On Sep 17 the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) reported one new MERS-CoV case, involving a Saudi man from Riyadh who had contact with camels.
The 50-year-old man is in stable condition after presenting with symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). The MOH said the patient had direct contact with camels, a known risk factor for contracting the respiratory virus.
Spain has reported its first two cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF)—one of them fatal—a tick-borne viral disease that is found in eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and much of Asia.
A meta-analysis by German researchers yielded the conclusion that healthcare personnel (HCP) faced about twice as high a risk of H1N1 infection as other groups during the 2009 influenza pandemic, says a report published yesterday in PLoS One.
A study in Liberia has produced more evidence of persistence of the Ebola virus in semen after patients' recovery from the disease, with some of them still testing positive more than a year after recovery and greater age indicated as a possible risk factor.
Blood serum from rhesus monkeys that had survived Ebola virus (EBOV) infection offered little protection to other rhesus monkeys that were treated with the serum several days after exposure to the virus, according to an Aug 28 report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
A trial of the antiviral drug favipiravir in Ebola patients during Sierra Leone's outbreak suggests that it can reduce viral load, improve clinical symptoms, increase the survival rate, and prolong survival time, Chinese and African researchers reported yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID).
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests on scallops implicated in Hawaii's hepatitis A outbreak yielded positive results on two samples, according to an update yesterday from the agency on the investigation.
Patients infected with the Ebola virus were 20% more likely to survive if they were co-infected with malaria, according to a study of Liberians who received care at a treatment center in Monrovia in 2014 and 2015 during West Africa's outbreak. A research team led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) published the findings yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
A study yesterday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggests that although the Ebola outbreak originating in West Africa in 2013 was the deadliest to date, that strain of Ebola virus (EBOV) did not possess more aerosol stability than a strain of 1976 EBOV.
General Mills expanded its recall of flour products yesterday after four more people in two states became sick with Escherichia coli infections.
