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Medical coverage for the Hajj includes enlisting 25,000 extra health workers and 8 earmarked hospitals.
Chikungunya outbreak cases in the Caribbean and the Americas continued a modest increase for the third straight week, with only 3,085 new infections reported in an update late last week from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The most recent weekly updates before last week's included 7,156 and 4,857 new cases. The two updates before that noted much higher levels of 34,866 and 27,867 new cases, respectively.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stepped down its travel advisory level for Liberia, with the country now more than 2 weeks past achieving Ebola-free status for the second time. The CDC today moved the alert level to the green watch level 1, which recommends practicing the usual precautions, according to a Sep 18 media statement.
The 22 recent Saudi patients noted by the WHO include 8 health workers, and Jordan's outbreak involves 2 girls.
The outbreak has hospitalized 21 people and led to a recall of soft cheeses from a California dairy.
Mapp Biopharmaceuticals announced yesterday that its experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp received fast-track status to gain US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Uptake increased a bit in adults and in health workers but dropped among pregnant women.
The study accompanies 2 new cases in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the ongoing outbreak there.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that malaria incidence and mortality have decreased by 37% and 60%, respectively, since 2000, thus meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halting and reversing malaria incidence by 2015.
Guinea hasn't had a case since Sep 1, but Sierra Leone reports 5 cases in 2 regions.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new MERS-CoV cases in Riyadh today that don't appear to be linked to a large hospital outbreak, and it confirmed a death in a previously reported patient.
If approved, the Novartis product would be the nation's first boosted flu vaccine.
Of 3 new cases, 2 involve foreign healthcare workers in their 20s in Riyadh.
Stephan Monroe, PhD, who has been the CDC's acting head of lab safety since May, will report directly to the CDC director.
President Barack Obama today nominated deputy commissioner Robert Califf, MD, as the next Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Bloomberg News reported. If approved by the Senate, Califf would replace Margaret Hamburg, MD, who stepped down in March after serving 6 years.
Nigeria reported six new outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu affecting more than 28,000 chickens, bringing to 12 the number of outbreaks reported this month, according to separate reports filed yesterday with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Cases are in some of the country's major cities, such as Jeddah—a primary arrival spot—and Medina.
Sierra Leone has reported two more Ebola cases, including a fatal one that is not part of a recent cluster in the northwestern Kambia district.
Medina cases are a worry, given the throngs of Hajj pilgrims visiting holy sites.
US health officials are grappling with a surge in human cases of tularemia in several states this year, Reuters reported today.
Colorado has had 41 confirmed cases so far this year, Wyoming 14—including 1 death—and South Dakota at least 19, the story said, and a Nebraska official today told CIDRAP News that that state has had 18, for a total of 92 in the four states.
