism is caused by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that produces a toxin in the large intestine.

Clostridium botulinum is spread through hardy spores present in the environment, and infection can cause serious illness including paralysis.