epidemic

It’s an epidemic of blue spots

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On typical Ticketmaster concert ticketing maps, sold seats in the stands are displayed in gray. Those available, in blue. When there are too many blue dots, artists start making excuses: medical problems, family commitments, unfinished albums. But in 2026, those excuses have already been heard too many times. So much so that the press has already given a name to this epidemic. Blue dot fever. “Blue dot fever” is the term that has circulated on networks and specialized media to describe an unusual wave of tour cancellations in recent months. Literally: on Ticketmaster concert seating maps, where there should be gray what you see is blue like the blue sea. And this debacle has had a previous symptom: at least ten top-level artists have canceled or postponed dates so far this year, with Live Nation/Ticketmaster productions taking up much of the list. Who canceled? The names are well known in the United States: Post Malone and Jelly Roll delayed a third of their joint stadium tour. Meghan Trainor canceled her entire Get In Girl Tour in the country, citing a desire to spend more time with her family after having her third child. Zayn did the same with his dates in North American venues, although he kept those in the United Kingdom (we discuss the importance of that detail below), citing unspecified health reasons. Those who do not hide. There are more honest ones, and we can pull on that thread. The Pussycat Dolls They canceled 32 of their 33 dates in North America “after making an honest analysis” of the results of his tour. They didn’t talk about sales, but it’s not necessary either. Rapper Kid Cudi was the only one who spoke bluntly: upon canceling his date in Birmingham, Alabama, he posted on Instagram: “I wanted to give you a special experience, but ticket sales haven’t been strong enough.” The reasons. The average price of a concert ticket in the United States has passed from 82 dollars in 2020 to 144 dollars in 2026. And to that we must add transportation, parking, food and drink within the venue and, in many cases, accommodation. A Post Malone fan explained why didn’t you go see him: “The prices are crazy. I love it, but I’m not going to pay $400 to see it from afar.” Regular tickets for the cheapest leg of his stadium tour cost between $231 and $346. More expensive if it is better. In fact, not all tickets have increased in price in the same proportion. As detectedthe prices of the cheapest tickets have remained relatively stable, while those of the premium zones have skyrocketed. That partly explains why the Pussycat Dolls’ Ticketmaster website showed almost 80% of their seats unsold even after cutting prices to $30. Behind the climbs. Blaming high prices is staying on the surface. In reality, the market has become saturated. The money that many fans kept during confinement was spent on the 2022 and 2023 concerts, and there was still enough left over for the Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and the meeting of Oasis. In 2026, the pockets are empty. In that same article, an analyst states that “there is a kind of return to reality, and that clashes with the inflation and the increase in fuel prices that we see in the general economy.” Of course, the price of gasoline, skyrocketed by the conflict in Iraq, has made the logistics of the tours more expensive… and depleted the budget of the attendees. Added to this is the competence of 2026 Soccer World Cupwhich takes place in North America and will absorb a significant portion of leisure spending during the summer. Too many artists They have overestimated the demand after seeing the results of previous megatours. Hold on Europe. Although it is a more or less globalized crisis and has reached artists from countries like Mexico, where Los Ángeles Azules, Ximena Sariñana or Natalia Lacunza have canceled or postponed dates, the truth is that we are talking almost exclusively about America. In Europe the concert bubble keeps growingperhaps because the stadium tour model is more intrinsically North American, and in Europe we are not as dependent on the exclusivity of that style. It’s Live Nation. The paradox: Live Nation, the company that dominates ticket sales in the United States (about 80% of the market), published results of first quarter of 2026 with revenue 12% higher than the previous year and advance ticket sales 22% higher. So, is Blue Dot Fever a mirage? Rather it is a warning, as are also dynamic prices that doubled the cost of Bad Bunny’s tickets in Spain in minutes, internal messages from Live Nation managers describing their own clients as “idiots” from those who are “stealing with full hands” or the debate about whether macro concerts are devouring to the rest of the music market. Blue Dot Fever is the warning that the climb cannot be infinite, and with all the cards in one hand, disaster may be just around the corner. No matter how good the quarterly financial results look. In Xataka | Gustavo Cerati died in 2014. That has not prevented him from appearing at the last Soda Stereo concert

2,500 years ago Athens suffered an epidemic that marked the end of its golden age. Science is determined to know what caused it

