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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Bexsero, a Novartis vaccine to prevent meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B in people 10 through 25 years, the second group B vaccine approved by the FDA.
US flu activity last week showed some signs of decline but continued at an elevated pace, well above epidemic levels, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update.
Officials are assessing farm and public health workers after widespread outbreaks.
Liberia has 46 new Ebola cases, Sierra Leone 22, and Guinea 2.
Saudi Arabia's Minister of Health (MOH) today confirmed three new MERS-CoV cases in elderly Riyadh residents, which means the city has had seven cases in 5 days.
All three patients with MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) are in critical condition, the MOH said in an update. They are an 84-year-old woman and two men, 80 and 77. None are healthcare workers or had preexisting disease.
China has reported three more H7N9 avian flu infections, two in Zhejiang province and one in Guangdong province, according to an analysis of Chinese state media report and a provincial health department report by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Saudi Arabia today reported 2 new MERS cases in Riyadh and 2 deaths.
Cases continued to drop, with WHO advisors saying complacency is the biggest obstacle to getting to zero.
The H5N1 virus is a novel reassortant between a Eurasian H5N8 virus and North American avian flu strains.
The national number of measles cases linked to exposure at California Disney parks has grown to 67, with 59 of the cases confirmed in California.
No let-up has occurred over the past few days in detections of several highly pathogenic H5 avian flu strains in poultry and wild birds.
Ebola will continue to hobble the economies of outbreak nations, but not at levels originally feared.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported 12,294 cases of chikungunya in the Caribbean and Americas on Jan 16, bringing the outbreak total to 1,133,561.
The new total includes 1,106,488 suspected and 24,127 confirmed locally acquired cases and 2,946 imported cases of the mosquito-borne disease.
Egyptian health officials have reported the country's fourth and fifth deaths from H5N1 avian flu this year, Reuters reported today and yesterday.
The victims were a 47-year-old woman from Asyut governorate and a 6-year-old child from Minya province. Both Asyut and Minya are rural regions located in central Egypt along the Nile.
Saudi Arabia reports 2 MERS deaths, and the WHO details 3 Saudi, 2 Omani cases.
As the Ebola case count hits 21,373, the committee will meeet Jan 20 to assess the outbreak situation.
More than 100 farms in Taiwan have tested positive for avian flu, including a new H5N3 strain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed four more cases of a mysterious polio-like illness that causes limb weakness in children, raising the total since August to 107 in 34 states, according to an update yesterday.
Some measures of influenza activity in the United States decreased last week, but 19 flu-related deaths in children were reported, far higher than any previous week of the season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in today's weekly update.
Vaccine effectiveness is well below the typical season average, which is around 60%.
