The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released updated guidelines for treating and preventing anthrax in adults and pregnant women, recommending, among other things, the simultaneous use of antimicrobial drugs and antitoxin in patients who have systemic disease.
A 52-year-old man in the southern province of Binh Phuoc has died of H5N1 avian flu, the first case in Vietnam in 9 months, Than Nien News reported today.
A Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak at a Tennessee prison has grown to nine cases, and investigators are probing 19 infections caused by the same strain in 12 other states to see if they are linked to the outbreak, which has been tied to chicken products from Tyson Foods.
With the flu season hitting its stride and the 2009 H1N1 virus spreading, the public health advocacy group Trust for America's Health today called for greater efforts to increase flu vaccine coverage, saying only 35.7% of working-age adults were vaccinated last season.
Another H7N9 case has been detected in China, the ninth such infection to be reported in Guangdong province, where several of the country’s recent infections have been found.
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said in a statement that the patient is a 31-year-old man who lives in Shenzhen. He started having symptoms on Dec 30 and was hospitalized on Jan 3, where he is in stable condition.
Vaccinated pregnant women had a lower risk of preterm or low-birth-weight babies.
The severity of H7N9 influenza infection is linked to high cytokine levels, and some patients appear to have a genetic marker that correlates with more serious outcomes, according to a research team from China and Australia. The group reported their findings in the Dec 23 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that the H10N8 avian flu death in a woman from Jiangxi province, China, reported 2 days ago by Chinese officials is indeed the first human case involving that strain, and it provided some new details.
Results show about 55% protection in children 3 to 8 years old.
Three major infectious-disease societies said this week that healthcare personnel (HCP) should be required to receive all six vaccines that are recommended for them by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