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“Words are insufficient when trying to describe this disease. As for his suffering, it seemed almost beyond what is humanly bearable.” Although the news about the hantavirus They make it sound even scarier, that commentIn reality, it is more than 2,000 years old. The chronicler Thucydides wrote it in his ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ to give an idea of ​​the terrible plague that devastated Athens around 430 BC, an ailment that he himself suffered and took the lives of some 75,000 people. For centuries that epidemic has been remembered as the ‘plague of Athens’although we don’t actually know exactly what caused it. Now a group of Greek researchers have shed some more light on that dark episode. Epidemic detectives. In a hyperconnected world, in which people are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers in a few hours and it comes with blocking a remote strait of the Middle East to put the world economy in check, the specter of pandemics seems more present, but the truth is that humanity takes centuries dealing with him. Before the COVID pandemic, we had, for example, the 1918 flu or the disastrous Black Deathwhich devastated Europe between 1346 and 1353 and (by some estimates) reached 60% case fatality rates in some regions. Long before any of them, in the times of Classical Greece, another equally devastating epidemic was recorded: the plague of Athens. Thanks to authors like Thucydideswho in addition to being a chronicler suffered it himself, today we can learn in detail how that outbreak developed and experienced, which left tens of thousands of dead. The episode was important not only because of its death toll: between 75,000 and 100,000 in the four years that elapsed from 430 to 426 BC One of the deceased was Periclesa historical leader of Athens. In fact, experts usually agree that the plague precipitated the decline of the Athenian Golden Age and its death toll facilitated its final defeat in the war against Sparta. The great unknown. Despite this historical value, the Athenian plague remains shrouded in unknowns. We know when it developed, we know where it developed and there is even evidence suggesting that the initial outbreak occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, spread to Egypt and Libya and then passed to Athens via Piraeus. What is not clear is what exactly caused the plague and why it was so disastrous. And Thucydides was in charge of describing all its symptoms. Now a team from the University of Athens (NKUA) have wanted to clear up this mystery by analyzing the symptoms described by the chronicler and comparing it with that of known ailments. The result they have published it in the magazine AMHA. A pulse on history. If it is difficult to track a viral outbreak in 2026, the task becomes daunting when we are talking about one of the first known epidemics in human history. To face such a challenge, Dr. Dimosthenis Papadimitrakis and his colleagues had an idea: they looked at the symptoms described by Thucydides and other sources, They selected 17 diseases known that more or less fit that symptomatology and created a “metric system” with different scores to determine which of them best fit the epidemic that hit Athens 2,400 years ago. “The most terrible thing, despair”. Whether due to his zeal as a chronicler or because he himself suffered from the disease, Thucydides detailed the symptoms suffered by those who contracted the Athenian plague: migraines, high fever, redness and inflammation of the eyes, bad breath, sneezing, cough and profound gastrointestinal discomfort, such as nausea, vomiting, spasms and painful diarrhea. Over time, rashes, pustules and ulcers appeared on the patient’s skin, especially in the abdomen area. Those who could not stand the disease died after seven or nine days, after experiencing intense burning that led them to take off their clothes or even immerse themselves in cold water. “Gangrene of the extremities and eyes was common among both survivors and victims,” detail experts, who remember that it was not unusual for patients who survived the plague to do so with amnesia. “The most terrible thing was the despair into which people fell when they realized that they had contracted the plague. They immediately adopted an attitude of absolute hopelessness and, by giving in in this way, they lost their capacity for resistance,” Thucydides reflects. “Words are insufficient when trying to give a general image of the illness.” Ruling out candidates. With that starting point, Papadimitrakis and his colleagues developed a list of diseases that the Athenians of 2,400 years ago could have contracted and that coincided to a greater or lesser extent with the symptoms described by Thucydides. They came up with 17 potential ‘candidates’, including cholera, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, Ebola, malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague, ergotism or Lassa fever. Then with that chart on the table, two questions were asked: Which of those diseases caused rashes and gangrene? How many are transmitted between humans? And what historical evidence is there for each of these ailments? Thanks to this analysis they reached a series of conclusions, although the team warns that they are only hypotheses based on probability, not firm and unquestionable truths. “The plague of Athens presents difficulties in identifying the causal agent due to several factors. The main source of information is the accounts of Thucydides, but his lack of medical knowledge and the lapse of up to 20 years between the events and their documentation can lead to erroneous interpretations,” the authors explain. “Furthermore, the inability to isolate or culture the responsible microorganism poses a major obstacle. Even if preserved bodies of plague victims were discovered, the microbes would have decomposed over time.” And what is the conclusion? That of the diseases analyzed, the one with the most votes is typhoid fever. “It appears to meet most of the criteria, so it is considered the most likely agent,” summary the researchers. Furthermore, in a necropolis from the time of the epidemic, remains of the bacteria that trigger this disease … Read more

the fatty liver epidemic that escapes routine analysis and that science seeks to stop

