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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday released information detailing how clinicians can get investigational intravenous (IV) zanamivir (Relenza) for severely ill flu patients. The drug is in phase 3 clinical trials and can only be obtained by enrolling patients in ongoing clinical trials or an emergency investigational new drug request.
Six new cases push the 2nd-wave total to 137 as issues arise over poultry testing.
The programs could provide a model for other nations to protect against health threats.
In its annual snapshot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday noted that states in 2012 and 2013 again benefited from the agency's support for public health readiness and response through its Public Health Emergency Preparedness program.
The report, published by the CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), highlighted several success stories, including:
A 60-year-old man has died in Riyadh of MERS-CoV, and a report details a MERS-related stillbirth case.
The rise in H7N9 cases sees no let-up, as a 3-person family cluster is reported.
Two doses of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine (MMRV) were more efficacious at preventing moderate to severe varicella infection (chickenpox) than one dose of monovalent varicella vaccine and markedly more effective against varicella of any severity, according to a study today in The Lancet.
Upcoming Chinese New Year gatherings will put humans in the crosshairs of both H7N9 and seasonal flu strains.
In addition to severe respiratory failure, nonrespiratory illnesses like shock and kidney injury were common in 12 intensive care unit (ICU) patients in Saudi Arabia who had Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections, according to a study today in Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study also noted a low rate of MERS-CoV infection among healthcare workers (HCWs) who had contact with MERS patients.
In a study designed to shed light on a phenomenon seen in Canada of increased risk of pandemic 2009 H1N1 flu in those who received a flu vaccine the year before, ferrets given a seasonal flu shot had worse H1N1 disease than those who had not received the vaccine.
China confirms 14 new cases in five provinces as tests show a mixed picture on poultry farms.
The WHO confirms two fatal cases cases and releases guidance for use in healthcare settings.
A second case of H10N8 avian flu has been confirmed in the same province as the world's first case, which was reported last month, Chinese health officials told Xinhua, the nation's state-run newspaper.
Caribbean territories reporting indigenous cases of Chikungunya fever now number six and confirmed and suspected cases number at least 786, with several more imported cases as well, according to a Jan 24 report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
That number is up from 485 in the previous update, from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, on Jan 20.
China reported 11 new H7N9 flu cases today, including the first one in Beijing since last spring.
Numbers hint that season may have peaked, and obesity is being reported in many hospitalized flu patients.
H7N9 avian flu replicates well in finches, sparrows, and parakeets experimentally inoculated with the pathogen, and the birds shed the virus in high numbers and show few signs of disease, scientists reported today in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Four cases of wild poliovirus type 1, the first polio cases of the new year, have been reported in Pakistan, the only polio-endemic country in the world that saw an increase in cases last year, according to a Jan 22 report from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
Seven new cases threaten to push the second wave higher than the first one last spring.
The H5N8 strain of avian flu has been found in wild geese in the same South Korean province that has seen H5N8 outbreaks in domestic ducks, according to a story today in The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper.
