National statistics show a spike of reported cases in December 2012 over that same month in 2011 — 11,220 compared with 8,205.
The term "Jerusalem syndrome" was coined by the late Dr. Carlos Yair Bar-El, Kfar Shaul's media-friendly head psychiatrist, during the spike of reported cases in the late 90s.
One spike of syndrome cases with clinical severity (severe syndrome) appeared in mid-May, but that occurred as a result of one hospital sending duplicate data that escaped from our check algorithm.
The polio epidemic in this country, which has seen a spike of almost 120 cases over the past 14 months – mainly affecting three provinces along the border with Angola.
There was also a spike in the number of cases in Port Loko, a district north of Freetown where there is still no treatment centre and where, until recently, corpses were left lying on verandahs, in hospitals and in houses for days before collection.
The Pandemrix vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and which was recommended by the UK government to high-risk groups during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic, was withdrawn after medical records showed a spike in the number of cases of narcolepsy presenting in doctors' surgeries.
However, the figures also reveal a significant spike in the number of cases of MRSA in April this year.
A peak of more than a thousand cases a month was recorded in 1992 for the state, according to an earlier CDC report, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake contributed to another spike in the number of cases.
"We might have another spike in the number of cases once we have our first rain," she said.
Yet the unprecedented Brazil outbreak which began in 2014 has corresponded with a sudden spike in cases of microcephaly – 3,893 cases as of last week, more than 30 times greater than any other period since 2010.
