Many times, the first we realize we're getting sick is when symptoms show up. New science research is making it possible for people to discover they're getting sick before symptoms appear, allowing for the possibility of faster treatment.

Alec Ford is the CEO of Karius, a life sciences company focused on advancing technology in the fight against infectious diseases. He says it's quite common for people battling cancer to die from a sickness instead of their cancer.

"Actually, more than half of all the people in the United States who die from cancer die from an infection," Ford said.

Ford says he knows from personal experience the threat of infectious disease on patients with cancer.

"To identify the cause of infection with someone in cancer. You might see anywhere from 15 to 17 different tests that are required, and it might take seven to 10 days of running those tests if ever they find the cause of your infection," Ford said.

He says with cancer, time is the enemy, but Karius has developed a rapid test that's been rolling out to hospitals across the country since 2017. Tim Blauwkamp is one of the innovators behind the technology.

"One of the challenges with the way that infectious diseases are diagnosed today is that almost all of the approaches still require a specimen that contains the actual pathogen itself," Blauwkamp said. "Things like bronchoalveolar lavage, where they wash your lungs or find needle aspirates, where they go in and try to find just a little piece of your lung tissue that has enough of the pathogen that they can identify it."

Using a blood sample, Tim Blauwkamp says the Karius test can detect more than a thousand different pathogens like pneumonia, fungal infections, or monkeypox.

"Any time you have an infection, there are fragments of the thing causing that infection that are shed into the bloodstream and we find those,” Ford said. "So, we take your blood, we look for those fragments of the things that are likely to be causing infection, and we tell your doctor why you're sick and what's causing your infection."

Mike Fahey, a monkeypox patient, says the early-detection Karius test would have made a huge difference for him.

"If I had caught it six days earlier, I think my entire prognosis would be different right now," Fahey said.

Fahey says his experience with monkeypox has been rare. He developed encephalitis which is inflammation of the brain. He's had numbness and pain in his hands ever since.

"It has been almost two full months," Fahey said. "To this day, I can't button my shirt, I can't tie my shoes. If I pick something up, I'm likely to drop it."

According to chief technology officer Sivan Bercovici, the Karius test would have detected monkeypox before he even had lesions and he would have been able to start treatment very early on.

"In a paper that we published several years ago, we identified the ability to detect bacterial infections several days before symptoms. In the case of fungal infection, now we can go several weeks before symptoms arise."

Bercovici says this technology is continuing to expand and he's hopeful they will reach a point where infectious disease is no longer a major threat to human health.

 

There are many illnesses circulating going into the holiday season, including RSV, COVID-19 and influenza.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 150 minutes a week of exercise, those recommendations go by the wayside when sick.

Dr. Mark Conroy specializes in sports and emergency medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He said he has seen an uptick in patients with respiratory viruses recently.

“Once you get sick, it is advisable to take a break and allow your body to recover,” Conroy said. “The severity of your symptoms is the deciding factor on whether you should exercise or not and how hard you exercise or not. For some individuals, going for a walk around the neighborhood is considered exercise, and if you have some congestion and a little bit of a sore throat but you don’t have a fever, it’s OK to continue that light exercise and get out and get some fresh air.”

Dr. Thomas Allison, the director of the Mayo Clinic’s Sports Cardiology Clinic, agreed that those with mild illnesses can do light exercises like walking without any serious consequences.

Allison is an experienced long-distance runner who qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trial in the marathon event. He said there is no evidence that going on a 10-mile run will cause an illness to go away.

“When you ask the question, ‘Should I be doing vigorous exercise when I have some sort of infection,’ the sensible answer is no,” he said. “The exercise is not going to reduce the duration or minimize the symptoms. You’re not going to recover faster because you went to the gym. And if it’s an infectious disease, you may be infecting other people at the gym.”

While athletes might be more concerned about staying fit for competition instead of recovering from an illness, the guidance remains the same.

