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The number of newly reported chikungunya cases in the Caribbean region was down dramatically last week, but it's not clear if the drop was related to delays in reporting or a downturn in disease transmission. According to an Aug 15 update from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the region reported 9,798 new cases, accounting for an increase of only 1.7%.
In its report on flu sample cross-contamination today, the CDC detailed departures from best practices and reporting delays.
The Ebola total in West Africa's outbreak has pushed past 2,000, as the WHO tempered expectations and addressed food supply issues.
A chikungunya candidate vaccine developed using noninfectious virus-like particles (VLPs) has been shown to provide long-term protection against multiple genotypes of the disease, according to results of the first human trial, conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and published today in The Lancet.
A national investigation is under way in England to look into a number of isolated clusters of Salmonella Enteritidis over the past few months that have been handled locally but that may represent a more widespread outbreak possibly related to catering outlets, says a press release today from Public Health England (PHE).
The WHO voiced concern about Ebola-related bans on flights to outbreak countries and other African nations.
The plan will speed up the hunt for the source when ground beef is tainted with E coli O157:H7.
A federal vaccine advisory group yesterday recommended that adults age 65 and older receive the Prevnar 13 pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, according to a press release from Pfizer Inc., the vaccine's maker. Using the vaccine alongside the current 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine is thought to provide broader protection.
States reported another bump in Cyclospora cases last week, and health officials are still trying to determine how many are travel-related and if there is a common source for the locally acquired cases. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that as of Aug 12 it had been notified of 283 Cyclospora infections, 48 more than the previous week.
From travel-related measures to the offer of experimental vaccine, African and non-African nations take steps to control spread.
Study suggests the high-dose flu vaccine gives seniors significantly better protection than standard-dose vaccines.
The number of travel-related US chikungunya cases has grown to 580, an increase of 96 in the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update. The number of locally acquired cases stayed at 4, for 584 total US cases.
As deaths top 1,000, a panel says it's ethical to use unlicensed drugs, vaccines.
For the second time in as many days, Saudi Arabia has reported a new MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) case after a month-long hiatus, its Ministry of Health (MOH) said today.
H7N9 avian flu, which emerged in humans in China in the spring of 2013 and has since caused more than 450 cases, was found to replicate well in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts of cynomolgus macaques, a model for humans, and to show extended replication in the upper tract, indicating the possibility of prolonged shedding and transmissibility, say findings of a study today in mBio.
In recent days, Guinea closed its borders, and suspected cases in Canada and Saudi Arabia were ruled out.
Officials reported more than 62,000 new chikungunya cases in the Caribbean and surrounding areas last week—almost all in the Dominican Republic—expanding the outbreak to 576,000 cases, according to an Aug 8 update from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Along with the agency's declaration came an emergency committee's list of steps to limit disease spread.
The Obama administration is setting up an Ebola working group to consider making policy for the possible use of experimental drugs in West Africa's Ebola epidemic, Reuters reported yesterday, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted a barrier to the potential use of an unlicensed drug made by a Canadian company.
Liberia and Sierra Leone have taken new actions to curb infections, as response activities and testing of possible travel-related cases play out on other continents.
