Ohio last week reported a case of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) influenza in a person who had had close contact with pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Aug 22, marking what appears to be the first such US case this summer.
The infected person was hospitalized but has recovered completely, the CDC said in its weekly FluView surveillance report.
The neuraminidase inhibitor laninamivir, made by Biota Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., failed to perform better than a placebo at alleviating influenza symptoms in a phase 2 trial, the company said in a press release today, adding that it will no longer develop the drug.
Genetic comparisons between variant H3N2 (H3N2v) influenza viruses collected from swine at Ohio fairs in 2012 and those collected from case-patients from a large outbreak that year showed an almost 100% match, according to a study today in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
As part of ongoing avian influenza surveillance, China's agriculture ministry yesterday reported H7N9 detections in four live-poultry markets in three provinces, including one—Ningxia—that hasn't reported any human cases.
Neither the seasonal trivalent (three-strain) influenza vaccine (TIV) nor a monovalent H3N2 vaccine substantially reduced shedding of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) virus in ferrets, but previous infection with a seasonal H3N2 virus did, according to a study yesterday in the Journal of Virology.
Young kids and those with underlying conditions were at greatest risk for more severe infections.
The rate of hospitalizations for coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, in California doubled from 2000 to 2011, and close to 16,000 patients needed hospital care for the fungal disease during that span, according to a report today by California public health officials.
South Korean researchers reported today that they have isolated variant H3N2 influenza (H3N2v) viruses in pigs outside of North America for the first time, and they also isolated novel reassortant swine H3N1 viruses that have 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1)–derived genes.
Michigan health officials today reported a variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infection in a child who exhibited swine at the Berrien County Youth Fair, which took place Aug 12 through Aug 17 in Berrien Springs, Mich., in the southwest corner of the state.
The case raises the nation's number of H3N2v cases this year to 17. Though Michigan had a few H3N2v cases last summer, the child's illness is its first this year.
One more variant H3N2 (H3N2v) has been reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), edging the total so far this year to 16, according to an update today. The newly reported infection is in a patient from Indiana, which has reported all but two of the H3N2v cases reported this year.