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For decades we have relied on annual tests to know if our liver was healthy, since there are several values ​​that tell us if there is any damage that we are not ‘feeling’. The problem is that science advances, and the last major liver study has put on the table that the liver can become ill without symptoms for years, and the main culprit is not alcohol consumption or hepatitis viruses, but a major metabolic disorder. A silent epidemic. Right now, fatty liver disease associated with metabolic dysfunction, known as MASLDhas become one of the main threats to public health globally. And it is no wonder, since its danger lies in its invisibility, since the initial phase and progression towards liver fibrosis can be completely asymptomatic. Although it may seem silly, fibrosis must be taken seriously. In this case, fibrosis occurs when the liver suffers injuries that it cannot repair properly and, instead of generating new tissue, it ends up with different scars that alter its functioning. But it is not that the liver functions at a lower percentage than normal, but rather that this fibrosis can progress to cirrhosis or liver cancer associated with high mortality. The data. Science suggests that we are not facing an isolated problem that should be ignored, since a macro study published this year in Lacent With a total of 7,764 studied, it indicates that the prevalence of this disease is 38.9%. Something that, adjusted to the world population, leaves us with a fibrosis rate of 2.4% globally. In the context of Spain and Europe, the figures are no less alarming. During the recent congress of the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH) in 2026, was alerted that the prevalence of significant fibrosis in our country is around 3.6%. The most worrying thing is that these are people who live their normal lives, without pain or apparent symptoms, while the liver suffers from these scars. A lethal cocktail. Although you may think that alcohol is the only enemy of the liver, the reality is that the lifestyle we have influences it much more than we thought. In this case, type 2 obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemia are the main risk factors for this disease. The problem is that alcohol consumption in people who have obesity or diabetes causes the damage not only to add up, but multiplymaking the progression towards fibrosis, cirrhosis or even liver cancer more rapid. Medical checkups. Traditionally, liver health has been assessed by transaminase levels in a simple blood test. But the scientific literature suggests that normal blood tests should not make us breathe easy, since the vast majority of cases of fibrosis are not seen in a routine analysis. This means that a patient with severe fibrosis has perfect transaminases in some cases. What can be done. With all this data, changes must be made in the strategy and some voices point to the need to implement population screening programs directly in primary care centers. To this end, it is proposed to monitor those patients with more risk factors using two very simple tools: The index IBF-4: a simple mathematical formula that uses the patient’s age and three basic parameters from a blood test to identify the risk of fibrosis. Perform an elastography: Ultrasound techniques are here to stay because of how easy they are to do and also because they are accessible, since you can have an ultrasound machine almost in your pocket. All this means that the strategy of an ultrasound per consultation can be a very appropriate strategy. What is clear is that you cannot sit around waiting for the liver to hurt or fail, which is why, given this increase in cases, early diagnostic tools must be implemented to be able to better control a disease that can have devastating consequences. Images |julos stefamerpik In Xataka | Fatty liver advances silently, but science has found unexpected allies: coffee and green tea

the strange medieval epidemic that paralyzed Europe for two centuries

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At some point in the late 14th century, Charles VI of France stopped moving. Not because of paralysis or fear of his enemies, but because he was convinced that his body was made of glass, and that any touch could shatter it. It was not an isolated case. Those affected by this collective delusion believed that all or part of their body was made of glass. The phenomenon has its own name in the history of psychiatry: the crystal delirium. And his story says disturbing things about how the sick mind always speaks the language of its time. Charles VI, nicknamed El Loco for whatever he may be Charles VI inherited the French throne in 1380, aged eleven. When he turned twenty, he removed his corrupt uncles from power and restored stability to the kingdom’s finances. The people called him le Bien-Aiméthe Beloved. Twelve years later, his definitive nickname would be different: le Fou, the Fool. In August 1392, during a military campaign towards Brittany, the king (23 years old at the time) was riding through the forest of Le Mans when a page dropped a spear. The metallic roar was enough to trigger a violent crisis: Carlos attacked his own knights and killed four before being subdued. It was the first of dozens of episodes that would accompany him until his death in 1422. Pope Pius II wrote that there were times when Carlos believed he was made of glassand that was why he tried to protect himself in multiple ways to avoid breaking, going so far as to have iron rods sewn into his clothes. Something else happened shortly after the onset of the crystalline delirium. In January 1393, the king and several nobles attended a party disguised as “wild men,” wearing linen suits covered in pitch and branches. An errant spark ignited a costume and the fire spread among the men. Only the king and another companion escaped alive, in an event that inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write his macabre story ‘Hop-Frog’. The event went down in history as the Bal des Ardentsthe Dance of the Burning Men. Whether or not that trauma accelerated his mental deterioration is something that historians still debate. When his crises took hold of him, Carlos became a different man: He could sit still for hours and, if he moved, he did so with extreme caution. This had a tremendous political cost: the monarch instability It weakened the French court and allowed rival factions to vie for power, exacerbating the challenges France faced in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War with England. In 1415 his troops were crushed at Agincourt, and in 1420 he signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which he disinherited his own son. The crystal generation Charles VI was, according to historian Gill Speak probably the first documented case of someone believing their entire body was made of glass. But he was far from the only one. The first medical text that records delirium as a recognizable condition dates from 1561, work of the Dutch doctor Levinus Lemnius. The phenomenon belonged to a broader category called “scholar’s melancholy”, an ailment that mainly affected men of letters and nobles from the 15th to 17th centuries. The documented cases are as extravagant as they are revealing. A man was convinced that his buttocks were made of glass and that sitting down would make them burst, so he avoided leaving the house in case a glazier tried to melt it to turn it into a window. Another traveled to Murano, the Italian island famous for its glass, with the intention of throwing himself into a furnace and being transformed into a glass. Engraving of ‘The Stained Glass Licensed’ A third nobleman (always unemployed people, the core issue of the topic) believed he was a glass vessel and spent the day lying on a bed of straw. His doctor ordered the bed to be set on fire with the door closed: when the nobleman pounded on the door asking for help, the doctor asked why it had not shattered with so much fuss. The cure was brutal but, apparently, effective. Transparent glass was not, in the 15th century, an everyday occurrence. It was in that century when the Venetian glassmaker Angelo Barovier invented the cristalloa clear, colorless glass that was extraordinarily rare and was seen by many as something almost magical. Before this innovation, neuroses were different: men who believed they were made of clay and later, in the 19th century, people who believed they were made of cement. The content of delusions reflects the culture of each moment: glass was a new material and therefore became the object of delusions. Glass, specifically, offered transparency: being made of glass meant being precious and fragile, a form of grandeur and isolation at the same time. Miguel de Cervantes published ‘El licensed Vidriera’, one of his ‘Exemplary Novels’, in 1613. The protagonist, Tomás Rodaja, is a brilliant and poor student who, after ingesting a love potion, is convinced that his body is made of glass due to the delicacy and subtlety of the material, with an admirable and delirious internal logic. It is a clear sign that delirium has its corresponding literature at the time: Robert Burton cataloged the phenomenon in ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’ (1621) as a symptom of melancholy, and Descartes, in his ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ (1641), used the “glass man” as an example of madness to distinguish his own philosophical doubts from the delusions of a sick brain. In Xataka | The Middle Ages have a reputation for being a dark period. Until you discover the names they had for their pets

