A worrisome spike of more than 300 yellow fever cases in the past week has boosted Brazil's outbreak to 1,060 cases and 166 deaths, the country's health ministry said in an update yesterday.
In the latest avian flu developments, two European countries confirmed more highly pathogenic H5N8 in wild birds, as India and Niger reported poultry outbreaks from the H5N1 subtype, according to reports to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Also, Chile's agriculture ministry yesterday reported a second low-pathogenic H7 outbreak in turkeys.
A study yesterday in PLoS Medicine shows that the larvicide pyriproxyfen (PPF) greatly reduces the number of adult Aedes mosquitoes, the vector that transmits Zika, yellow fever, and dengue.
An expensive type of ultraviolet (UV) light treatment called UVC was associated with a 30% drop in the incidence of infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) but did not affect Clostridium difficile rates when used for cleaning hospital rooms between patients, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet.
A new study has found that a quarter of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from a nationwide network of hospitals are resistant to carbapenem antibiotics.
European health officials are warning about an increase in carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections in hospitals across the continent.
The investigation into a cluster of Elizabethkingia anopheles infections in Illinois that were distinct from outbreaks reported in neighboring Wisconsin and Michigan found that the illnesses probably reflect ongoing sporadic infections in critically ill patients, a team from Illinois and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality
Though the CDC reported good progress earlier this year, central-line infections remain a key problem.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new cases of MERS-CoV today and over the weekend.
On Nov 12, the MOH said a 51-year-old Saudi man from Tabuk was diagnosed as having Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). He is currently in critical condition. Health officials said the man had direct contact with camels, a known risk factor for MERS.
The WHO's update on 13 cases reported from Saudi Arabia also includes a pair of household contacts and some cases with camel exposure.
