Basic molecular typing and routine hospital data can be used in resource-limited settings to do lab surveillance of antimicrobial resistance organizations, according to researchers in Sri Lanka who reported their findings yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) may reverse a decision it made a month ago to launch a cholera vaccine campaign in Yemen, due to the aggressive spread of the disease and conflict conditions in the country, the New York Times reported today, citing a WHO spokesman who updated reporters at a briefing in Geneva today.
Cholera outbreaks in countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean region have reached a critical point, and the WHO and its partners are scaling up efforts to reduce the risk of spread to unaffected areas and neighboring countries, the agency said in a statement today.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that the 2016-17 flu season was dominated by influenza A (H3N2), and the flu vaccine was only 34% effective in protecting recipients against that strain and 42% effective against all strains.
One more illness cluster has been reported among 21 recent H7N9 avian flu infections reported in China, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update today. Its report covers 9 lab-confirmed cases reported to the WHO by China on Jun 2 as well as 12 cases reported on Jun 9.
Two years of conflict have cut 14.5 million people off from access to clean water and sanitation.
Saudi Arabia today reported three more MERS-CoV illnesses linked to ongoing hospital-related outbreaks in Riyadh, according to a statement from the country's Ministry of Health (MOH).
President Donald Trump announced yesterday that Francis Collins, MD, PhD, an Obama administration holdover, will stay on as permanent director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), multiple media sites reported.
In another sign of further northward spread, China's Inner Mongolia province has reported its first human H7N9 avian flu case, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said today in a statement. The development comes just a few weeks after H7N9 was detected for the first time in live-bird markets in Inner Mongolia province. The province mainly borders Mongolia, with a small part abutting Russia.
According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) situation report, there are now 43 suspected cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is six more probable cases since the last situation report released yesterday.
