Overall foodborne disease rates held steady in 2013, but Salmonella cases were lower than in the previous 3 years.
Northern states appear to have higher rates of Escherichia coli O157 than southern states do, and young children appear to be infected most often, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published today in Epidemiology & Infection.
Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Fronteires, or MSF) said it resumed treating patients with Ebola infections at a center in the Guinea city of Macenta yesterday, following protests last week by some of the local people.
Saudi Arabian officials today reported four Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases in Riyadh, one of them fatal and the other three severe enough to require intensive care.
Food from restaurants was associated with almost twice the number of disease outbreaks and more than double the illnesses as food prepared at home, according to data compiled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a food safety watchdog.
Editor's Note: The H5N1 item was corrected on Apr 1 to accurately reflect the date of Laos's previous H5N1 outbreak.
H5N1 avian flu has returned to Laotian poultry after a hiatus of almost 4 years, striking a village flock of more than 5,000 birds, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported today.
In an update today on the Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office said in a statement that two more patients have died, pushing the number of fatalities to 62. The number of suspected cases remained at 86, for a case-fatality ratio of 72%.
Wild birds in Iceland harbor avian influenza viruses (AIVs) of entirely American lineage, entirely Eurasian lineage, and mixes of the two, providing compelling evidence of the importance of the North Atlantic as a corridor of virus movement and mixing, according to a study yesterday in PLoS One.
Drug-resistant Salmonella is associated with more severe clinical illness than drug-susceptible strains are, according to a study yesterday in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.
New York City's health department said yesterday that a rare skin disease has been identified in 30 people who handled live or raw fish or seafood bought in Chinatown markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens.
