A report today from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) is calling on the two federal agencies responsible for ensuring the safety of the food supply to address oversight gaps and collect more information on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.
In a study that expands on an earlier analysis, screening of blood donations in Puerto Rico last spring and summer found a 13% incidence of Zika virus, according to a study yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Flu activity remains elevated throughout much of the world, with the H3N2 variant dominating, according to a new update from the World Health Organization (WHO). The report said the peak of flu activity may be over in parts of Europe and North America, with some countries reporting a slight downward trend.
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the yellow fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is over, based on an announcement from the DRC. The declaration follows Angola's Dec 23 announcement that the outbreak had ended in that country. The DRC reported its last case on Jul 12, 2016.
The H7N9 avian influenza virus has sickened two more people in China. The infections were detected in two of the country's biggest cities: Beijing and Shanghai.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) today, along with several other science and medical groups, issued a statement today expressing deep concerns about the impact of a recent executive order restricting entrance by foreign nationals into the United States.
A study yesterday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 0.2% of US women they screened contracted Zika after traveling to endemic areas while pregnant.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today announced two new MERS-CoV illnesses, both of them involving expat women working as healthcare workers in Aseer, located in the southwestern corner of the country.
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.
