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Mishandling of lab material that may have contained live virus follows other CDC safety lapses earlier in the year.
Jordan and Saudi Arabia reported three new Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases over the past 5 days, according to media and government sources.
The nation's flu markers showed another sharp spike last week, with all 10 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regions reporting that clinic visits for flu-like illness were above their baselines.
Overall, the percentage of doctor's visits for flu-like illness climbed from 3.7% to 5.5% last week, while the percentage of respiratory samples that were positive for flu increased from 25.9% to 28.1%
Sierra Leone's western area is seeing intense Ebola activity, and in Guinea a surge of cases in one area propelled the country into its highest weekly case incidence so far.
Chinese researchers who tested 225 close contacts of H7N9 influenza patients found that about 10% of them carried antibodies suggesting they had been infected with the virus without getting sick, according to a letter yesterday in Emerging infectious Diseases.
A University of Iowa scientist has been put on a year's probation for conducting research on MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) without the university's approval and in a lab lacking the required level of biosafety measures, the Des Moines Register reported yesterday.
The authors say the findings have proved useful in creating a more potent version.
An H5 avian flu virus strikes a large poultry flock in Vietnam, while H5N8 resurfaces in Germany.
China today reported the world's second known human case of H5N6 avian flu, in a 58-year-old man in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said.
The first case, in early May, was in Sichuan province and proved fatal.
The current H5N6 patient is hospitalized in critical condition in Guangzhou, the CHP said in a press release. His close contacts have shown no sign of illness.
A Kansas resident who died this past summer was infected with a new virus that may have been carried by ticks, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) reported in a press release yesterday.
The CDC director said Ebola outbreak conditions have improved since his first visit, but tough challenges remain.
Peramivir, made by BioCryst, is intended to be given to influenza patients in a single intravenous dose.
Total cases of chikungunya in the ongoing outbreak in the Caribbean and Americas now number 1,071,354, an increase of 36,428 from the previous week's total, according to a Dec 19 update from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) today announced seven more H7N9 avian influenza infections—four of them fatal—in three different provinces on China's mainland. In a statement it said four patients are from Xinjiang, two are from Zhejiang, and one is from Jiangsu.
In the first stop of a 3-day tour, the UN director warned against easing up on response efforts.
After 28 cases and 5 deaths, officials warn against eating any commercially made caramel apples.
Almost 70% of H3N2 strains are mismatched with the vaccine, and 4 more kids have died.
The national count for acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), an unexplained polio-like illness in children, has increased by 8, to 102 cases in 34 states, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) reported yesterday.
An H5N8 influenza virus has been detected in a backyard poultry flock in southwestern Oregon, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) reported today, just 3 days after H5N8 and H5N2 viruses were found in wild birds in neighboring Washington.
New information now indicates phase 2 trials will most likely start in Africa in February.
