The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the nation's first variant H3N2 (H3N2v) case of the year, a Texas resident who had contact with swine before illness began, according to a weekly flu update, which noted further decline in seasonal flu activity.
The country is in its fifth and largest wave of H7N9 infections, with almost 700 cases.
Two European countries—Italy and Russia—reported new highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu outbreaks, and Vietnam reported five H5N1 events that were detected back in February, according to the latest notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) said there was a new case of MERS-CoV today linked to indirect camel exposure.
In the latest avian flu developments, Vietnam reported another highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak and Denmark and Finland reported more H5N8 detections. Also, Taiwan reported several more outbreaks caused by low-pathogenic H5N2, according to the latest notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
China this week recorded a slowdown in new H7N9 avian influenza cases, but activity continued across a wide geographic range, including Beijing, and one of the illnesses occurred in a young child, according to update today from Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP).
In avian flu developments today, Russia reported two more highly pathogenic H5N8 outbreaks and Vietnam reported another H5N1 detection in backyard poultry, according to notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
As more and more Americans consume unpasteurized, or "raw," milk and cheese, a new study in Emerging Infectious Disease found that the unpasteurized products cause 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than their pasteurized counterparts.
In addition, Sweden and Hungary report H5N8 avian flu outbreaks in poultry.
In its latest weekly influenza report, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) today confirmed 29 new H7N9 avian flu cases in mainland China, the most since late February. There have now been 616 cases of H7N9 reported in China since October of last year, in what is the country's fifth wave of the disease, the CHP said.
