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New experiments suggest that mosquitoes can infect humans with Zika and chikungunya viruses in a single bite, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new cases of MERS-CoV today and over the weekend.
On Nov 12, the MOH said a 51-year-old Saudi man from Tabuk was diagnosed as having Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). He is currently in critical condition. Health officials said the man had direct contact with camels, a known risk factor for MERS.
The WHO's update on 13 cases reported from Saudi Arabia also includes a pair of household contacts and some cases with camel exposure.
China is reporting two new H7N9 avian influenza infections, the first since July. The new cases potentially mark the start of the fifth wave of infections.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Originally published by CIDRAP News on Nov 10.
Researchers from the Wistar Institute and the Public Health Agency of Canada yesterday reported promising findings in mice and nonhuman primates for a DNA-based Zika vaccine developed by Inovio, GeneOne Life Sciences, and academic institutions.
The virus is spreading south and west as experts predicted after the H5 clade was discovered in Russia in June.
Experts suspect that sexual spread from men to women might be a factor in Zika's bigger burden on women, but further studies are needed.
The bacterium may have recently evolved to spread person to person, as it becomes more virulent.
A paper published yesterday in Open Biology argues that monitoring resistance gene frequency might be a better way to track and combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and could enable swifter, more accurate treatment of patients with bacterial infections.
Medimmune scientists have been investigating what's behind the decreased FluMist effectiveness that prompted US vaccine advisors to recommend against it this year, and today they reported that reduced fitness of H1N1 vaccine virus strains are the likely culprit.
In related developments, Florida reported seven new locally acquired Zika cases yesterday and today, one of them in a traveler from out of state.
A study published Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution suggests plasmids may play more of a role in spreading and facilitating antibiotic resistance than previously thought.
Austrian officials said H5N8 had also been found in Croatia, which would raise the number of countries affected in Europe to five.
An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted on Nov 3 to recommend a new antibiotic to treat community-acquired pneumonia (CABP), despite concerns over liver toxicity.
Yesterday The Lancet released their Commission on Essential Medicines Policies report, which focuses on how to pay for essential medicines in nations with varying income levels. Included in the report is the first model for estimating the cost of providing essential medicines in the poorest nations.
In other Zika news, Florida reported more local Zika cases over the past few days, officials announced the launch of a vaccine trial, and Palau reported its first local case.
Two papers published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases describe the identification of molecular markers associated with drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued a report on the smattering of H5N8 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cases in Hungary and India reported last week. They said the cases are likely from the Tyva 2016 strain first reported in Russia in September, and predicted the strain will pose a risk to Europe and the Middle East through March of 2017.
Hungary and India reported H5N8, and Algeria found an H7N1 link to a waterfowl die-off.
