Foodborne Disease

Saudi Arabia reports 1 new MERS case, 1 death

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.

Study: Plague endemic in Bronze Age humans, mutated in Eurasia

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.

Hospital upgrades nurse Ebola survivor's condition to serious but stable

The condition of a Scottish nurse who is hospitalized with neurologic complications following an Ebola infection has been upgraded from critical to serious but stable, Royal Free London hospital said yesterday in an update.

Salmonella outbreak investigations tied to frozen chicken declared over

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct 16 released final reports on two separate Salmonella outbreaks linked to frozen chicken entrees.

Fourth wave of H7N9 begins in China

Human cases of H7N9 avian influenza are expected to rise in number in southeastern China over the next several months, according to an update yesterday from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The FAO said the fourth wave of H7N9 began Oct 2 after the first two human infections since July were reported in Zhejiang Province.

IOM report lists priorities for emerging ID countermeasures

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) this week published a report on a 2-day medical countermeasure workshop it held in late March to discuss how to how better develop and deliver medical countermeasures (MCMs) for emerging infectious disease threats, based on challenges that flared up during West Africa's Ebola outbreak.

Saudi Arabia reports new MERS case; 61 in Korea quarantined

For the fourth day in a row Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported a MERS-CoV infection in a foreign woman in her 20s in Riyadh who is not a healthcare worker, while South Korea has quarantined 61 people after a man tested positive for the virus days after he had recovered from the disease.

Salmonella cases linked to cucumbers top 700

The multistate outbreak of salmonellosis linked to imported cucumbers has grown by 61 cases, to 732, and an additional death has been reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update.

One more state is affected, bringing that total to 35, the CDC said. The outbreak has now caused four deaths.

Cases in multistate cucumber Salmonella outbreak near 700

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received reports of 113 additional cases of salmonellosis likely linked to cucumbers in the past week, raising the outbreak total to 671, the agency said in an update yesterday.

Cucumber-linked Salmonella outbreak total climbs to 558

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that 140 more infections and one more death have been reported in a multistate outbreak linked to cucumbers tainted with strains of Salmonella Poona.