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Health authorities are bewildered by a case of Zika virus found in Utah as no one can explain how one patient became infected.

Zika virus is known to spread through bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito or through sexual transmission. However, one patient in Utah may have contracted the disease through a new, unknown channel of infection.

“This case is unusual. The individual does not have any of the known risk factors we’ve seen thus far with Zika virus,” said health officer Gary Edwards of the Salt Lake County Health Department.

The patient was the eighth resident of Utah to be diagnosed with Zika and he has since seen a full recovery.

What’s baffling to health officials is the lack of apparent risk factors. The patient hadn’t traveled to any areas in which Zika is common, nor did they have sexual contact with anyone who was infected. Moreover, no Aedes aegypti mosquitos have been found in Utah, so it is highly unlikely that the patient was infected through a bite.

However, the patient was acting as a caregiver to an elderly man who had contracted the disease during travel. The man is now deceased, though it has not been determined if his death was related to the Zika virus.

While the patient’s regular contact with a Zika carrier may be considered a clue in the case, it is still unclear as to how the virus could have been transmitted since the two did not have any sexual contact.

“We don’t have any evidence that suggests Zika can be passed from one person to another by sneezing or coughing or kissing or sharing utensils,” said Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the CDC.

Experts have insisted that sexual contact is required for the infection to spread; however, because the disease has been detected in blood, saliva, and urine, one has to wonder if in rare circumstances the virus might be transmitted through these fluids outside of sex.

Infectious disease specialist William Schaffner of Tennessee said, “This raises some interesting questions. Was there a needle stick or injury?”

Because the most recent patient was a caregiver, and more than half of all nurses will experience at least one needle stick incident during their career, it could be possible that the virus was transmitted by “shared” needle.

Even more curious is the fact that the deceased elderly patient showed unusually high levels of the virus. According to the CDC, his blood contained Zika levels 100,000 times higher than any other infected person thus far. Specialists are still not sure if this had any impact on his transmissibility, however.

Officials from the Salt Lake County Health Department are urging residents not to panic.

“At this time we don’t know if the contact between the new case and the deceased patient played any role in the transmission of the disease,” said Edwards. “There is an uncertainty about how this new case contracted Zika. But we do not believe that there is a risk of Zika transmission among the general population in Utah based on what we know so far.”

College education is a key factor in the likelihood to move; at least 77% of college graduates have changed communities at least once since completing their education. According to Forbes, many of those grads may now be moving to Cincinnati.

The biggest questions college graduates face after graduation involve where to go next. Contrary to popular belief and modern cinema, the answer isn’t New York City, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C.

Forbes says the best place to go after graduation is Southwest Ohio.

Forbes recently named the Cincinnati-Middletown area of the Tristate as the top up-and-coming city for recent college graduates.

The magazine’s website reports that Cincinnati offers young professionals the secret to success in the real world: strong job opportunities and manageable living costs.

Despite the recent announcement in Forbes, studies show that more millennials are living at home now than ever.

A recent Pew Research Center report stated that, for the first time since 1880, young adults ages 18 to 34 are more likely to live with a parent than another arrangement.

The living arrangements reflect not only the growing trend of postponing marriage, but also larger economic factors that are keeping millennials at home.

Pew’s Richard Fry argues that a challenging job market is a major factor driving the trend. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 5.7% of men ages 25 to 34 are unemployed, a full percentage point lower than older men.

The high cost of housing may play an additional role. With home ownership rates of those under 35 at a 20-year low, many more are looking to rent. But as rent prices rise faster than wages, the market may be keeping millennials from moving out of their parents’ homes.

However, Cincinnati seems to be crushing those statistics.

Job search site ZipRecruiter identified cities gaining traction based on low median rents, low competition, and a high percentage of open jobs for candidates with a college degree, as well as the concentration of residents ages 21 to 24 and entertainment. Cincinnati dominated every category.

The top three industries found in the ZipRecruiter study were retail, insurance, and customer service, with entry-level positions such as event specialists and bank tellers available in the area.

The cost of living also added to Cincinnati’s high ranking. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $698 per month, which ZipRecruiter called “very affordable living.”

More millennials may be living at home currently, but Forbes may have a hand in a growing Cincinnati population.

