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A study yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that contact isolation may not be necessary to prevent outbreaks of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in hospitals.
High doses of vitamin D were associated with a reduced incidence of acute respiratory illness (ARI) by 40% in elderly, long-term–care residents, according to a study today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
A DNA vaccine could help stamp out the outbreak, while a live-attenuated vaccine could offer lifelong immunity.
In other developments, California warned of local Zika activity in popular holiday travel destinations, including Mexico, and Florida reported one more local case.
About 7.5% of close contacts tested positive, while another study dissected convalescent plasma use.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) released new guidelines for treating leishmaniasis, a parasite transmitted through bites from sand flies and on the rise in American tourists and military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The strain has also been detected farther west in Europe in wild birds in Switzerland, as well as in Germany.
The agency wants to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new cases of MERS-CoV today and over the weekend.
On Nov 12, the MOH said a 51-year-old Saudi man from Tabuk was diagnosed as having Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). He is currently in critical condition. Health officials said the man had direct contact with camels, a known risk factor for MERS.
New experiments suggest that mosquitoes can infect humans with Zika and chikungunya viruses in a single bite, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).
The WHO's update on 13 cases reported from Saudi Arabia also includes a pair of household contacts and some cases with camel exposure.
Researchers from the Wistar Institute and the Public Health Agency of Canada yesterday reported promising findings in mice and nonhuman primates for a DNA-based Zika vaccine developed by Inovio, GeneOne Life Sciences, and academic institutions.
China is reporting two new H7N9 avian influenza infections, the first since July. The new cases potentially mark the start of the fifth wave of infections.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Originally published by CIDRAP News on Nov 10.
The bacterium may have recently evolved to spread person to person, as it becomes more virulent.
The virus is spreading south and west as experts predicted after the H5 clade was discovered in Russia in June.
Experts suspect that sexual spread from men to women might be a factor in Zika's bigger burden on women, but further studies are needed.
A paper published yesterday in Open Biology argues that monitoring resistance gene frequency might be a better way to track and combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and could enable swifter, more accurate treatment of patients with bacterial infections.
Medimmune scientists have been investigating what's behind the decreased FluMist effectiveness that prompted US vaccine advisors to recommend against it this year, and today they reported that reduced fitness of H1N1 vaccine virus strains are the likely culprit.
In related developments, Florida reported seven new locally acquired Zika cases yesterday and today, one of them in a traveler from out of state.