There is no “epidemic” of egomaniacs but of a misuse of psychology

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Decades ago, the term narcissism rarely came out of a clinical manual or a psychiatric consultation. Today, you only have to open TikTok to find an army of self-proclaimed experts giving advice on how to identify a narcissist based on cues as vague as a “dead stare” while applying makeup, or warning about “passive aggressiveness.” We live in the age of couch diagnosis. “Lately ‘being narcissistic’ is one of the most used words on social networks and among conversations among friends,” Sandro Espinosa confirms us in an interview for Xatakapsychologist specialized in therapy focused on emotion and trauma. However, what we use today as a trendy insult to describe a “bad person” or a “selfish ex-boyfriend” is actually far from its original clinical meaning. According to Espinosa, in classical psychotherapy, the word narcissism does not refer to anything negative. per se. “It is understood as the value we assign to our own image”, a kind of self-concept that we develop throughout life. Virgil Zeigler-Hill, professor cited by New York Timesagrees: the term has become a “general label for a wide range of unpleasant or frustrating behaviors,” losing its scientific nuance. The era of the psychological “meme” The leap from the clinic to pop culture has come at a price. For Sandro Espinosa, the popularization of these terms has caused them to be distorted until they lose their psychological connotation, becoming “a meme or a moral label.” The phenomenon is tempting. As the psychologist explains, we use the label “narcissistic” to define “someone who has hurt me and did not know how to love me.” This offers immediate relief to the alleged victim. Sara Pallarés, psychologist at the Enric Corbera Institute cited by The Vanguardwarns that “it seems to be fashionable” to put this type of labels. “Everyone has a narcissistic partner, a narcissistic father… They all use it to justify their current traumas,” says Pallarés, warning that this position often hides a lack of courage to resolve one’s own issues. The danger of this mass self-diagnosis is twofold. On the one hand, Espinosa warns about “false positives”: believing that someone has a disorder based on a 60-second video. On the other hand, statistical reality is stubborn: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is rare. According to data collected by Mayo Clinic, It is estimated to affect only 1% to 2% of the adult population. However, on social media, it seems like we are surrounded. So why are we so obsessed with labeling the other as a sick monster? The answer, according to experts, has more to do with us than with them. “Seeing the world in black and white will always offer us relief and a feeling of control,” explains Sandro Espinosa. By labeling the other as a narcissist, we turn a complex relationship into “a simple story of a villain and a victim.” This simplification has a very powerful psychological function: the total moral innocence. Espinosa details that, if the other is “sick” or a “monster”, then “I don’t have to review my relational dynamics.” It cleanses me of guilt and turns the other into an aggressor, allowing me to “continue in the world without the need to engage in healthy self-criticism.” Psychologist Sara Pallarés poses an uncomfortable question to those who take refuge in this label: “Hey, what do you have to do with this? What responsibility do you have?” According to Pallarés, by blaming exclusively the narcissistic profile, the person loses the opportunity to heal and understand why they ended up in that situation. Furthermore, there is a phenomenon of mass identification. Espinosa alludes to Forer effect (the same principle that makes us believe in horoscopes): Any vague, emotionally charged description of being a “victim of a narcissist” appeals to us because it offers us a narrative in which we are morally innocent and deserving of care. Being an “asshole” is not the same as having a disorder. It is crucial to distinguish between a bad character and a pathology. Sandro Espinosa offers a key to differentiate them: intensity, frequency and duration. “We can all sometimes be selfish, cruel, immature and we don’t have a disorder,” he clarifies. The psychologist uses a visual metaphor to describe the true structure of narcissistic disorder: imagine a glass sculpture. From the outside, the image is seen as grandiloquent, arrogant and charismatic. But “within that figure, at the core of it, we would see a child who is covering his eyes or ears with his hands, who is ashamed, who feels humiliated.” Grandiosity is just a compensatory mask to cover up unbearable pain. In the report of New York Times They break down that not all narcissists They are the same. There are subtypes such as grandiose narcissist (safe, status seeking), the vulnerable narcissist (hypersensitive, anxious, defensive) and antagonist (competitive and hostile). However, a key point is empathy. While in networks it is said that they lack it, mention is made of the concept of “Splenda-type empathy”: an artificial or instrumental empathy. Espinosa agrees and clarifies that, in consultation, it must be distinguished whether the person really feels the pain of the other or if they use empathy instrumentally, “at the service of their need to be desired.” Furthermore, in Thought Catalog mention specific tactics such as “jealousy induction”, where these profiles deliberately provoke jealousy to gain power and control over the partner. Espinosa adds that, in fact, people with this disorder tend to be “very envious” and that this envy is born from a “defensive rage.” Far from demonization, experts advocate humanizing the spectrum. “Narcissism is always a dimension. We all have narcissistic traits,” Espinosa recalls. We all sometimes need to be looked at and recognized. Even those with the diagnosis suffer. In a report by Eldiario.es They collect testimonies from people diagnosed who describe the illness as living in an illusory world to protect oneself from feeling “the worst.” The stigma is such that many hide their diagnosis for fear of being seen as abusers, when they are often vulnerable … Read more

In 1962, a remote village in Tanzania suffered an epidemic of laughter. To this day we still have not been able to cure it.

