Global public health initiatives have cut malaria cases 37% and malaria deaths 60% since 2000 and led to other notable progress against the mosquito-borne disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in a new report and press release to commemorate World Malaria Day.
Kansas researchers have developed a vaccine that they say can protect poultry against multiple H5 avian flu strains, but chicken producers remain reluctant to use such vaccines because of possible foreign bans on US poultry products, according to reports yesterday.
The number of locally acquired dengue fever cases on the big island of Hawaii has risen by 10 in a week, to 149 cases, the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) said in an update yesterday.
Of the confirmed cases, 132 are in Hawaii residents and 17 involve visitors. Most of the total cases (116, or 78%) have occurred in adults, while 33 cases (22%) involve children. Illness onset occurred from Sep 11 to Dec 7.
The use of antimicrobial drugs in farm animals raised for food increased 4% from 2013 to 2014 and a dramatic 22% from 2009 to 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday in its annual report on such drug use.
Regions vary by disease impact and type of threat, with Africa and Southeast Asia bearing large burdens.
Saudi Arabia reported a new MERS-CoV infection yesterday in the city of Buraidah, while an international team of researchers found no serologic evidence that the virus is endemic in Kazakh camel herds.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) today recommended in a report that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) BioWatch program not pursue any upgrades to its second-generation (Gen-2) technology for monitoring the country for potential bioterror attacks until it can provide better efficacy data.
Earlier this week, a leading expert voiced similar concerns, noting that the WHO hadn't made its voice heard.
After a weekend with no MERS-CoV cases, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new case today away from recent hot spots and yesterday reported the death of a previously confirmed patient.
New DNA evidence has shown that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plaque, has been endemic in humans for at least 3,000 years before the first plague pandemic was recorded, according to findings yesterday in Cell.
