Two new cases of wild poliovirus in Afghanistan and several cases of vaccine-derived polio in a handful of other countries were noted today in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's (GPEI's) weekly update. Myanmar, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Ethiopia all recorded vaccine-derived cases.
Genentech, part of the Roche Group, yesterday announced promising phase 3 trial findings for the use of one-dose baloxavir marboxil (Xofluza) to safely treat flu in children, according to results presented on Sep 1 during the Options X Congress in Singapore.
A multistate Cyclospora outbreak linked to fresh basil imported from Mexico has sickened 73 more people, increasing the total to 205 infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an Aug 15 update.
A modeling study that incorporated air movement patterns from farms affected early in the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza outbreak that hit US poultry in 2015 suggests that most affected farms in Iowa may have received airborne virus from farms within and outside the state.
Animal health officials in Vietnam reported two outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu at poultry farms in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in the country's southeast, VN Express International, a newspaper based in Hanoi, reported today.
Sixteen more measles cases were reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, lifting the total for 2019 to 1,164. The number of affected states held steady at 30, according to the CDC's regular weekly update today.
Researchers from Ontario followed more than 100,000 live births for 5 years after the 2009-10 flu season and found no adverse health outcomes in children exposed to prenatal 2009 pandemic (pH1N1) flu vaccination, according to a study yesterday in BMJ.
The drug was active against flu A, B, C, and D, as well as avian and swine strains.
A new multicenter study today in Clinical Infectious Diseases found little effect of ribavirin and interferon therapy on critically ill MERS patients.
The study took place from 2012 to 2018 at 14 Saudi Arabian hospitals, and involved 349 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) patients seeking treatment in intensive care units (ICUs).
Two countries in Africa and Pakistan have recorded new polio cases in the past week, according to an update today from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
Pakistan has reported two wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Shangla and Bannu districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, with onset of paralysis on May 18 and 24. The cases raise Pakistan's total in 2019 to 24.