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If you are one of those who are easily infected by other people’s laughter, you probably would not have survived what happened to a town of Tanganyika on January 30, 1962. This is what two doctors say who compiled the facts: at a girls’ missionary school in the town of Kashasha, on the coast of what we currently know as Lake Victoria (Tanzania), three students began to joke. His laugh mutated from normal to nervous, ceasing to be both a manifestation of humor and something more disturbing. The girls couldn’t stop laughing hysterically. Laughter, that traditional escape valve, was now a terrifying reaction. Without knowing very well how, the rest of the school began to be infected with this effect, and within a few hours 95 of the 159 attendees at school were also laughing for hours, 16 hours in a row in the most serious cases. These were the facts that caught the attention of the doctors: on the one hand, the Kashasha school also operated as a residence. The girls slept in communal rooms, dividing themselves into rooms with girls of various ages. Those affected were not located in specific points of the residence, there were no rooms where everyone suffered from hysteria at the same time, but instead They were distributed throughout the center. None of the two Europeans and three Africans who worked as teachers suffered any uncontrollable panic attacks. Trying to put a stop to the phenomenon, the residence and school were closed for a month. The girls went home, but instead of stopping it, they extended it much further: after ten days, cases of uncontrollable laughter were observed 80 kilometers from the school. Five months later the final count in this area of ​​10,000 people was 217 people treated and around 1,000 affected. Boys and girls suffered from it indiscriminately, children but also some young people, and mostly illiterate kids with modest finances. Each patient’s attacks lasted an average of four to eight hours, with a known case of 16 consecutive daysand after the attack subsided they usually suffered one or two more. No one had more than four attacks. Although we imagine these abductions as something comical, comedy was the last of the predominant feelings during those episodes: to the laughter was added crying, respiratory problems, a general restlessness of the subject, manifestation of violence towards others and, in some specific cases, paranoia, with girls commenting that there were demonic subjects chasing them. Would the corn flour have been contaminated? Maybe a new virus? Maybe a supernatural curse? The blood samples that were sent to the laboratories came back with a NAD, “Nothing Abnormal Detected”. There are even those who suspected that everything could have been distorted or invented. This hypothesis lost strength over the years. For a very simple reason: because other outbreaks of sudden, very strange social epidemics were observed. The dance, the fainting, the dream In 1983in the area of ​​the West Bank occupied by the Israeli army, it was seen that at least 400 Arab girls and a teacher had spontaneously suffered nausea, nervousness and dizziness, ending in fainting and loss of consciousness. Over time, some Israeli female soldiers would also disappear. In Virginia, United States, some high school students suffered a mass hysteria of laughter equal to that of Tanganyika in the 60s. Any new drugs? Anyone put laughing gas through the vents? “The school is still safe”said the authorities, who at the end of the cycle attributed the circumstance to a “unusual stress” that students might be suffering. In 2017 a strange local Swedish phenomenon was published in the press for the first time that has been going on for decades. There have not been many cases between the 90s and 2010, but only between 2015 and 2016 there were almost 200 cases at once. Only the children of refugees who have requested asylum suffer from it. As soon as the parents know that permission has been denied, some of these children enter a kind of coma: they remain completely passive, do not speak, eat or drink, lose control of their sphincters and do not know how to react to pain. Swedish doctors say they do not know what to do, since the investigation of the event causes the epidemic to spread with new cases. They do not doubt the veracity of the phenomenon: although attempts at fraud have been discovered, with parents simulating the effect on their children to stay longer in the host country, most cases have been authenticated. Psychologists have named the ailment as Resignation Syndromealthough the hypothesis of studying it as another case of “epidemic hysteria” was considered. The academic term for epidemic hysteria is “mass psychogenic illness”or MPI, as it appears abbreviated in psychiatry manuals. To say that there are few certainties is to exceed the medical achievements achieved to determine what these attacks consist of. They are episodes so specific and so little controllable that, as they come, they go. Among the common aspects that have been seen are: a) that there is no plausible organic basis; b) that there is previously excessive anxiety in the affected group; and c) that spreads through sight, sound or oral communication. Although the effects are physical, it seems that it is a disease closely linked to the psychological. Although it has not been possible to study it correctly due to its lack of data, some historical cases of hysteria have subsequently been read as examples of the MPI. There they were dance epidemics in medieval Europein which the local population danced or held obscene orgies for hours or days, leading some to death. In search of answers The priests who were going to exorcise the novices of the cloistered convents Sometimes they noted that several of these newcomers suffered from it at the same time. Perhaps in response to the excessive discipline and poverty of the lives that awaited them, many of them began to meow, insult and seduce their companions. Although it … Read more