“Illness is the body’s way of telling you, 'I need a chance to rest.' I encourage people to listen to their bodies. If they are feeling well enough without fever, without shortness of breath, without coughing, vomiting, those kinds of symptoms, if they’re feeling sick but they’re missing those symptoms, I encourage them to go out and do lighter activities,” Conroy said.

In the wake of COVID-19, Allison said he has seen an uptick in the number of athletes experiencing myocarditis. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is an inflation of the heart that can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood.

“If you have a fever, all of this increased blood flow could end up transferring the virus into your heart, then you have myocarditis,” he said. “There have been some classic cases of athletes developing myocarditis or inflation of the heart when they try to compete with a more severe illness.”

While there might be some apprehension about losing fitness, doctors say people who are already fit should not fear taking a few days off to rest.

“If you’re not someone who is active and out there when you are sick and you have a cold, that is not the time to get started on a workout routine," Conroy said.

Although exercise is generally not advised while ill, physical activity before being sick can help the outcomes.

“It is certainly important to exercise because exercise has been shown to improve your immune function and actually prevent infections because of the improved immune function,” Conroy said.

Allison said vaccinations and taking other precautions can also help people remain fit.

“The best way to stay fit is not to get sick,” he said.

Cases of norovirus are climbing in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the beginning of the year, state health departments reported 25 outbreaks. That's nearly double the amount of outbreaks reported at the beginning of 2022.

While higher than in 2022, the CDC says the latest numbers are still consistent with trends over the last decade. The agency notes that the peak season for norovirus is from December to March.

In late February 2022, norovirus exceeded trends that were seen over the last decade with more than 100 outbreaks reported.

The CDC says anyone can contract norovirus. It's spread by having direct contact with an infected person, consuming contaminated food or water or touching contaminated surfaces and putting your unwashed hands in your mouth.

Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain.

The CDC notes that people usually get better between one to three days.

Tick-borne disease has been on the rise in the U.S., with the number of cases growing 25% from 2011 to 2019. Among them is babesiosis, which has become significantly more prevalent in the Northeast in recent years.Seven states were already considered to have endemic transmission of babesiosis, with a consistent presence of the disease: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added three others to that list — Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — where case rates have grown the fastest and now match or surpass other states.Video above: New Hampshire is one of the states where tick-borne illness is on the riseIn those 10 states, reported cases of babesiosis have increased in all but two: Minnesota and Wisconsin, where case rates were about 30% lower in 2019 than they were in 2011. Overall, more than 16,000 cases of babesiosis have been reported to the CDC between 2011 and 2019, according to the report.Symptoms of the disease include fever, muscle and joint pain and headache. Illness can range from mild to severe, and it can be fatal in rare cases. Infections can also be asymptomatic, so patients may not always know to be tested.Video below: How to prevent tick bites and when to go see your doctor if you get oneThe CDC cautions that the increasing prevalence of babesiosis could pose risks to the blood supply. The disease is transmissible through blood transfusion, and infections acquired this way have shown to have significantly worse outcomes and higher risk of death than those acquired through a tick bite, the report says. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently recommends blood donation screening for babesiosis in 14 states and Washington, D.C., in and around areas where transmission is endemic."Persons spending time outdoors in states with endemic babesiosis should practice tick bite prevention, including wearing long pants, avoiding underbrush and long grass, and using tick repellents," according to the CDC.

BEIJING —

For a teenager whose chances of survival were slim when he was born, just making it to the starting line at the Olympics is a miraculous achievement in itself.

William Flaherty will ski for Puerto Rico on Sunday in the giant slalom at the Beijing Games. Although winning a medal is not really within his reach, his health and his studies are.

Flaherty was born in Cincinnati and moved to Puerto Rico when he was 6. He was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis when he was 3. Known as HLH, it's an often fatal disease where the immune system attacks the body's organs.

"We asked, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, and 1 is you're super healthy and 10, you're dead, where is William?'" said Ann Flaherty, William's mother. "And they gave him a 9.5. And that hit us in the gut.

