Meningitis

Funding, focus hamper WHO response to West Africa Ebola outbreak

Response to the West African Ebola outbreak and other global health emergencies by the World Health Organization (WHO) has been hampered by substantial budget cuts in recent years, The New York Times reported yesterday.

Promising results for Chikungunya candidate vaccine in phase 1 trial

A chikungunya candidate vaccine developed using noninfectious virus-like particles (VLPs) has been shown to provide long-term protection against multiple genotypes of the disease, according to results of the first human trial, conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and published today in The Lancet.

Continuous treatment with newer agent protects infants against malaria

Long-term treatment with a newer artemisinin-based combination drug for malaria, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP), substantially and safely reduces the risk of malaria in young children, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published online yesterday in PLoS Medicine.

US imported chikungunya cases approach 400

The steady flow of imported chikungunya infections linked mainly to travel to the Caribbean continued in the United States last week, with 98 more cases reported, lifting the total to 398, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday.

CDC advises US physicians to be alert for Ebola

With the continuing spread of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday issued an official advisory for US HCWs to consider EVD and possible isolation pending diagnosis in patients who have Ebola-like symptoms and a travel history to affected countries within the previous 21 days.

Companies seek approval for meningococcal serogroup B vaccines

Novartis and Pfizer today announced that they have submitted applications to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing approval of their vaccines against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B infection.

China reports 3 more H7N9 cases, 1 more death

The number of patients sickened by H7N9 influenza in China grew by three over the past 3 days, according to reports from three different provinces.

One case is in a 35-year-old woman from Jiangsu province who is hospitalized in critical condition, according to an Apr 19 health department statement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.

Chikungunya cases in the Caribbean approach 20,000

Cases of chikungunya in the Caribbean have reached 19,682, according to data today from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), up from 18,493 cases a week ago.

Liberia's Ebola deaths rise to seven

A Liberian health official said today that three more deaths have been reported among suspected and confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases, raising the number so far to seven, AllAfrica News reported today.

Case report shows evidence of camel-to-human MERS

A Saudi man who contracted Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in November after tending sick camels had a virus nearly identical to that found in one of his camels, suggesting he contracted the disease from them, according to a letter yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.