This is the flu that is already an epidemic in Spain

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The end of the year is undoubtedly the classic time to have a cold or a bad flu due to the drop in temperatures what causes a lowering of defenseswhich is used by viruses to sneak into all citizens. This gives us the feeling that now everyone has a cold, but the reality is that Spain has officially entered an epidemic of flu. There are reasons. And it is not a general feeling, but rather data from the Carlos III Health Institute confirms that the situation is radically different from that experienced last year. The wave of cases has started earlier, hits harder and brings with it a genetic novelty: the K variant. Tripling figures. The most striking thing about the latest report of the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (SiVIRA) is not only that cases are increasing, but also the vertical speed at which they do so. In the week of November 17 to 23the incidence in Primary Care reached 112.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, strongly breaking the baseline threshold established at 37 cases. To put it in context: in the same period of 2024, the incidence was only 12.8 cases. We are facing a scenario that practically triples the intensity at the beginning of the season compared to the previous year. This is also added to a positivity rate in which the tests carried out are already close to 20%, which indicates that out of every five people who come with symptoms, one has confirmed flu. A biological factor. Unlike previous seasons where the flu virus of the subtype reigned H1N1this year we are seeing a changing of the guard: the virus dominant is H3N2. And although it may seem somewhat minor, the reality is that the population has lower immunity against this subtype, since the body has not come into contact with it as frequently. Added to this is the ECDC alert (European Center for Disease Control): The virus is not exactly the same as we knew. A mutation has been detected that has given rise to a new subclade, called Variant K. What does variant K imply? Viruses mutate quite frequently, which is one of the reasons why a person who has been vaccinated can develop the disease. This is why this K variant can better evade the body’s defenses and nest more frequently. But it does not indicate that it is more or less serious (as when we talked about COVID), but yes it is more contagious due to this immune evasion and that could explain the increase in cases in the general population. Some vaccines… What don’t work? In recent weeks we have seen awareness campaigns for the vaccination of risk groups against the flu. But surely those who have been vaccinated are seeing how they are contagious and this raises many doubts about the usefulness of vaccines. But to do this, you must understand that flu vaccination is done for a very specific type that is expected to be the majority of the season. The problem, like this, is that in the end the virus ‘surprises us’ with a mutation that ruins all our predictions, making the vaccines not as effective as we expected. Although it can also reduce the intensity of the symptoms. The demographic map. The current epidemic that Spain is experiencing offers us a very clear photo of how it is moving. The citizens who are being infected the most right now are the smallest, that is, children from 1 to 4 years. These present a shooting rate of 428.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. A group that is the most affected, although also conditioned because parents go to the pediatrician at the slightest symptom, guaranteeing better case control. But the real problem is in the hospital impact. Although right now we are not in saturation at the national level, in regions like Madrid Hospitalizations of people over 80 years of age have doubled in one week, going from 9.43 to 20.44 cases. A worrying fact in this case is the increase in cases of the most common complication: pneumonia. In this way, the transmission vector is being the smallest, but the most affected are still the older people for whom the flu is a big problem. Even if they have been vaccinated. The forecast. The increase in flu cases It has been advanced between 3 and 4 weeks compared to what we would expect in other years. In this way, if we normally expected the peak of infections at the end of January or beginning of February, this year everything is going to change radically. In the case of Catalonia, the peak of cases is expected to occur between the second and third week of December, while other communities expect it during the Christmas holidays driven by family gatherings. In this way, as a positive point, whoever passes this flu first can avoid suffering its annoying symptoms in the middle of the Christmas holidays. Use of the mask. We already know one of the systems to avoid contagion: the use of a mask. Last year there was great chaos to reach an agreement and impose its use, and this year it seems that a very similar scenario will follow. There are already regions like Galicia and Aragón that have made a move recommending or imposing the use of masks in health centers and anticipating emergency saturation. And it makes a lot of sense that if we go to a health center we avoid infecting the people who are there, since they are probably older or immunocompromised and this can lead to a worsening of the disease. Images | Towfiqu barbhuiya Matteo Fusco In Xataka | H5N1 bird flu unleashes a massacre in Antarctica: half of the female seals have already disappeared

