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China reported two more H7N9 avian influenza cases, including the season's second case detected in Beijing, according to official sources and state media.
An article yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases aims to help healthcare institutions comply with newly mandated antimicrobial stewardship standards by highlighting the habits of successful antimicrobial stewardship programs.
Surprisingly, tests on placental cells that correspond to the earliest pregnancy stages found more damage from the African Zika strain than the Asian one.
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the yellow fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is over, based on an announcement from the DRC. The declaration follows Angola's Dec 23 announcement that the outbreak had ended in that country. The DRC reported its last case on Jul 12, 2016.
In other developments, Iran reported several more H5N8 outbreaks and Bosnia and Herzegovina reported its first H5 outbreak of the season.
A WHO overview of recent Saudi cases says a small hospital outbreak in Buraydah is now considered over.
The H7N9 avian influenza virus has sickened two more people in China. The infections were detected in two of the country's biggest cities: Beijing and Shanghai.
Since November China has totaled at least 347 H7N9 avian flu cases.
Flu markers rose to their highest points yet, as influenza B detections rose slightly, typical for the later months of the flu season.
Getting a flu shot 2 years in a row apparently can, under certain circumstances, backfire.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have uncovered an alternative method by which bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed another MERS-CoV infection yesterday, noting a severe case in Mecca.
The patient is a 60-year-old male expatriate who is hospitalized in critical condition with MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) illness. He is not a healthcare worker and had direct infection with camels, a known risk factor.
Zika doesn't appear to transmit efficiently through breast milk, but questions still remain. Also, experiments with macaques found a low risk of spread by saliva.
Though interventions cut treatment length and hospital stays, only 10% use best steps.
A worrisome spike of more than 300 yellow fever cases in the past week has boosted Brazil's outbreak to 1,060 cases and 166 deaths, the country's health ministry said in an update yesterday.
Officials reported six more H7N9 avian influenza infections in five different provinces in China, signaling an ongoing surge of activity what will likely make the current fifth wave of illnesses the largest since the virus was first detected in humans in 2013.
Poland reports high-path H5N5, and Nigeria confirms another H5N8 outbreak in poultry.
The combination helped doctors treat 2 patients who had serious multidrug-resistant infections.
A recent study in the Journal of Human Lactation showed that pasteurizing breast milk kills both Ebola and Marburg viruses. The research was done at the Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas (MMBNT), and was conducted in the wake of the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak.