While some properties, landlords, and tenants are a breeze, renters can expect to deal with an average three to five minor issues per year in their homes. For one San Francisco man, however, renting has proven to come with one major hiccup.

Neil Hutchinson is currently fighting eviction after his landlord bumped up his rent by more than 400% without warning. His North Beach apartment, where he has resided for the past six years, has gone from $1,800 a month to $8,000.

This three-bedroom apartment was featured in several scenes of Clint Eastwood’s 1988 movie “The Dead Pool,” making it a highly sought-after residence.

The 47-year-old Hutchinson was served an eviction notice after he was unable to pay the increased rent. He originally moved into the apartment in 2010 and signed a lease with his roommates, but the landlord is now claiming that the lease is no longer valid since the master tenant moved out last July.

“They’ve accepted money from me. I filled out an application. They are saying the lease is not applicable to me. As far as I’m concerned the rent control should apply to me,” said Hutchinson. It is on the basis of this argument that Hutchinson is appealing the rent increase through the San Francisco Rent Board.

Hutchinson filed his appeal in June; however, the case may not be decided upon until early August. Unfortunately, the tenant faces a July 21 eviction.

“I could be evicted before that decision comes through, so I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m struggling here,” lamented Hutchinson.

He added that while he cannot afford to stay in his current residence, he also can’t afford to leave the city of San Francisco where he holds a full-time position as a video engineer. “My life is in San Francisco,” he said. “I don’t have a car. The commute would be brutal to my career.”

Hutchinson is not the only San Francisco resident to suffer from increased rent prices. The city’s housing costs have skyrocketed as a direct result of the tech industry boom. According to Trulia, the median rental cost in North Beach is $6,850 a month.

The Hillary Clinton campaign recently launched a new website dedicated to hitting Donald Trump where it hurts the most: his business history.

According to Trump, his greatest selling point is his success as a businessman, but Clinton’s website, Art of the Steal, takes direct aim at the Republican presidential candidate’s business misfires, arguing that like the rest of his “qualifications,” Trump’s business sense is deeply flawed.

“Sometimes he was bad at [business] in that he made a lot of money while hurting a lot of people,” the website claims. “But most of the time, he was just bad at it.”

Clinton’s campaign uses examples such as the highly criticized Trump Steaks and the failure of his Atlantic City casinos to debunk the spreading misconception of Trump’s untouchable financial prowess.

The website is just one part of a series of economically based attacks on Trump. During an event in Ohio, Clinton spoke out about a possible Trump presidency’s inevitable impact on the economy, saying that it would be “devastating for families and bad for the economy.”

Clinton’s attack comes just one day after the release of a new analysis of Trump’s economic proposals by Moody’s Analytics. The report revealed that his plan to shift away from globalization would “diminish the nation’s growth prospects,” and that it would “result in larger federal government deficits and a heavier debt load,” thus creating “a weaker U.S. economy, with fewer jobs and higher unemployment.”

Clinton’s website builds upon a number of arguments against the Republican candidate, including an account of Trump’s multiple casino bankruptcies and the time his father had to bail him out by purchasing $3.3 million in poker chips.

They say you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, but with hard evidence supported by reliable sources, it is nearly impossible to write off Clinton’s website as a “smear campaign.”

When it comes to website design, 38% of regular consumers will stop engaging with a website if the layout is unattractive. The site’s homepage features an uncomfortably large image of Trump’s smug face, but this unsightly visual is hardly enough to deter the political truth-seekers who come across this highly informative website.

Photo attribution: By Krassotkin (derivative), Gage Skidmore (Donald Trump), Gage Skidmore (Hillary Clinton) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

June 1 marked the start of the 2016 hurricane season, and with the earliest “C” storm on record, it’s made for an active start to this year’s storm season.

Though Tropical Storm Colin may be the earliest “C” storm on record, it doesn’t necessarily mean that hurricane season will be a wild — or calm — ride just yet.

Colin, currently spinning out to sea after drenching Florida, is only the third “C” storm to ever form in June. Not only that, but it’s also the earliest, beating out Hurricane Chris, which formed on June 18 in 2012, and bumping Tropical Storm Candy to third place with a start date of June 23, 1968.

