Two new MERS cases were confirmed in Taif, Saudia Arabia, in recent days, while the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported deaths in two other case-patients.
As of Sep 30, 86 new cases of chikungunya were brought into the United States by travelers, most of them visiting or coming from the Caribbean, according to this week's update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This brings the total count of imported cases to 1,200. Additionally, Florida has reported 11 locally acquired cases, a number that held steady since last week.
The number of chikungunya cases in the Caribbean and surrounding areas continues to grow, with 9,006 new cases bringing the outbreak total to 747,721, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported late last week.
Colombia reported the largest increase, with 3,347 new cases (from 1,350 to 4,697), followed by Martinique, with 2,390 new cases; Puerto Rico, with 1,166; and Guadeloupe, 880.
PAHO reports a large increase in the case count, driven largely by the Dominican Republic, and another locally acquired case is reported in Florida.
The number of confirmed enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) cases in US children has risen from 130 to 153 and the number of states affected from 12 to 18 in just the past 2 days, according to an update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, California has just announced its first confirmed cases, which are not included in the CDC update.
Health officials reported another big spike in the Caribbean region's chikungunya outbreak, much of it due to updated surveillance information from the Dominican Republic, the hardest-hit country, according to the latest report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). PAHO also reported a tripling of outbreak deaths, to 113.
As PAHO stresses mosquito control and other steps, the US chikungunya total tops 900 cases.
Saudi Arabia today confirmed one new MERS-CoV case, in a 60-year-old foreign health worker whose illness was detected in the city of Jubail, in the northeastern part of the country, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The man is hospitalized in an intensive care unit, according to the report. He had no pre-existing disease, the MOH said.
With 69,343 new cases, mostly from the Dominican Republic, the chikungunya outbreak in the Caribbean reached 658,466 cases last week, according to an Aug 29 update from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The US government plans to request that federally funded laboratories suspend all work on potentially dangerous pathogens for about 24 hours to inventory stocks of microbes, ScienceInsider reported today.
