Three countries—Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Iraq—recently reported more highly pathogenic H5N8 outbreaks, and Cambodia confirmed another H5N1 detection at a farm in Phnom Penh.
A report yesterday from Brazil's Ministry of Health (MOH) said there are now 723 confirmed cases of yellow fever, including 237 deaths, in that country from Jul 1, 2017, to Feb 28 of this year. That number includes 259 new cases detected in February.
This season's flu vaccine was from 25% to 52% effective against influenza in Europe, according to interim results published today in Eurosurveillance, based on data from five surveillance systems from groups that looked at mid-season vaccine effectiveness (VE) across Europe.
In research news, French scientists detect signs of airborne H5N8 on farms.
Japan's health ministry has given fast-track approval to a new flu antiviral with a different mechanism of action than neuraminidase inhibitors that offers a one-dose treatment option, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
Days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said kratom, a plant used as an opioid substitute, was behind a multistate outbreak of Salmonella illness, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Botany Bay, Enhance Your Life, and Divinity by Divinity Products Distribution of Grain Valley, Mo., agreed to stop selling all products containing kratom, and voluntarily destroyed a high vo
As researchers work on solving the complex puzzle of all the factors that influence flu vaccine effectiveness (VE), researchers today report that low VE of the H3N2 component during the 2012-13 flu season may have been due to poor immune response rather than adaptations in egg-grown vaccine viruses, as previously thought.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed one new case of MERS-CoV on Feb 17. The MOH has issued only sporadic updates this month, and this is the second update in 3 weeks.
A 74-year-old Saudi woman from Rafha was diagnosed as having MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). She is in stable condition. The probable source of her infection is indirect contact with camels, a likely risk factor for the virus.
H9N2 avian flu typically circulates in birds as a low-pathogenic strain.
China has reported the world's first known novel H7N4 avian flu infection in a human, according to a report today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP), which based its information on a notification from the mainland's National Health and Family Planning Commission.
