In a speech at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society on Apr 27, philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates announced the launch of a $12 million Grand Challenge to speed the development of a universal flu vaccine.
In an updated risk assessment on Candida auris, an emerging difficult-to-treat fungus that can spread in healthcare settings, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said yesterday that the rising number of cases in Europe is concerning because of problems with lab identification and overall lack of awareness.
The test can yield results in less than an hour, compared with 24 to 48 hours for conventional tests.
UK officials today report good news on the outcome of the man treated for a highly resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection, but they also note two similar cases in Australia.
From 2013 through 2017 European officials recorded 620 cases of Candida auris, mostly from four large outbreaks, and 110 of them (17.7%) involved bloodstream infections, according to a report today in Eurosurveillance.
According to an updated case count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are now 174 cases of Candida auris infections in the United States, 17 more than the CDC reported last month.
Editors note: This scan was update Dec 7 to note the funding source for the study.
A nationwide study of US patients with Enterobacteriaceae infections suggests that inappropriate empiric therapy (IET) is associated with higher 30-day readmission rates and is costlier than adequate treatment.
The number of reported Candida auris infections in the United States has risen to 157, according to the most recent case count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new cases of MERS-CoV in Al Hofuf late last week, one of which was fatal. These are the first cases reported by the MOH in 10 days.
On Sep 21, the MOH confirmed that a 48-year-old Saudi man with direct camel contact was diagnosed as having MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection after presenting with MERS symptoms. He is in stable condition.
A multidrug-resistant parasite lineage that has become dominant in Cambodia, with spread to parts of Thailand and Laos, has now spread to southern Vietnam, where it has been linked to an alarming number of treatment failures in patients who were given the nation's first-line treatment.
