Clostridium difficile

FDA: Dole kept salad facility running for 18 months after Listeria surfaced

Federal inspection records obtained by Food Safety News (FSN) show that Dole kept a salad processing plant in Ohio operating for about 18 months after finding Listeria contamination there, until an outbreak was traced to the facility in January of this year.

NewLink receives more funding to keep testing VSV-EBOV Ebola vaccine

NewLink Genetics Corporation announced yesterday that it had received $21.6 million in federal funding to continue developing its vesicular stomatitis virus–Ebola virus (VSV-EBOV) vaccine candidate.

Case isolation, safe burial key to curbing Ebola in Sierra Leone

A nationwide campaign to isolate 100% of Ebola cases and conduct all burial safely, alongside a global response plan, was a key intervention that helped curb transmission in Sierra Leone, according to a study of illness patterns in chiefdoms and households.

China confirms new H7N9 avian flu case

Taiwan officials today reported a new H7N9 avian flu case on the mainland, while Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) provided details on eight recent cases in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Cases of Salmonella linked to cucumbers top 800

A multistate outbreak of Salmonella Poona linked to cucumbers imported from Mexico has grown by 71 cases since Oct 14, to 838, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in an update.

Measles vaccine has saved 17.1 million lives since 2000, CDC says

Global measles deaths have dropped 79% in the past 15 years, and the measles vaccine saved an estimated 17.1 million people in that span, but vaccine uptake has stagnated in recent years, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Both US rotavirus vaccines shown 80% effective in kids

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.

Deputy director nominated for top FDA post

President Barack Obama today nominated deputy commissioner Robert Califf, MD, as the next Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Bloomberg News reported. If approved by the Senate, Califf would replace Margaret Hamburg, MD, who stepped down in March after serving 6 years.

NY Legionnaires' disease outbreak source identified in South Bronx

Officials identified a cooling tower at the Opera House Hotel in New York City's South Bronx as the source of a recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, according to a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) press release yesterday.

The health department also confirmed that, given no new cases or onset of symptoms since Aug 3, the outbreak is officially over.

WHO says African continent has gone a year without polio

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement yesterday confirming that a wild poliovirus case has not been detected in Africa for 1 year.