"There were days we didn't know if he would live through the day," she said. "I'll never forget holding my child and not knowing if he was going to live."

The 17-year-old Flaherty has had more than 30 operations in his life, including a bone marrow transplant from his older brother Charles — himself a former Olympic skier. After the Beijing Games, Flaherty will have an operation to have part of his fibula removed and molded into a new jawbone.

"It's just about every two years something annoying comes up," said Flaherty, pointing out a scar on the right side of his face where he had a tumor removed two years ago.

Flaherty said even a cold can lay him up for two weeks, so he took extra precautions over the last two years amid the coronavirus pandemic. He spent more than a year in what he dubbed "super quarantine."

"It definitely affected me. Not so much my training, but, like, the social life I get from my training," said Flaherty, who trains in Colorado. "I was able to continue training, but I would have to wear an N95 mask the whole time and I couldn't ride the lift with anyone, I couldn't really talk to my friends in the start house.

"I would finish training, just come home and kind of hide in my bedroom, stay away from people as much as possible, which was kind of tough on me mentally … it was definitely pretty challenging mentally."

As a teenager, Flaherty has had to balance his training with medical appointments and going to school.

He has managed to maintain straight A's despite having to study on chairlifts and do final exams sometimes only days before racing. He had his English final three days before he left for Beijing.

Flaherty is one of two athletes representing Puerto Rico at the Beijing Games. Kellie Delka will compete in women's skeleton. The pair were flagbearers at the opening ceremony.

After the Olympics, Flaherty plans to take a year off from school to recover from surgery and then head to college to study aerospace engineering.

Hitting the slopes, though, gives him the respite from his health issues.

"Skiing is really helpful because it forces me to focus on one thing and once I'm on skis, I can only focus on skiing," he said. "It's a good way to take your mind off of everything else that's going on in our crazy lives.

"All my medical problems have definitely helped with my motivation. I really want to prove to all the other transplant survivors that they can do whatever they want in life. Just because you have medical complications in the past, it doesn't define who you are today, and you can move on with your life and keep going and achieve whatever you want."

In 2019, 18-year-old Emily Bhatnagar's father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"It was the worst. It was like reliving it every single night, like nightmares and panic attacks," Bhatnagar told CBS.

She got through that time by reading and decided to try and find a way to share the magic of books with others.

"I thought, 'It's hard enough for an adult to have cancer,' but, when you think about a kid having cancer, and it just broke my heart," she said.

So that's when Bhatnagar started "For Love and Buttercup," a book drive that began with messages on social media asking others to donate books so she could share them with sick children.

"I was expecting like two or three responses, and there were like hundreds and hundreds, and so many books by my door, and it was just really exciting," she told CBS.

The project helped her with multiple life challenges she said.

“I was struggling with an eating disorder and going through a really rough time," she told WJLA. “Eventually when I recovered, it was to cope with my dad's cancer."

Now she has thousands of books to give to pediatric patients. She says the experience of helping others has changed her life. Bhatnagar has distributed at least 9,000 new books to hospitals and schools, including the hospital where her father was treated for cancer.

She hopes to make the book drive a project that she carries with her for many years.

YADKIN COUNTY, N.C. —

Forty-five middle school students from North Carolina got sick Monday afternoon for an unknown reason.

Sixth graders at Starmount Middle School in Yadkin County began complaining about feeling nauseous with headaches. Some students had thrown up.

Only sixth graders were affected, neither seventh nor eighth-graders reported becoming sick, according to the Yadkin County Schools superintendent.

In response to the mysterious epidemic, the school did a shelter in place to keep unaffected students away from the others that were ill.

"I understand parents were nervous and upset. No messaging went out [from the school] because I can tell you, I saw first hand, administration and front office staff were focused on helping students. That's first priority," Yadkin County Schools Superintendent Todd Martin said.

First responders came to the school to help and check the students out.

