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New studies show H7N9 attaches readily to human respiratory tract cells and replicates well in pigs.
The incidence of meningitis in areas covered by a 2011 vaccination campaign was 94% lower a year later compared with nonvaccinated regions of Chad in sub-Saharan Africa, a new study found.
Over the 2 weeks that closed out August, flu activity in the world remained at low levels, with H3N2 as the predominant strain and 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) and influenza B circulating in many countries as well, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.
Though toddler vaccine levels remain high, recent measles outbreaks have raised concern.
Martin County, Florida, today confirmed 3 more dengue infections to bring the county's total to 18, The Global Dispatch reported, as a blood center suspended collections in Martin County and neighboring St. Lucie County.
The tests could be used for detection and to help in drug development.
The new cases all involved contact with previously confirmed case-patients.
Scientists who conducted the first large-scale cholera outbreak control campaign in Africa using oral vaccine reported yesterday in PLoS One that immunization was well accepted by the public and that high vaccination coverage is possible, even in remote settings.
CDC Director Tom Frieden says new issues like MERS call for better diagnostic tools.
Using reverse genetics, Spanish researchers have created a full-length DNA clone of the MERS-CoV virus that could be used as a vaccine candidate and to study characteristics of the virus, the team reported today in mBio, published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Saudi Arabia has now reported 12 cases in 3 days, and experts show mixed levels of concern.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that a small study in macaques has shown promise of using a two-drug combination against infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to study findings published yesterday in Nature Medicine.
Four more MERS cases, two fatal, were reported today in Saudi Arabia.
A new assessment says that avian flu "gain of function" research poses a serious outbreak risk.
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).
Surveillance for pneumonia with an unknown cause and sentinel hospital-based surveillance in Beijing helped detect four cases of novel H7N9 avian flu, health officials from the city reported yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. These cases were reported previously by Chinese officials, but the report offers new details.
Blood tests indicate that many Middle East camels may have been exposed to MERS-CoV.
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.
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).
Government watchdog group says agency cut corners in assessing pilot inspection projects.
