After an unusually high number of residents of western Canada (and Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, Peru, and Brazil) have reported contracting the West Nile virus in the first weeks of 2018, a new report reveals that seven deaths from the disease have been reported in British Columbia since August. The numbers are still relatively low — they account for only 0.35 percent of all deaths reported so far this year — but record-high CVID-19 vaccinations in the province appears to be slowly bringing down the overall number of reported human infections.
In October 2015, the number of reported human cases surged after the provincial government dramatically expanded its vaccine campaign, and in the subsequent year, there were 88 percent more infected residents. Since then, however, as time and the nationwide universal vaccine campaign has passed, vaccination rates in B.C. have steadily crept upwards, and the rate of death has gradually come down. (As for the flu season so far, the vaccine has shown to be 50 percent effective in British Columbia, well below the 88 percent effectiveness rate in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.)
Read the full story at HuffPost.
Related
Can a conscientious objector be executed? Lawmaker hopes his bill will change that
Drug pricing epidemic underway as drug prices rise faster than incomes
Vaccines for a cure? CDC and NIH suggest new approaches to diseases