The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed two new cases of MERS today, in Riyadh and Buraydah. The cases were noted in an update to an epidemiologic week 29 report.
Researchers from Ontario followed more than 100,000 live births for 5 years after the 2009-10 flu season and found no adverse health outcomes in children exposed to prenatal 2009 pandemic (pH1N1) flu vaccination, according to a study yesterday in BMJ.
Vaccine effectiveness was 44% for the H1N1 strain but essentially zero for H3N2.
Researchers find an increase in vaccine virus shedding and seroconversion.
A Department of Defense (DOD) study that compared vaccine effectiveness (VE) of cell-based and egg-based flu vaccines found that the egg-produced version performed significantly better against the 2009 H1N1 strain, and the cell-based version performed better against H3N2, though the difference wasn't statistically significant. Researchers published their findings yesterday in Vaccine.
A large study to assess if a new guideline recommending live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV, or FluMist) for children over age 2 years with asthma found no increase in lower respiratory events following vaccination. A research team from HealthPartners, a Minnesota-based healthcare and insurance provider, published its findings yesterday in Vaccine.
Since November 2018, hospitals in the Tuscany region of Italy have reported 350 cases of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM)-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported yesterday in a rapid risk assessment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) office in Nepal yesterday shared more details about the country's first human H5N1 avian flu infection, a fatal case first reported by local media outlets.
Researchers used CRISPR to modify cells to overexpress human virus receptors.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late last week recorded 21 more cases in an Escherichia coli O103 outbreak linked to ground beef, bringing the outbreak total to 177 illnesses.
