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Guinea's health ministry has reported six more cases in the country's Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, lifting the total to 224, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update yesterday.
So far, of 202 patients tested, 121 have been lab confirmed, the agency said. Two more deaths have been reported, pushing that number to 143, an increase of 2 since the WHO's previous update on Apr 25.
Health officials in Anhui province reported a new H7N9 avian flu case in a 55-year-old man, according to a health department notice translated and posted yesterday by FluTrackers, an infectious disease message board.
Two research teams say they have identified antibodies against the novel virus.
Saudi Arabia reported 26 cases and Egypt its first, but new sequencing findings showed no major mutations.
The Caribbean chikungunya outbreak grew by 3,499 cases in the past week, reaching 33,260 suspected, probable, or confirmed cases, according to an update today from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The case count is up from 29,761 in the agency's Apr 22 report.
The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently announced it has funded almost $24 million for 35 research projects geared toward improving food safety.
Some have theorized about changes in the virus, but preliminary data show no mutations so far.
Most flu markers in the United States declined last week, but the Northeast is still in the grip of a wave of influenza B activity, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest FluView report.
The overall epidemiologic status of Guinea's Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak is improving, with 4 of the 6 locations that have reported cases passing the 21-day incubation period with no new cases, according to an update from the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa. Two incubation periods need to pass before the outbreak can be declared over in a particular location.
As the WHO suggests a slight change in spread, the ECDC calls for higher concern.
The rare strain has sickenened 132 people since early 2012.
Testing of nasal and eye swabs of camels in Oman found 5 of 76 samples positive for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and genetic sequencing showed that they were closely related to human viruses in the region
The WHO offered investigation help, with 33 more infections reported in Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Experts say possibilities include a change in the virus and a seasonal pattern to transmission.
North Korea has experienced another H5N1 avian flu outbreak in domestic poultry, according to a report yesterday from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Of a village flock of 501 birds, 136 were killed by the virus, the report said, and the remaining 365 were culled to prevent disease spread. The outbreak, which started on Apr 10, is in North Hwanghae province in the southern part of the country.
Scientists found that camels in three widely separated African countries had MERS-CoV-like antibodies.
Flu activity in Northern Hemisphere countries is headed toward interseasonal levels despite a late-season rise in influenza B activity in many areas, including Asia, the Middle East, and North America, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its latest global flu update. Though each flu season is different, flu experts say it's not unusual to see a late-season rise in influenza B activity.
Three new Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases, along with five deaths in previously announced infections, have been reported in Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa reported today. The new cases raise the country's overall number of cases to 208 and number of deaths to 136; 112 illnesses have been lab confirmed. So far 25 EVD infections, 16 of them fatal, have been reported in Guinea's healthcare workers.
The Saudi MERS count surged by 37 cases and 6 deaths in 3 days, including 21 new cases in Jeddah's outbreak.
The number of patients sickened by H7N9 influenza in China grew by three over the past 3 days, according to reports from three different provinces.
One case is in a 35-year-old woman from Jiangsu province who is hospitalized in critical condition, according to an Apr 19 health department statement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