The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory says early activity has little bearing on the season as a whole, but that doesn’t mean anyone should slack on preparation.

In normal circumstances a roof should be inspected once or twice annually, but come hurricane season, battering down the hatches is more important than ever.

It’s that time of year when communities need to prepare themselves for hurricane season, and with such an active start, it’s no surprise that people are worried.

More than 40% of businesses don’t open back up after sustaining damage from a hurricane or tropical storm, and over 90% fail within the first two years back in business.

Incorporating an emergency preparedness plan may not only save homes, but it could save businesses as well. Knowing the vulnerabilities of one’s business is the first step in preparing for emergencies, large and small.

Though an active start to the season does not necessarily mean that the rest of the year will be overwhelmed by storms, it’s still important to be prepared for anything.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season will be “near-normal,” with four to eight hurricanes occurring between June 1 and November 30.

So few storms form early in the year that there’s simply not enough data to draw conclusions, the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory said.

One Florida Shiba Inu is in critical condition after winding up in the mouth of an alligator in Fleming island, FL.
According to owner Daniel Less, his dog, Maiya, is having difficulty walking on all fours and has a very long road to recovery. She is currently being treated at the Wells Road Veterinary Center.
The incident happened on May 21, when Maiya ran out of the family garage and over to a nearby pond. At first, Less wasn’t concerned, until he heard a loud and disturbing noise.
“As I’m walking down the hill to go get her, there’s like an explosion of water, and at that point, I didn’t realize what was going on,” Less said in an interview with News 4 Jax.
When Less arrived, he could hardly believe what he was seeing. Down at the pond, Maiya was caught between the teeth of an estimated seven-foot alligator. Luckily, Less got her out and to safety immediately, but the damage done to the young pup was extensive.
Dr. Michelle Sands, a veterinarian with the Wells Road Veterinary Center, told reporters that Maiya’s injuries were the most severe that she had seen in her 25 years of working with animals.
“There’s a lot of trauma. She didn’t want to eat. She had whole body trauma at the end of her tail area,” Sands said, noting that she was surprised that the dog survived at all.
At first, Maiya was treated in a hyperbaric chamber and has since developed a superbug that is difficult to treat.
“It’s resistant to everything at this point, so we’re going to have to do some research into human medicine and see what we can use,” Sands said.

According to Sands, Maiya will need many months to recover, and it’s likely she will need the help of more doctors.
Veterinary bills are expensive. In fact, the U.S. spends a whopping $13.59 billion annually on veterinary bills. That being said, Maiya’s family has set up a GoFundMe account in order to pay for the pup’s mounting medical expenses.

Cancer is never a simple thing to have. From diagnoses to a multitude of invasive treatments that have devastating physiological effects, it is a long and harrowing process. As if that weren’t bad enough, these treatments can have profound and negative long-term affects on the body — particularly when it comes to fertility.

But what’s worse is that many of these women aren’t warned of the infertility risks they are taking before undergoing cancer treatment.
In a new study published in the journal Cancer, researchers surveyed 346 young women in an anonymous online poll. The participants were all around the age of 30 and had all completed cancer treatment an average of five years before taking the survey.
Of the participants surveyed, the poll found that 179 of them had not gone through any sort of fertility preservation before or after cancer treatments, even though they were either interested in having children or were unsure.
And while more than two-thirds of women were concerned about their ability to have children post-treatment, only 13% of patients surveyed said they had received inadequate information regarding fertility options.
“The potential loss of fertility has been described in the literature as being almost as painful, if not more so, than the cancer diagnosis itself,” said Dr. Catherine Benedict, PhD, lead author on the study, in a press release.
“Many women will maintain fertility after treatment,” Benedict told Fox News, “but will experience menopause and infertility at an early age, with no certainty about when this may occur.”
While it’s clear that fertility problems after cancer treatment are different for every woman, this uncertainty can create infertility down the line, which means a woman cannot conceive. The key is to be aware of options that they can utilize before or after undergoing cancer treatment.

The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey is offering $500,000 in grants for a program designed to improve the population’s oral health and awareness of dental hygiene issues.

The program will also support professional development for health care providers in 10 counties where dental health among children is severely lacking.