Yadkin County Schools and the Yadkin County Health Department are investigating the strange illness that affected the 45 students.

Most of the affected students returned to school the following Tuesday.

There were rumors of a CO2 leak, but Martin said that was ruled out.

Officials are investigating possible food poisoning, but this has not been confirmed as the cause of the sickness.

Parents should hear from the school Monday evening.

This is a developing story, check back for more updates.

BALTIMORE, Md. — For nature’s flying, feathered friends, bird-friendly gardens, like the one in Patterson Park in Baltimore, can offer comfort and refuge. Lately, though, some wild birds are experiencing anything but that.

“They were showing symptoms, mostly having crusty eyes and neurological symptoms, too,” said David Curson, director of bird conservation for the Audubon Society’s mid-Atlantic chapter. “So, showing lethargy, twitchiness in their bodies, and disorientation.”

In pictures provided by the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, which has been treating some of the sick birds, the symptoms can be obvious. Most of the ill birds die within days.

“It's a mystery illness,” Curson said. “There are wildlife disease labs around the country working on trying to figure out what the illness is. They have been analyzing corpses of dead birds that have been sent to them.”

Reports of the mystery bird illness first emerged in May in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. However, it appears to be spreading, with wildlife officials now finding similar sick birds in West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida.

“So far, at least 1,000 birds have been affected,” Curson said. “And it's probably quite a few thousand when you consider the large geographic area.”

Scientists have ruled out West Nile virus and avian flu but otherwise remain stumped.

“The most common species that have been affected so far are common grackles, American robins, blue jays, and European starlings,” Curson said. “So, common birds that are likely to come to your feeder.”

That is why experts are now recommending everyone remove their bird feeders.

“Many people worry that the birds are depending on them. And what I would say is that it's midsummer and there was a huge amount of natural food around,” Curson said, “and these birds really don't need your human bird feeders at this time.”

By removing the bird feeders, it could prevent the potential spread to other places of the mystery disease among any birds that might congregate there.

“People who appreciate birds and love birds and like watching birds really need to be convincing the birds to socially distance right now,” said Tony Brusate, president of the Central Kentucky Audubon Society.

In addition to taking down bird feeders, experts also recommend:

• Cleaning bird feeders with a 10% bleach solution, to kill off any potential pathogen
• Don’t handle any dead birds or ones showing symptoms of the illness
• Wear rubber gloves if handling any sick birds
• Keep your pets away from birds showing symptoms
• Report sick birds to state fish and wildlife agencies

“I think the last year has told us that we need to think a lot more about diseases in general than we have been used to doing,” Curson said. “Disease pathogens evolve and mutations can create new versions of them. So, we don't want to be alarmist, but I think it's really important to take a precautionary approach.”

It’s an approach that could help ensure the sound of songbirds doesn’t fade away.

Indiana state officials are recommending people remove bird feeders statewide after reports of sick and dying songbirds, but it’s not just happening in the Hoosier State. Cases have been reported in Kentucky and Ohio, as well.

At this point, the cause of the illness in birds is unknown, but testing is being done to try and find answers.

“Birds are beautiful. People love to feed them, love to watch them,” Indiana’s state ornithologist, Allisyn Gillet, said.

Over the last few months, she said, birdwatchers have noticed something strange.

“Eye crustiness, eye discharge, swollen-ness in the eyes as well as neurological symptoms,” Gillet said.

She said an unknown illness is affecting and, in some cases, killing birds in several states. The symptoms have been most prevalent among blue jay, robin, starling, and northern cardinal species.

“We are looking into it right now,” Gillet said. “It’s been really hard to figure it out. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing what that needle is. We’re just trying to figure out based off those symptoms what to look for in particular.”

At least 15 counties in Indiana have reported the illness as well as several in Ohio, and Boone and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky.

“They’re being very thorough,” said Christine Casey, a wildlife veterinarian with the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, regarding testing being done on samples by local labs.

