CIDRAP newsletters options
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today noted that it has received reports of 43 cases of an especially resistant form of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in recent years, often among patients who traveled internationally, according to a report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Viremia levels appear to be a strong predictor of death, according to a study of nearly 700 patients in Guinea.
Having a longer incubation period—the time from virus exposure to disease—was tied to a lower risk of death in MERS-CoV patients in South Korea, according to a study yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
French and Hong Kong researchers analyzed data on 170 cases of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection, of which exposure data were available for 109.
An alarming number of countries are reporting cases, as clinicians find more links to microcephaly and other neurologic complications.
In a related development, feds recently issued a second call for avian flu vaccine proposals.
Overall flu activity has remained low, with hot spots in only a few areas, such as some Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar, which are reporting that the 2009 H1N1 virus is the dominant strain, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its regular update.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case today in the capital city of Riyadh.
The case involves a 21-year-old Saudi woman who is in critical condition with a MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection. She is not a healthcare worker and was not exposed to other MERS patients, the agency said. No other risk factors were noted.
The spread to more countries comes as Brazil reported 340 more possibly related microcephaly cases.
The infant—born to a mother who died from Ebola—received intensive treatment in an MSF facility, where she was given experimental antivirals.
Saudi Arabia reported a new MERS-CoV infection yesterday in the city of Buraidah, while an international team of researchers found no serologic evidence that the virus is endemic in Kazakh camel herds.
Agriculture officials in Vietnam reported another highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak in poultry, while Canadian authorities reported that low pathogenic H5N2 turned up in a hunter-shot duck in British Columbia.
Although no new cases are reported, tests show Ebola antibodies in 2 relatives.
A South Korean man who recently suffered a MERS-CoV relapse died from his illness today, according to a report from the Korea Herald, which cited the country's health ministry. The 35-year-old man had also been battling lymphoma.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday approved the nation's first seasonal flu vaccine containing an adjuvant—an immune-boosting substance—although European and other countries have used adjuvanted vaccines for years.
A health ministry official also said two of the boy's family members are being treated for Ebola, and 177 contacts are under monitoring.
African detections signal ongoing H5N1 activity in the region, while Vietnam and Hong Kong both reported H5N6 detections.
Rotisserie chicken salad sold at Costco stores that was contaminated with Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 has sickened 19 people in seven states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.
Health officials in China's Guangdong province have announced an H7N9 avian influenza infection in a man in his 70s who is hospitalized, according to a report today from Xinhua, China's state news agency.
The man is a farmer from the city of Meizhou, and the source of his infection is still under investigation.
The WHO needs to be retooled to streamline emergency response, avoid political pressure, build country core capacities, and ensure adequate funding, an independent panel says.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) today recommended in a report that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) BioWatch program not pursue any upgrades to its second-generation (Gen-2) technology for monitoring the country for potential bioterror attacks until it can provide better efficacy data.
