Panel finds overall response was thorough, but notes policy gaps and some missteps after the samples were found.
A federal ethics committee that reviewed a research proposal to experimentally infect humans with Zika virus to help gauge the best approach to a vaccine has rejected the application, according to a report posted last week and first reported today by Stat.
President-elect Donald Trump has named Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an outspoken critic of vaccines, chair of a panel on vaccine safety and scientific integrity, according to the Washington Post today. Trump met with Kennedy at Trump Towers in New York today.
In updates yesterday and today, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) announced five new MERS-CoV cases, one of them fatal.
Yesterday the MOH reported four new MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) cases, two in Riyadh and a pair from Buraydah, located about 200 miles northwest of Riyadh in the north central part of the country.
Yesterday the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) released its epidemiologic survey of Zika virus and said the mosquito-borne illness was on the decline in Mexico but increasing in Anguilla, Paraguay, and Peru. Zika cases in the United States, meanwhile, topped 4,600.
The investigation into a cluster of Elizabethkingia anopheles infections in Illinois that were distinct from outbreaks reported in neighboring Wisconsin and Michigan found that the illnesses probably reflect ongoing sporadic infections in critically ill patients, a team from Illinois and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality
Health officials in Abu Dhabi yesterday announced the detection of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in quails in the western part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a report from Xinhua that cited the UAE's state news agency.
The infected birds were found in Al Gharbia, and emergency management teams have taken response steps, including increasing surveillance and alerting farmers in the area, according to the report.
The most common pathogens not properly inactivated were Bacillus anthracis and Francisella tularensis.
Saudi Arabia confirmed a new MERS-CoV case today in Medina, according to its Ministry of Health (MOH).
Document from Federal Select Agent Program aims at public transparency on lab work involving potentially dangerous pathogens.