Robert Marino, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey chairman and CEO and chairman of the Horizon Foundation, issued the following statement:

“Our Kids’ Oral Health Program initiative is going to help improve oral health for young New Jerseyans with a higher level of risk. Cavities and dental decay are among the most common, most preventable and most treatable chronic conditions for kids in the United States. The rate of untreated tooth decay in children and teens from lower-income households is twice that of higher income families. Early education and intervention can change this and that’s what this grant program is all about.”

The Horizon Foundation intends to fight against the racial and socioeconomic disparities that exist with regard to dental care. Hispanic/Latino and African American children are nearly twice as likely as white children to suffer from untreated tooth decay, and because of their home and work situations, low-income caregivers often do not have the time to fit in routine dental appointments for themselves and their children.

Furthermore, many people simply do not understand the importance of maintaining proper oral hygiene and how poor dental health practices can affect overall health and well-being.

New Jersey state senator Jeff Van Drew, who is also a practicing dentist, is in support of the initiative, stating that, “These grants will help to educate families about the importance of oral health and treat more children.”

Unfortunately, not all families have access to routine dental procedures. Wisdom teeth removal is a common surgery performed on 5 million Americans each year, but many people slip through the cracks, unable to take advantage of regular dental care.

President Barack Obama is set to visit the city of Flint, MI, this week. The reason for the visit stems from a letter written by 8-year-old Amariyanna Copeny, a resident of the city also known as Mari or “Little Miss Flint.”

Mari, a victim of the water crisis still plaguing the city today, wrote to the President to simply ask to meet with him and the First Lady. She was not expecting to get a reply from either them.

“My mom said chances are you will be too busy with more important things but there is a lot of people coming on these buses and even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift peoples spirits,” Mari wrote to the president.

The city’s water crisis has just recently passed the two-year mark since the state made the decision to change Flint’s water source, resulting in numerous contaminants integrating into the water system, with lead being chief among them.

Lead exposure in children six years or younger can have harmful, lasting effects. In fact, exposure to lead makes up 600,000 of new cases of intellectual disabilities in children each year.

The exchange between the President and Mari sheds light on the crisis in Flint in a way not yet portrayed by the media. It focuses on the effects on the real future of Flint: its children.

Most media outlets have been producing stories detailing the mistakes the Michigan government made, but very few have focused on the effects of the crisis on children and their future development.

While politicians have been busy calling each other out for what they have and have not done, one little girl has managed to shift the discussion to shed light on the big picture. Not only has she gotten the attention of the media but the Commander-in-Chief himself.

It looks like there is a new iceberg in town. Inside, one can find mock gale force winds swirling sea salt spray through the Detroit Zoo’s new penguin exhibit.

Finally open to the public this week, the Polk Penguin Conservation Center is a stunning display that is leaving both penguins and visitors happy.

More than 80 penguins of all shapes and sizes have moved into their spacious new digs within the past few weeks. They inhabit a place that has all the watery chills and thrills of their native Antarctica, without the risk of dangerous predators, and it’s safe to say they’re enjoying it.

The zoo’s spokeswoman Patricia Janeway tells the Detroit Free Press, “Ever since they got here, it’s like they’re jumping for joy. They’re porpoising like crazy – leaping out of the water, then arcing back in — and they’re behaving exactly like we hoped they would.”

The Gentoo, Macaroni, Rockhopper, and King penguins are content in a habitat kept at 37 degrees Fahrenheit with the water at 40 degrees. Visitors watch from galleries kept at a balmier temperature.

The exterior of the building represents a tabular iceberg, with a 25-foot waterfall meant to stimulate melting ice and a crevasse where the berg is beginning to break apart.

Once inside the lobby, excited visitors immediately see a broad topside view of penguins huddling on rocks then descend walkways to view them from under and beside.

There are even blasts of saltwater spray to provide a true penguin sensory experience.

To prevent curious kids from playing with the penguins, the zoo installed high glass walls so kids can see, but not touch. This helps cautious parents feel at ease, as one in every five drowning deaths is a child 14 years or younger.

Even before its official opening, this new penguin center received praise from around the country for its educational mission of expanding the zoo’s offerings to do more than just show the animals.