Los Angeles, Calif. (PRWEB) May 5, 2009 — The first recorded outbreak of influenza occurred in 1580, according to GIDEON (www.gideononline.com), the online infectious disease database used by medical professionals worldwide. As of 2003, an additional 31 pandemics had been documented, including 21 million deaths estimated from an H1N1 pandemic during 1918 to 1919. From 1958 to 2005, 50 cases of swine influenza virus infection (mostly H1N1) were reported in humans (http://gideononline.com/swineflu).

GIDEON reports that up until 2006, a total of 46 cases of human infection by swine influenza (more…)

GIDEON is providing ongoing coverage of the latest outbreak of Swine Influenza (H1N1) in the Worldwide note for Influenza, and relevant affected countries.
If you’re logged in, here’s a direct link.

Update: Read about the historical cases of H1N1 Swine Influenza

Today, in the Sacramento Bee, an article about tainted pistachios quoted GIDEON and added a graph:

Reported cases of salmonella in the United States rose in the late 1980s and early 1990s but have gone down since, according to Gideon Informatics Inc., a firm that tracks infectious disease trends. Lately salmonella cases have been holding steady at around 15 to 16 per 100,000 Americans annually, the company’s data shows.

Outbreaks of infectious diseases from nuts are rare. GIDEON, a database which follows the status of all infectious diseases in all countries, has recorded sixteen such episodes. GIDEON currently contains details concerning 777 outbreaks of salmonellosis – of which nuts were implicated in only 1.2%.

Food-related outbreaks associated with nuts, in chronological order:

• 1986 – An outbreak (9 cases, 2 fatal) of botulism in Taiwan was caused by contaminated commercially preserved peanuts.
• 1991 – An outbreak (4 cases) of cholera in Maryland was associated with commercial frozen fresh coconut milk imported from Thailand.
• 1992 – An outbreak of shigellosis in Thailand was associated with consumption of a coconut milk dessert.
• (more…)

Rickettsial spotted fever was first reported in Brazil in 1920.

The disease is known locally as ‘Brazilian spotted fever’ and ‘Febre maculosa brasileira’

Cases are reported in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Goias, Rio Grande do Sul and Espirito Santo.

Seroprevalence surveys:
10.6% of healthy students and 4.11% of dogs in the endemic areas of Minas Gerais (1998)
77.3% of horses and 31.3% of dogs in Pedreira Municipality, Sao Paulo State (2001)
1.6% of healthy persons in Minas Gerais (2005 publication)
(more…)

Quoted in ProMED:

A recent outbreak in West Yorkshire belies the fact that rates of giardiasis in the United Kingdom have been for decreasing several years. In this graph, I’ve added the United States data for comparison.