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In other developments, the Zika surge continues in Puerto Rico, more US travelers have been infected, and the virus has spread to more Caribbean locations.
Wound care is one of the most common reasons for antibiotic use in hospitals.
The US-UK partnership will provide $44 million this year and as much as $350 million over 5 years.
Screening of 1,427 bacterial isolates collected from patients in a large Hong Kong hospital during roughly 1-month period in December 2015 yielded 5 that were positive for MCR-1, a gene linked to resistance to colistin, a last-line antibiotic. A team from Hong Kong reported their findings yesterday in a letter yesterday to Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Flu season markers in the Southern Hemisphere show a mixed picture, with increases recorded in southern Africa and parts of South America, with low activity for this time of year in Australia and New Zealand, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its most recent update.
The study sheds light on how Zika antibodies bind to the virus. Also, Florida is investigating four possible local cases now, all from the same two counties: Broward and neighboring Miami-Dade.
Type 2 diabetes patients who were vaccinated had a 30% lower risk of hospitalization for stroke and a 22% lower risk for heart failure.
A new study has determined that there are three key factors that increase the risk for patient-to-patient transmission of carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceceae (CP-CRE), dangerous drug-resistant bacteria that tends to strike patients in hospitals and nursing homes who are on ventilators, require catheters, or are taking long courses of antibiotics.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in its weekly yellow fever report yesterday, noted that genetic testing is under way to see if a Brazilian man picked up the disease after visiting Angola in March. The 58- year-old man from Niteroi died on Apr 2.
The MCR-1 gene was most prevalent in poultry, with 10.7% of turkey isolates and 5.6% of broiler isolates testing positive.
Also, as Florida officials continue their investigation into two possible locally acquired cases, they add 11 more travel-linked infections, including in pregnant women.
General Mills expanded its recall of flour products yesterday after four more people in two states became sick with Escherichia coli infections.
The viruses causing outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian flu that spread across North American poultry farms in late 2014 into the summer of 2015 did not persist in wild aquatic birds like ducks, suggesting they are not an ongoing source of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses, according to a study yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The updates include an expanded definition of Zika congenital syndrome from PAHO and revised CDC guidance on testing pregnant women and on preventing sexual spread.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two deaths from MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) yesterday and today. The fatalities bring Saudi Arabia's total number of deaths from MERS-CoV since 2012 to 608.
Egypt recently reported three new H5N1 avian flu cases, all in people who had been exposed to poultry or their environments, according to a monthly update from the World Health Organization (WHO) on animal-to-human flu transmission events for the middle of June through the middle of July.
New York City confirms its first Zika-related microcephaly case, Florida is investigating a possible 2nd local infection, and Puerto Rico turns down a CDC plan to spray for mosquitoes.
Shortening the course of NICU antibiotics led to a 27% drop in use and an increase in appropriate prescribing.
The rate of new suspected and confirmed cases of yellow fever continues to decline in Angola, but health officials are concerned about disease activity in Benguela province, where surveillance gaps and reporting delays are occurring, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its weekly update.
A dose of H5 avian influenza vaccine may set the stage for a stronger cellular immune response if a person later encounters a different strain of H5 virus, which suggests that this prime-boost strategy could be useful in fighting an H5N1 pandemic, according to a study reported Jul 20 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
