Federal health officials on Sep 4 announced a multistate Salmonella Poona outbreak linked to cucumbers imported from Mexico, which triggered a recall by the US-based importer that distributed the products.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 285 illnesses in 27 states have been reported. So far 1 death has been linked to the outbreak, and 53 people have been hospitalized.
Sierra Leone health officials said yesterday that tests on a 67-year-old woman who died in Kambia district were positive for Ebola, but further testing is under way to confirm the findings, Reuters reported yesterday. The positive test is the country's first since its countdown to Ebola-free status began on Aug 24.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Aug 21 reported 34,866 new cases of chikungunya in the Caribbean and Americas. The outbreak total, adjusted for ongoing case confirmation, is 1,679,223.
The new total includes 514,534 suspected, 17,118 confirmed locally acquired cases, and 802 imported cases reported in 2015, or 532,454 total for the year.
Those who refuse or delay vaccines constitute a growing, urgent challenge around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement today.
The man's infection is Spain's first that didn't involve travel to an endemic area.
Saudi Arabia's health ministry today announced two new MERS-CoV cases, both of them from Riyadh, an area that over the past several weeks has experienced a spate of hospital-linked cases.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case over the weekend and a death in a previously reported patient, both in Riyadh.
The new case involves a 30-year-old Saudi man who is hospitalized in stable condition, the MOH reported on Jul 25. He is not a healthcare worker but had contact with a MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) patient in either a community or hospital setting, the MOH said.
The top 10% of healthcare workers in terms of antibiotic use prescribe the drugs for 95% or more of patients they see for colds, bronchitis, or other acute respiratory infections (ARI), according to an Annals of Internal Medicine study yesterday.
The lowest 10%, in contrast, prescribe antibiotics at 40% or less of patient visits for ARI.
After going 9 straight days without a MERS-CoV case, Saudi Arabia today reported two.
In 2013 and 2014, high-containment laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged about a dozen power outages and airflow system failures that could have compromised safety, USA Today reported yesterday.
The problems were disclosed in a lab incident summary that the newspaper obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. They occurred between January 2013 and July 2014.
