According to the latest cholera situation report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 23,000 new suspected cases of the diarrheal disease in Yemen and 242 related deaths since the last update was published Apr 27.
The number of new cases is down a bit from a week ago buts still reflects steady ongoing activity.
In the first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of a Zika outbreak in Asia, researchers from Singapore yesterday reported how easily the virus can be introduced and spread even when vector control programs are good, adding that response measures had a measurable impact on curbing the disease. Writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday, the team described an outbreak that began in August 2016.
Tests have confirmed another H9N2 avian influenza infection, in a 32-year-old Beijing man who had symptoms such as fever, cough, and sore throat but has since recovered, according to a notice from the Beijing Centers for Disease Control (Beijing CDC) translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Over the weekend and through today, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported four more MERS-CoV cases, including two linked to possible healthcare exposures.
Yesterday Brazil's Ministry of Health lifted the state of emergency caused by the Zika virus, due to the country's dwindling case counts of the mosquito-borne disease.
Many of the new cases are in the north, which has reported a late-season surge; elsewhere, Egypt has a new H5N1 case.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today finalized its cholera vaccine recommendation for adults traveling to disease outbreak areas, based on June 2016 advice from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
A series of tests with low-pathogenic and highly pathogenic strains of H7N8 avian flu involved in Indiana poultry farm outbreaks in 2016 found that turkeys are highly susceptible and show different symptoms than infected chickens do. Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory reported their findings yesterday in PLoS One.
Over the weekend, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) fleshed out more details on 22 recent H7N9 avian flu cases, 8 of them fatal, that were reported Apr 28 to May 4 from China's mainland, signaling continued steady activity in the country's fifth and biggest wave of infections.
