News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Yellow fever vaccination boosters, typically given 10 years after initial immunization, are no longer necessary, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Rift Valley fever that began in South Africa in February has expanded to five of the country's nine provinces, with 63 human cases and 2 deaths in three provinces, according to national and international health agencies.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that laboratory officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have confirmed a third case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

Laboratory analysis was performed at the DRC's national lab in Kinshasa, a lab in Franceville, Gabon, and at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, according to a Jan 2 statement from the WHO.

– WASHINGTON, DC (CIDRAP News) – Health authorities must remain alert to new and renascent disease threats, experts warned this week at an international medical meeting.

(CIDRAP News) – A fifth case has been confirmed in the recent outbreak of febrile illnesses caused by a mysterious virus in South Africa, and preliminary tests have supported earlier suspicions that it is new member of the arenavirus family, South African health officials announced recently.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that preliminary tests indicate that an arenavirus—possibly a previously unknown one—is responsible for the mysterious febrile disease that killed three people in South Africa and has now sickened a fourth.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today said a mysterious febrile disease that bears some resemblance to a viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) has killed three people in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The WHO said the victims so far have tested negative for several VHFs and other infectious diseases, and no new cases have emerged since the latest death on Oct 5.