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A key US marker—clinic visits for flulike illness—fell below baseline for the first time in 14 weeks.
Chinese health officials today reported two new H7N9 cases from different provinces today. One is in a 32-year-old man from Guangdong province who is hospitalized in Shenzhen in stable condition, according to a provincial health department statement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
A Saudi man who contracted Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in November after tending sick camels had a virus nearly identical to that found in one of his camels, suggesting he contracted the disease from them, according to a letter yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The 5 cases were in Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia; 2 proved fatal; and 1 involved contact with camels.
TB continued its 20-year decline, dropping 4.2%, but the reduction was less in foreign-born residents.
A poultry farm tested positive, but serology findings were negative in veterinarians.
Wild birds in Iceland harbor avian influenza viruses (AIVs) of entirely American lineage, entirely Eurasian lineage, and mixes of the two, providing compelling evidence of the importance of the North Atlantic as a corridor of virus movement and mixing, according to a study yesterday in PLoS One.
Adults who were hospitalized were 25% less likely to die if they were given the drug.
China reported one new H7N9 influenza case today, in a 78-year-old man from Hunan province. The man is hospitalized in the city of Changsha, according to a provincial health ministry report translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
The man is from Shaoyang city in southwestern Hunan province, according to a story today from Xinhua, China's state news agency.
An emerging tick-borne bacterium in Europe, Asia, and Africa poses a risk for immunocompromised patients, causing an illness that could be mistaken for an underlying disease, according to a study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
In other dromedary news, research on camels' possible role is under way in Qatar.
Data from 5 flu seasons showed that 18% of people likely contracted flu, but only 23% got sick.
Two of China's provinces—Guangdong and Hunan—reported new H7N9 infections today, both older people who are hospitalized.
The Drexel University student who died last week from serogroup B meningococcal disease had the same strain that has infected Princeton University students, suggesting that the outbreak strain is still present at Princeton, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
A mapping study flags northern Vietnam as a high-risk area.
A measles outbreak that started at a Christian school in Chilliwack, British Columbia, has now spread to a college campus near Vancouver, according to reports from Fraser Valley Health, the area's public health department, and British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).
A 2-year-old Cambodian girl has died from H5N1 avian flu, the country's ninth case this year, according to a joint statement today from Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The girl, from Kandal village in Kampot province, which borders Vietnam in southern Cambodia, developed a fever on Mar 8. She was admitted to a private clinic on Mar 10 and to Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh on Mar 13.
Except for a few Southern hot spots, US flu markers continued their slow slide toward spring.
All MERS case-patients are from Riyadh, and at least 3 of them are in one family.
A measles outbreak in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver has temporarily closed a school in eastern British Columbia after sickening nearly 100 students, and vaccine is being distributed to pharmacies and physicians' offices as the outbreak spreads from the school into the nearby communities, according to news sources this week.
