The federal government is for the first time cutting Medicare payments to hospitals that have high rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile, according to Kaiser Health News.
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.
About 40% of people in the United States had received a flu vaccine by early November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today, adding that it estimated the intervention prevented an estimated 5 million flu illnesses, 71,000 flu hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported three more MERS-CoV cases, involving a woman and two men from three different locations. All of them had primary exposure to the virus, meaning investigations revealed that they didn't contract MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) from another person.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) said today there were two new cases of MERS-CoV in that country, one linked to camel exposure.
A study published Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution suggests plasmids may play more of a role in spreading and facilitating antibiotic resistance than previously thought.
Two papers published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases describe the identification of molecular markers associated with drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
The WHO announces a vaccine campaign in Haiti and $1 million in funding for Yemen.
Melinta Therapeutics yesterday submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the US Food and Drug for the approval of intravenous and oral Baxdela (delafloxacin), an antibiotic for the treatment of bacterial skin and skin structure infections.
A multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli infections tied to Adams Farm beef, veal, and bison products appears to be over after 11 cases, which is 4 more than when the outbreak was first reported last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
