US flu activity increased only slightly last week, though markers stayed well below thresholds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update.
The number of respiratory samples that tested positive for flu edged up slightly, from 3.8% to 4.5%, and the percentage of clinic visits for flu remained at the 1.2% seen the previous week.
81% of patients in the early weeks of a large outbreak of fungal infections from steroid injections had CNS infections.
Wearing gowns and gloves in all ICU rooms didn't lower the combined levels of two key drug-resistant threats significantly.
The effectiveness of the influenza vaccine dropped from 52% at 3.5 months after vaccination to 22% more than 4 months after vaccination during the 2011-12 season, according to a study out of Spain today in BMC Infectious Diseases whose power was limited by a small sample size.
Agency says the most urgent threats are drug-resistant C diff, Enterobacteriaceae, and gonorrhea.
Healthcare-related MRSA cases are down, but where a person lives may influence risk.
Five of the most common healthcare-related infections cost the US nearly $10 billion a year.
The CDC today announced $75 million in grants to help states and cities respond to infectious disease threats.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warns of an increased risk of invasive meningitis in men who have sex with men (MSM) after recent reports of cases from three countries, said a news release today on a rapid risk assessment issued Jul 3.
Saudi Arabian officials reported today that their investigation of a healthcare-associated cluster of novel coronavirus (nCoV) cases has uncovered two more illnesses, increasing the cluster to 15, as France reported two suspected cases related to its first nCoV case, reported yesterday.