Lorazepam’s silent epidemic

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Every night the gesture repeats: Slide the drawer, take the pill, let it dissolve slowly under the tongue. It is not an exception, but a generalized tendency that has made anxiolytics in part of the daily medicineness of many people in Spain. A custom that reflects more than an insomnia epidemic: an entire society that drags emotional discomfort without sufficient tools to manage it. A booming consumption. Names such as Lorazepam, Alprazolam or Diazepam have ceased to belong exclusively to medical language. Today they are part of the usual vocabulary, a reflection of an increasingly widespread reality: the generalized use of anxiolytics to manage stress, insomnia or daily anxiety. According to data from General Council of Psychology of Spain and the Organization of consumers and users (OCU)more than 42% of the population has consumed benzodiazepines in the last five years. While, 59% of young people between 25 and 29 years have taken anxiolytics in recent years. It is not a generational exception: it is a normalization of discomfort with recipe. There is always a base diagnosis. Sometimes, the pill comes to calm a timely discomfort, a difficult night, one day that overflows. Without therapy. Without real follow -up. Only the quick recipe, without time or resources for something else. Dr. Luis Gimeno Feliu, family doctor at the San Pablo Health Center (Zaragoza), Explain in an interview with El Heraldo that “there is a great rush in primary care for the lack of personnel. That leads the patient to the easy resource. The problem is that benzodiazepines create dependence quickly. The ideal is to use them shortly and occasionally, but in Spain they are consumed indiscriminately.” A blow of reality. The continued use of these substances entails real risks. According to the same OCU survey, 65% of consumers have been taking them for more than six months and almost 40% recognize that they would like to leave them. The problem, as indicated in the report, is that many patients do not have adequate psychological accompaniment or real therapeutic alternatives in the public health system. The easy recipe. In this context, we have talked with the clinical psychologist Alejandra by Pedro González Who identifies multiple causes that explain this trend: work stress, precariousness, housing crisis, constant hyperconnectivity and sequelae of confinement have generated a social scenario that favors discomfort. “The health system often responds with a quick recipe. Psychotherapy is more expensive and less accessible, so the anxiolytic becomes the simplest option, even if it is not the most appropriate,” he warns. The demand for psychological care has increased, but the public system cannot absorb it. “The most immediate and cheapest solution for many primary care doctors is to prescribe a drug. Not because they want, but because there are not enough means to offer quality psychotherapy from the first level welfare,” he explains. An anxious generation. For De Pedro, it is not exaggerated to talk about an “anxious generation.” Current society – he explains – encourages immediacy, extreme self -examination and poor tolerance to discomfort. “We are seeing young people with very little capacity to manage frustration, who feel overwhelmed by daily demands and that pathologize symptoms that are completely normal,” he says. Clinical psychologist Fernando Azor, In statements collected by El Confidencialreinforces this idea: “The problem is that many people have not learned to tolerate the physical sensations of anxiety. Taking a pill relieves, but reinforces the idea that these sensations are unacceptable.” To this is added the overinformation through the Internet and social networks. “Many patients come to consultation with a self -diagnosis under the arm and expectations of instant solutions. They are frustrated when something does not work quickly. They live with the alert pilot always on and look for a pill that turns off the alarm,” says De Pedro. The social face of the problem. The report Posted by Infocop (General Council of Psychology of Spain) adds a structural dimension to the phenomenon: the consumption of anxiolytic is triggered between women, older people, unemployed or with lower income. Women consume between 1.5 and 3 times more anxiolytics than men, and 19% of them have at least one package at home. In addition, 13.8% of women have anxiety disorders compared to 7.4% of men. The pattern is clear: the greater the social vulnerability, the greater the consumption of psychopharmaceuticals. Dr. Gimeno, From El Heraldohe insists: “Many consumption of anxiolytics are a consequence of social problems. They should be treated with social responses, not only pharmacological, not even psychotherapeutics.” More awareness, but also more confusion. Although the visibility of mental health has increased largely thanks to social media and networks. Mally digested self -help, misinformation and the tendency to convert any emotional discomfort into a medical pathology concern professionals. “We see people who come to consultation with poorly applied techniques, unrealistic expectations and accumulated frustration,” says Pedro. The health model, in addition, remains focused on reducing symptoms, not on the approach to the origin of suffering. “We do not have a system that helps people understand what is behind their anxiety. Quick solutions are sought, but discomfort is still there,” he adds. The stigma is still present. Despite progress in public consciousness, stigma still exists. “Some patients are ashamed to say that they take pills; others, to admit that they go to the psychologist. It depends a lot on the environment and generation,” says the psychologist consulted. What seems clear is that emotional suffering is more present than ever, and that the answer cannot remain only pharmacological. Solution or patch? The debate is still open. For many patients, the anxiolytic has been a lifeguard. But the risk is to become a silent routine. “If there is no therapeutic work in the background, the problems will return. Because the medication does not change your thoughts, or your links, or your lifestyle,” Alejandra de Pedro concludes. While consumer figures continue to increase, mental health psychologists and professionals coincide in a common message: soling the symptoms is not enough. If it … Read more

Sweden is investing millions of euros in a silent war. The enemy to beat: an epidemic of solitude

