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The number of confirmed or probable cases of chikungunya—a mosquito-borne disease that, aside from imported cases, had not been seen in the Caribbean until just last month—on St. Martin and nearby islands has spiked to 485, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in an update yesterday.
Six more H7N9 cases were reported in China today, keeping the pace of infections close to last spring's peak.
Some influenza markers are down, others up, and regions are seeing widely varying case levels.
A Bangladeshi doctor who was working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, died of a Middle East respiratory coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection on Jan 15, according to an Arab News report today. The case has not yet been announced by Saudi authorities.
A multistate outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg linked to chicken from Foster Farms in California has now sickened 430 people in 23 states and Puerto Rico, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday. That number represents 14 new cases since the CDC's previous update, on Dec 19.
Seven new H7N9 infections bring the latest 7-day total to 31 cases, near last year's peak level.
The bill provides increases for the CDC, DHS, and FDA and funds for pandemic readiness.
Early findings from sequencing of the H5N1 virus that recently caused the death of a Canadian woman suggest that it is similar to strains previously seen in China, according to a CBC News story yesterday.
Three locations in eastern China report four new H7N9 cases, and the WHO notes that six previously reported patients had links to poultry.
A Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak at a Tennessee prison has grown to nine cases, and investigators are probing 19 infections caused by the same strain in 12 other states to see if they are linked to the outbreak, which has been tied to chicken products from Tyson Foods.
Fatal Alberta case reported last week involved unusual complications, including brain inflammation.
The new cases are all from eastern provinces that have reported other recent cases.
With the flu season hitting its stride and the 2009 H1N1 virus spreading, the public health advocacy group Trust for America's Health today called for greater efforts to increase flu vaccine coverage, saying only 35.7% of working-age adults were vaccinated last season.
Rotavirus vaccination in infants slightly raises the risk of a specific intestinal disorder, researchers reported today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Lab tests have detected 11 more H7N9 cases, including a fatal one, and Hong Kong has confirmed another H7N9 death.
The source of the spores that severly sickened a Florida man in 2011 was never discovered.
An outbreak of H5N1 avian flu has destroyed 50,000 chickens at a farm in China, and four H5N1 outbreaks in Vietnam have led to the deaths of almost 10,000 poultry, according to separate reports filed with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Tyson Foods has recalled 33,840 pounds of chicken products over a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak in a Tennessee prison, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced late last week.
New H7N9 cases continue to arise, and four provinces are now affected this year.
With peak likely still to come, concern heightens over H1N1 sickening middle-aged patients this season.
