Federal health officials have announced 45 more high-pathogenic H5 avian flu detections in waterfowl, including the first involving wild birds in Alabama, Maine, and New Jersey in the recent spread of the virus. Also, officials reported two more outbreaks involving other types of birds in New York.
Mortality rates among children born with congenital Zika syndrome up to 3 years of age were more than 11 times higher than those without Zika, researchers reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Two independent UK studies published yesterday in PLOS Medicine find only a very slight risk of blood clots in the brain after receipt of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine and none after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Both studies were led by University of Edinburgh researchers.
So far, highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks have hit poultry in 5 states.
The risk of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death was much lower among more than 9,000 Canadian COVID-19 patients infected with the Omicron variant than among matched Delta patients, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA.
The risk of hospitalization or death with Omicron was 41% of—and the risk of death was one-tenth of—that of Delta.
The Indiana Board of Animal Health (IBAH) said today that initial tests at a third turkey farm in the state are positive for H5 avian flu. The new detection marks the United States' fifth recent outbreak in poultry. Further testing is under way to assess if the virus is the same highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that struck the first Indiana farm.
A new study comparing excess years of life lost (YLL) during the first year of COVID-19 in parts of England and Wales shows that economically deprived areas suffered three times as many deaths as affluent regions, and young adults (15 to 44 years old) were 11 times more likely to die from the virus in poorer parts of the United Kingdom. The study is published in PLOS Medicine.
The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) last week announced a new program to improve surveillance and prescribing of antimicrobials in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) .
Confirmation of the H5N1 strain comes after the virus was detected last week at an Indiana turkey farm.
People who received a different brand of COVID-19 vaccine booster than they did in the primary series had lower rates of infection than those who received the same brand, according to a study in Singapore published late last week in JAMA.
