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.
More than 500 new cholera cases have been reported in Iraq since last week, and the outbreak has spread to the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a Middle East Online update yesterday.
The chikungunya outbreak in the Caribbean and the Americas continued to expand slowly, as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) added 3,409 new cases in its weekly update published late last week.
Vaccine effectiveness (VE) for both US-approved rotavirus vaccines— the five-strain (RV5) and single-strain (RV1) versions—is 80% in children, according to a study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Sierra Leone's last two Ebola patients were released from treatment yesterday, starting the 42-day countdown toward Ebola-free status, Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported today. The patients were both released from a treatment center in Makeni, in the northern part of the country.
US health officials are grappling with a surge in human cases of tularemia in several states this year, Reuters reported today.
Colorado has had 41 confirmed cases so far this year, Wyoming 14—including 1 death—and South Dakota at least 19, the story said, and a Nebraska official today told CIDRAP News that that state has had 18, for a total of 92 in the four states.
The National Chicken Council (NCC) yesterday released recommendations for preventing the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza to farms that raise and breed broiler chickens.
The recommendations, which were developed by a working group of veterinarians and avian flu experts, are intended to increase biosecurity on poultry farms before wild birds begin migrating south from Canada in the fall.
