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(CIDRAP News) – Diagnostic tests for the novel coronavirus (CoV) that recently emerged in the Middle East are being deployed rapidly in Europe, and about 250 patients have already been tested for the virus, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Dec 7, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza is widespread in eight US states, and some other indicators of an early flu season continue to rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

The percentage of patients' respiratory samples testing positive for flu grew to 20.7% in the week ending Dec 1, up from 15.2% the week before. And, as before, the H3N2 strain continues to dominate, which can be a sign of a more severe flu season.

Dec 6, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced new measures to improve the safety of raw ground turkey and chicken products, including requiring companies to reassess their food safety plans.

The new steps are in response to several Salmonella outbreaks that have been linked to ground poultry, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said in a statement.

Dec 5, 2012

Dec 4, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Further testing on three more products from New England Compounding Center (NECC) has turned up extensive contamination in three more products, and federal officials are asking healthcare workers to be alert for more infections, though they stopped short of calling the situation an outbreak.

(CIDRAP News) – The early uptick in flu infections that are predominantly the H3N2 strain shows some worrisome parallels to the nation's last bad regular flu season in 2003-04, officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

Dec 3, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Following the recent retrospective confirmation of two fatal infections with a novel coronavirus (CoV) in Jordan, the Jordanian health ministry said no more such cases have surfaced in the country since April, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Flu activity in the United States rose substantially last week, hitting the national baseline at the earliest point in the season since the 2003-04 flu season, and the first case of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) since September has been reported from Iowa, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) reported today that two cases of novel coronavirus (CoV) infection occurred as part of a cluster of hospital respiratory infections in Jordan back in April. Besides adding one more to the list of affected countries, the announcement signaled that the virus emerged 2 months earlier than previously thought and increased the likelihood that it can spread from person to person.

(CIDRAP News) – A third case in a family cluster of novel coronavirus infections has been confirmed, raising the global case count to seven, and the fourth illness in the family is now listed as a probable case, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.

Nov 29, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – A panel of experts that advises the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is recommending that residents of polio-endemic countries be required to have polio vaccinations before they are allowed to travel abroad.

(CIDRAP News) – The largest study so far exploring gaps in acellular pertussis vaccine protection in kids found that their risk of getting sick increased as time passed after the final dose, according to researchers who examined the role of the vaccine during California's 2010 pertussis epidemic.