Administering tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine together with the flu vaccine during pregnancy was found as safe as administering them sequentially, according to a retrospective cohort study published this week in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The seasonal flu vaccine might cut the risk of contracting flu-associated pneumonia acquired in the community by more than half, a study today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is funding two projects to aid in developing better seasonal flu vaccines and in improving pandemic flu preparedness, the agency said in a news release yesterday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received reports of 113 additional cases of salmonellosis likely linked to cucumbers in the past week, raising the outbreak total to 671, the agency said in an update yesterday.
US officials need to ramp up active surveillance for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 viruses and focus on vulnerable regions to prepare for a likely reintroduction of the disease this fall, US Geological Survey (USGS) experts said in a commentary yesterday in Virology Journal.
Both the H3N2 and B strains will differ in next year's Southern Hemisphere trivalent flu vaccine.
Kuwaiti health officials have notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about a fatal MERS-CoV case, in a 78-year-old man from Kuwait City who owned camels and had frequent contact with them, according to a WHO statement today.
H5N8 avian flu has returned to South Korea after a few months of inactivity, officials said, while Nigeria, which has been hit hard by H5N1 avian flu, reported seven more farm outbreaks.
Chikungunya outbreak cases in the Caribbean and the Americas continued a modest increase for the third straight week, with only 3,085 new infections reported in an update late last week from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The most recent weekly updates before last week's included 7,156 and 4,857 new cases. The two updates before that noted much higher levels of 34,866 and 27,867 new cases, respectively.
The USDA issued a preparedness and response report and poultry culling guidance as turkey growers followed suit.
