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.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released updated guidelines for treating and preventing anthrax in adults and pregnant women, recommending, among other things, the simultaneous use of antimicrobial drugs and antitoxin in patients who have systemic disease.
Tyson Foods has recalled 33,840 pounds of chicken products over a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak in a Tennessee prison, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced late last week.
The source of the spores that severly sickened a Florida man in 2011 was never discovered.
The victim of the first human H5N1 infection reported in the Americas was a woman in her 20s from Red Deer, Alta., who was a nurse at a hospital there, according to reports in the local newspaper, the Red Deer Advocate.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed the two most recent cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia, in 51- and 26-year-old women.
The agency offered a few new details in the cases, which were first reported by Saudi officials on Dec 5.
More than half of 70 first responders surveyed did not know that occupants of an entire building need decontamination following an indoor release of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, according to a study in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The US government will maintain its supply of anthrax antitoxin through 2018 under Project BioShield contracts issued by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the HHS said in a news release yesterday.
Antibiotics stockpiles are in place for an anthrax attack, but will people take the drugs?
May 29, 2013