She said all possibilities are being looked into, including a potential link to cicadas.

“There is a fungus that is associated with the cicadas and there has been some hypothesis that it’s associated with this mortality,” Casey said. “There’s been weirder things that have happened.”

At this point, officials are recommending that people remove bird feeders.

“Because this is an unknown disease issue, we want to make sure it’s not something that’s contagious and being spread through bird feeders,” Carey said. “We’re recommending people take them down and clean them with a 10% bleach solution.”

Officials say if you have to remove a dead bird, make sure to wear gloves and place those gloves and the bird in a sealable plastic bag.

Several birds are getting sick and dying in Kentucky, and at this point, it's unclear why.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources said in a Facebook post that it has received multiple reports of birds with similar symptoms — eye swelling, crusty discharge and neurological signs. They are not sure what is causing the illness.

The sick birds in Kentucky have specifically been reported in Boone and Kenton counties here in Northern Kentucky, as well as Jefferson County.

Those counties are being advised to stop feeding birds/remove bird feeders for the time being.

Wildlife officials are asking everyone across the state to do the following:

• Bird feeders and baths should be cleaned immediately with a 10% bleach solution, then weekly thereafter
• People should avoid handling birds (wear disposable gloves if handling is necessary)
• Keep pets away from sick or dead birds as a standard precaution.

Officials said other states have had similar reports. So far, the type of birds that have been affected are Blue Jays, Common Grackles and European starlings, but other species may be affected as well.

Click here to report a dead or sick bird.

CHICAGO — The conversation over whether children unvaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to wear face masks is hotly debated in medical circles.

But more than a year of masking, hand-washing, and social distancing has made one thing clearer: children are getting sick less often. Some are now asking whether these protocols should be used to fend off other illnesses, well beyond the pandemic.

For the last 14 months, preschoolers at Laurance Armour Day School in Chicago have been masking up.

“Hand hygiene and masking has been crucial for us from the beginning,” said the school's program director Maria Walker. “Disinfecting, making sure everything's clean. High visible areas are cleaned every half an hour.”

Following strict protocols here has kept the virus at bay.

“Social distancing as much as you can with children and masking is one of the biggest ones and proper handwashing,” said Walker.

This day care and school for the children of healthcare workers and frontline medical staff never closed. It was granted emergency licensing to stay open, even when classrooms around the country were shut down.

“Everybody at first was fearful the children, 2 years and up, can't wear a mask,” said Walker. “Our children adjusted so well. We did a couple of activities with masks, and we had no problems.”

More than a year later, something remarkable has happened.

“I mean, pinkeye--the simplest thing as pinkeye--we have not seen any cases here the last 14 months,” she said.

Illnesses that frequently sweep through daycares and schools--like hand, foot and mouth disease, strep throat and influenza--have been nearly wiped out here.

“It may be more beneficial just to reduce the number of viruses that are around altogether so that you have less illness. And that, again, will protect the children for multiple reasons, including against COVID, flu and other things that put children in a hospital,” said Dr. Latania Logan, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

The CDC reported more than 65,000 cases of influenza nationwide during the flu season the year before the COVID-19 outbreak (2019-2020), compared to just over 1,000 in the flu season during the pandemic (2020-2021).

Over the last four years, on average, 175 influenza-related pediatric deaths were reported during flu season. During the pandemic, there was just one.

“We have known for a long time actually that wearing masks during those times prevents the transmission of these viruses in the health care setting,” said Logan. “What we're seeing here is the same thing in the community.”

The CDC has relaxed mask-wearing guidelines for kids, but because there is no COVID-19 vaccine authorized for children younger than 12, the American Academy of Pediatrics says unvaccinated children still need to wear masks in certain settings.

For now, masks at the Laurance Armour Day School will continue to be part of the protocol, which could mean fewer germs on the loose for the time being.

“They're given the protocols,” said Walker. “And right now, it's mask-wearing, and that's keeping everyone safe.”