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Alfred Almanza, head of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), took issue with a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report this week that was critical of some aspects of an FSIS poultry inspection plan, saying the GAO omitted key details.
The GAO report asserted that the USDA took some shortcuts in assessing the plan, called the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP).
Blood tests indicate that many Middle East camels may have been exposed to MERS-CoV.
Newly installed used cleaning equipment likely played a significant role in the 2011 outbreak of listeriosis linked to Colorado cantaloupe that sickened 147 (see CDC map below) and killed 33, according to a report in today's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is asking for bids on a 24/7 service to provide global data on disease outbreaks and other biologic threats, the agency said in a release this week.
Government watchdog group says agency cut corners in assessing pilot inspection projects.
A 56-year-old woman in Qatar died of MERS, the country's third case in a month.
Confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis now total 663, according to updates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS).
Five of the most common healthcare-related infections cost the US nearly $10 billion a year.
In a pair of puzzling statements, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sep 1 reported the recovery of four patients from Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections, though two of them had previously been described as asymptomatic.
Several virologists have questioned the report of a MERS virus fragment found in a Saudi bat sample.
H7N9 studies from China revealed more about cytokine patterns in severely ill patients and reaffirmed airborne spread in ferrets.
The WHO confirmed four MERS cases in Saudi Arabia, raising the global tally to 108 cases and 50 deaths.
South Korean researchers reported today that they have isolated variant H3N2 influenza (H3N2v) viruses in pigs outside of North America for the first time, and they also isolated novel reassortant swine H3N1 viruses that have 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1)–derived genes.
Findings raise concerns about an approach eyed for developing a "universal" flu vaccine.
A Saudi official reported two asymptomatic MERS cases as the WHO confirmed two from Qatar.
Progress is being made overall in achieving the targets set out by the Healthy People 2020 program for fully immunizing adolescents, but human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage is lagging and healthcare providers should use every opportunity to administer it, says a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Michigan health officials today reported a variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infection in a child who exhibited swine at the Berrien County Youth Fair, which took place Aug 12 through Aug 17 in Berrien Springs, Mich., in the southwest corner of the state.
The case raises the nation's number of H3N2v cases this year to 17. Though Michigan had a few H3N2v cases last summer, the child's illness is its first this year.
In addition to naming risk groups, the new study found that West Nile in 2012 cost Texas over $47 million.
Saudi Arabia announced two new MERS cases, one fatal, as the WHO recognized eight recent ones.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today it has received reports of six more Cyclospora infections, lifting the nation's total to 616 so far (see map below).
Of 591 case-patients with available information, 45 (8%) were hospitalized. The latest illness-onset date was Aug 6.