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Sweden has declared a war, one that seems to worry especially to its authorities, which has been speaking for years and in which it is willing to invest millions and millions of euros. The enemy to beat? The loneliness. It makes all the meaning if you take into account that A sensitive part of its inhabitants suffers unwanted isolation, especially between the younger and older layers of society, and there are who considers To Sweden the loneliest country in the world. After all, loneliness is a “Public Health Problem” And something else: complicates the efforts of the authorities for Strengthen your defense civil. The loneliness numbers. It is not the same to live alone than feeling alone. Just as not all societies face loneliness in the same way. Throughout the last years, however, different agencies have published studies that give us an idea of ​​the scope of both phenomena in EU countries, including Sweden, a nation that has declared war to unwanted isolation. In 2017 Eurostat published A study which shows that more than half (52%) of Sweden households are formed by a single person, the highest percentage of all EU countries and significantly above the community average, which is around 33%. If what we are talking about is a population, statista calculates that 26% Of the Swedes live without any company, data that only exceeds Finland (32%). Do you feel alone? The thing changes slightly if we talk about loneliness, unwanted isolation. The percentages can dance based on the source and the approach, but confirm that the sensation is present in Swedish society. CE surveys show that most or all the time feel alone in the country Between 16 and 17% of the people, while The data of 2024 of the public health agency reflect that 13% of the population claims to have that feeling “occasionally” and 6% invades “often or constantly.” “Almost two million Swedes over 16 suffer isolation. 26% of children from 3rd to 6th year say they feel alone in school. One in three young adults experiences loneliness and isolation, as well as 40% of women and almost 30% of men over 85 years old,” needed The Government in 2023. “A health problem”. Sweden is not the only one country that deal with loneliness, but there the data is consistent enough for its government to have declared that involuntary isolation is “A public health problem” And want to stand up. “It is a growing problem and the elderly experience it more frequently,” warns The Minister of Social Security, Anna Tenje. On the table the executive has reports that show that the isolation affects above all to certain groupsas elderly, young people or unemployed people. A fact: 27 million a year. Convinced of the challenge that supposes, in Stockholm they have decided to move from words to the facts. In 2023 the government activated A triennial plan (2023-2025) that is around 300 million of annual Swedish crowns (around 27 million of euros) to support initiatives that “fight and prevent” isolation. In February the Public Health Agency even presented A strategy “Against loneliness and favor of the community.” And what are you doing? Your strategy touches several sticks. The government a few months ago advertisement For example, the distribution of 49 million Swedish crowns (4.4 million euros) between organizations that work precisely to reduce loneliness. It is not the first initiative in that line. Over the last years he has allocated funds to campaigns Health -centered, promote The socialization of the elderly, their stake in sports activities or The study of the phenomenon and its approach from different areas, such as The business either The educational. “Taking care of friends”. For now, Sweden has received recognition from WHO, which He has cited it as an example for initiatives deployed in the country. A few days ago the newspaper I monde He dedicated a report to a specific one: “Vanvard” (“Taking care of friends”), which is taking pharmacies employees to dedicate part of their day to fight loneliness. At the end of 2023 the Ministry of Social Affairs also promoted the creation of A business network With about twenty companies that work with the same purpose: to end marginalization. Defense earrings. I monde Slide Another key idea: loneliness is not only “a public health problem”, it also implies an obstacle in a country that He is strengthening your civil defense system, as well as Other nations Nordic. That effort collides with a complex reality: isolation. More than half Of the Swedes they barely know their neighbors. With that backdrop, last year the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency promoted a campaign with A slogan That speaks for itself: “When we know each other, it is easier to help us.” Images | Magnus Östberg (UNSPLASH), Eurostat and EC In Xataka | Loneliness is already a matter of public health. We have more and more evidence that animals help us to placate it

How to predict the next epidemic? For researchers the solution is very simple: using AI

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It arrives with heat, sneaks without invitation and leaves its trace on the skin: a red mark, an insistent itching, a sleepless night. The mosquito does not need a presentation; His buzz is part of summer. Now, we share our life with another invisible being: artificial intelligence. Silent, precise, without wings or sting, has begun to fight a battle with the old enemy. And in this story, only one can stay. The battle. A team of researchers from the University of Southern Florida, led by biologist Ryan Carney and computer engineer Sriram Chellappan, They have developed An intelligent surveillance system that uses artificial intelligence to identify, track and combat the most dangerous mosquito of the moment: Anopheles Stephensian urban vector of malaria that has already begun to expand in Africa. A unique method. The project key is to join advanced technology with citizen participation. On the one hand, they are developing intelligent traps equipped with artificial intelligence, capable of attracting, capturing and automatically identifying mosquitoes. On the other hand, the project relies on mosquitodashboard.orga global platform released in 2022 that collects photographs of mosquitoes sent by people from their mobile phones. Thanks to a visual recognition system, the panel identifies the species and generates in real time an interactive map that helps scientists follow the trail of the most dangerous vectors. And why? Chellappan team has developed unique algorithms capable of identifying a mosquito with only one photo, automatically recognizing its head, thorax, abdomen, wings and legs. This anatomical classification allows to distinguish species with great precision, even in challenging conditions. As He explained To Reuters, the advance in AI has allowed to identify where the diseases carrying diseases are because then the public health authorities can go there and launch control efforts to prevent new outbreaks. A global alert. Behind this technological deployment there is a real urgency, since mosquitoes such as the malaria transmitter are adapting and surviving in urban environments. However, there is a solution, because researchers have estimated for Reuters that smart traps could be manufactured for less than $ 150, which would facilitate their massive distribution as an early warning system in vulnerable regions. A war with many fronts. Although artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize the fight against mosquitoes, it is not enough by itself. “It will require more than one strategy,” He has warned Entomologist Tom Mascari in statements to Reuters. Technology is a key ally, but does not replace traditional measures such as the use of repellent. What is coming. In the next five years, the Carney and Chellappan team has planned to improve its algorithms, incorporate more species into the system and train a new generation of African scientists. The idea is that the fight against mosquito does not depend only on technology, but also on international knowledge and collaboration. And, perhaps, for the first time, the buzz of summer is not only a nuisance, but an opportunity to anticipate the enemy. Image | USF Xataka | Elche has proposed to release 2.4 million tiger mosquitoes in his city. He does it for a good reason

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