Raising the number of states to report highly pathogenic avian flu in backyard flocks or commercial poultry this year to 15, federal and state officials today announced the first outbreak in Nebraska. In related developments, Missouri reported another outbreak in backyard poultry, and federal officials reported more H5 detections in wild birds, including the first in Ohio and Illinois.
Also, South Dakota reports a second outbreak in commercial poultry and Maine confirms a new outbreak in a backyard flock.
More than a third of new mothers early in the COVID-19 pandemic had symptoms of postpartum (after-birth) depression—nearly triple pre-pandemic levels—and one in five had major depressive symptoms, with symptoms for both disorders higher in women who fed their babies formula, according to a study yesterday in BMC Research Notes.
The outbreaks in backyard flocks bring the number of affected states this year to 13, the USDA says.
Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri report new highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks.
China has reported to more H5N6 avian flu infections in humans, both fatal in people who were sick in November and died in early December, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said in a statement today.
The CDC says the risk to humans is low, but people with elevated exposure may be at higher risk.
The estimated effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine against infection in US adolescents was 91%, with 93% protection against symptomatic illness and 85% against asymptomatic disease amid the Delta SARS-CoV-2 surge in Connecticut, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
A retrospective study of 17 COVID-19 survivors with lingering symptoms reveals that 10 (59%) had nerve damage, which the researchers said could have been triggered by potentially treatable infection-related immune dysfunction.
A study yesterday in JAMA Network Open tracked excess mortality caused by both influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the United States from 1999 to 2018 and found that RSV caused more deaths in infants, while both viruses caused substantial mortality in elderly Americans.
