Signaling an ongoing rise in H7N9 avian flu activity in China, the country's Liaoning province in the northeast today reported two cases, according to a local health department statement translated and posted today by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
A study yesterday in PLoS Medicine shows that the larvicide pyriproxyfen (PPF) greatly reduces the number of adult Aedes mosquitoes, the vector that transmits Zika, yellow fever, and dengue.
Five more human H7N9 avian flu illnesses have been reported in China, one from Henan province and four from Anhui province, according to government statements translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Two more babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects, raising the total to 36, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update. The number of Zika-related pregnancy losses remained at 5.
A new study published today in PLOS Medicine shows that the Zika virus triggers Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and causes congenial birth defects. Though these findings have been demonstrated by other studies, this is the largest systemic literature review of the most devastating outcomes of Zika infection to date.
Saudi Arabia late yesterday announced three more MERS cases in three cities, raising the total over the past week to six cases.
All three cases are listed as primary, meaning there are no known links to other MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) cases, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) said. None of the patients work in healthcare or had exposure to camels.
The MOH listed the patients as:
In other developments, research teams describe viral levels in semen and thrombocytopenia as a complication.
Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) today announced its first imported H7N9 avian influenza case of the new season, in a 75-year-old man who started having symptoms in Guangdong province in southern China, according to a statement.
An international group reporting in Clinical Infectious Diseases said a 9-month-old who died of Ebola in Guinea after her parents showed no signs of the illness likely contracted the virus through her mother's breastmilk. Both the mother's milk and the father's semen tested positive for Ebola virus.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison today described a new technique that could improve the production of influenza B vaccine viruses, consisting of a "backbone" for adding specific components to protect against both the Victoria and Yamagata lineages. They reported their findings today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
