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Excerpt from the book Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sander:

“Laboratory cultures of blood and stool could probably provide an accurate identification, but this would take days. And this patient was too sick to wait. <…> Dr. Bia turned to his computer and consulted his own expert – GIDEON. <…> Within ten minutes he had a plan. “I used GIDEON to be certain I didn’t miss anything,” he told me later. “It confirmed my hunch about the best way to proceed.”

In March 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of a few cases of polio circulating in Jerusalem, Israel. As of April 15th, 2022, one unvaccinated four-year-old child had symptoms of polio, but the rest of the six were asymptomatic. The polio cases detected in Israel are circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 3. 

To make sense of the latest polio news for us, an infectious disease expert, Dr. Stephen Berger (MD), discusses polio cases, vaccines, and more on a podcast with Robert Herriman of Outbreak News. 

“Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases are accelerating at an unprecedented rate in the current era of globalization, with substantial impacts on the global economy, public health, and sustainability… To address this knowledge gap, we use a global database of 10,473 zoonosis events since the year 1348 (compiled with the assistance of GIDEON)…”

“The database contents are extensive: some epidemiological data goes back to 1348, and around 2,000 pathogens, 360 diseases, and 30,000 drugs and vaccines are included. The sources for the information are clearly indicated, including abstracts for academic articles <…> Epidemiologists, public health professionals, and researchers in pharmacology, infectious diseases, and molecular sciences will find this database invaluable, and students/faculty in these areas likely will too.”

“GIDEON, one of the world’s leading databases on infectious diseases, released their robust 2022 COVID-19 e-book, the most comprehensive data on the disease to date. GIDEON subscribers can also access updated 2022 versions of over 424 ebooks on other infectious diseases….”

“Every war has two types of battles, one against the enemy and the other against infection. Combat greatly increases the risk for the spread of infectious diseases. Pneumonia, dysentery, and scores of other contagions can severely magnify the devastating losses of war,” says Uri Blackman, CEO and co-founder of GIDEON Informatics. “To help the brave medics of Ukraine in their fight, GIDEON has released a comprehensive ebook of infectious diseases – focused on Ukraine.”….”

“This new addition was a popular request by veterinary colleges around the world. Prion diseases affect the brains of animals and humans and are generally fatal. There are no known drugs for these conditions and no vaccines….”

“GIDEON Informatics partnered with Jisc, the UK’s digital body for education and research, for an exciting one-year pilot agreement. Jisc members get an exclusive discount to access the popular GIDEON comprehensive infectious diseases database as part of the subscription offer….”

Whooping cough, or pertussis, was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood mortality in the United States in the last century.

Join Outbreak News Today and our team member Chandana, in this piece about whooping cough.

“In the past two years, we have observed a heightened interest in infectious diseases, especially from researchers focusing on Southeast Asia. Partnering with Flysheet Med-Informatics is an important step towards delivering quality data on infectious diseases to Taiwan and the Greater China healthcare systems.”

Daniel Su, Product Manager at FlySheet, stated, “This partnership brings together GIDEON Informatics’ global leadership in infectious diseases with FlySheet’s extensive sales network to enable mass distribution of GIDEON’s valuable data and platform to the local healthcare community.”

“With COVID-19 dominating the headlines and the medical literature, healthcare professionals have little time to keep up with the rapidly evolving global Infectious Disease landscape beyond this one subject. With health authorities reporting new outbreaks of Dengue, Cholera, Plague, and Ebola, it is more important than ever to remain alert to emerging threats to global health.

Today, GIDEON (Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Online Network) announces its 2021 ebook series, including a third edition of ‘COVID-19, MERS and SARS: Global Status‘.”

“We want researchers to focus on what they do best – using epidemiology to help the world understand and prepare for infectious disease outbreaks,” says Uri Blackman, CEO at GIDEON Informatics. “In just the past three years, almost 200 scientific studies that used GIDEON data were published. Now with GIDEON R, many more researchers can access valuable infectious disease data with minimal coding.”

Researchers who already tried the beta version of the GIDEON R package found it extremely efficient.