Two studies report high mortality rates in wild birds and unprecedented rapid genetic reassortment.
South Africa reported four more outbreaks involving highly pathogenic H5N8, two in poultry and two in other captive bird settings, according to two reports today from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its weekly FluView report, noted a new case of variant influenza A reported in Ohio involving variant H1N2 (H1N2v).
Genetic analysis of H7N9 viruses obtained from Chinese poultry from 2013 to 2017 identified new mutations that make the virus more lethal in chickens and may pose a greater threat to human health, based on virulence and transmissibility tests in animal models. Researchers from China reported their findings Oct 24 in Cell Research.
A fatal yellow fever case has been confirmed in a resident of Itatiba, a city in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, located about 50 miles north the state's capital city, according to an Oct 17 city government statement translated and posted yesterday by ProMED Mail, the online reporting system of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–led study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases reveals that antiviral drugs are prescribed to only 15% of outpatients who have acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and a high risk for influenza.
The data underscore a need to increase appropriate prescribing, the authors said.
In a stunning development that played out over the weekend, news surfaced that WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appointed 93-year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as goodwill ambassador for noncommunicable diseases, prompting international outrage followed by a quick withdrawal of the appointment.
A phase 2 study of intravenous (IV) zanamivir in children hospitalized with severe influenza found that treatment was safe, reduced viral load, and was associated with clinical improvement, researchers reported yesterday in an early online edition of Pediatrics.
The number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in Madagascar's plague outbreak has climbed to 849, 67 of them fatal, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in an update. The totals reflect increases of 165 cases and 10 deaths since the WHO's last report on Oct 12.
In a sample from a patient who died, researchers saw signs that the H7N9 virus had started to mutate to a form resistant to Tamiflu.
