Phase 3 clinical trial results for the most advanced dengue vaccine in development, known as CYD-TDV and made by Sanofi Pasteur, showed it is more than 50% protective overall and nearly 90% effective against the most serious, hemorrhagic form of the disease, according to a new study published in The Lancet.
Although some studies have suggested that the quadrivalent (four-strain) human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may raise the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which is a blood clot that lodges in a vein, a Danish study released today in JAMA of more than 500,000 girls and women who received the vaccine did not find an increased VTE incidence.
The number of chikungunya cases imported into the United States rose by 41 in the past week, to 114, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update yesterday. The number of states reporting imported cases climbed from 22 to 27, plus the US Virgin Islands.
An outbreak of an unknown febrile illness that initially prompted suspicion for hemorrhagic fever or Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been diagnosed as dengue fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in a statement.
Dengue cases increased fivefold from 2003 to 2013, but the death rate dropped a bit recently.
The World Health Assembly (WHA) again did not decide on when the last laboratory stocks of variola virus, the pathogen that causes smallpox, should be destroyed, Nature reported today on its news blog.
Five more cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea as of May 12 have been reported by that country's ministry of health, bringing the cumulative number of clinical cases in the outbreak to 248, according to an update yesterday from the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of deaths remains at 171, unchanged from the agency's May 8 update.
China reported two more H7N9 influenza infections today, along with two deaths in patients whose illnesses were announced earlier.
The H5N8 strain of avian flu has been found in wild geese in the same South Korean province that has seen H5N8 outbreaks in domestic ducks, according to a story today in The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper.
Early findings from sequencing of the H5N1 virus that recently caused the death of a Canadian woman suggest that it is similar to strains previously seen in China, according to a CBC News story yesterday.
