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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.
A new assessment says that avian flu "gain of function" research poses a serious outbreak risk.
Four more MERS cases, two fatal, were reported today in Saudi Arabia.
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).
A 56-year-old woman in Qatar died of MERS, the country's third case in a month.
Government watchdog group says agency cut corners in assessing pilot inspection projects.
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.
The WHO confirmed four MERS cases in Saudi Arabia, raising the global tally to 108 cases and 50 deaths.
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.
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.
