The rate of new suspected and confirmed cases of yellow fever continues to decline in Angola, but health officials are concerned about disease activity in Benguela province, where surveillance gaps and reporting delays are occurring, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its weekly update.
Only 2.7% of 443 samples from recovered patients, health workers, and others had high enough antibody levels.
In the latest round of lab studies to pinpoint how Zika virus infects and causes birth defects in fetuses, researchers today reported several new clues related to the route and timing of infection, differences between the two viral strains, and even an antibiotic with the potential to block some of the damage.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new case of MERS-CoV today that is not related to the current outbreak that began at the King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh.
The MOH said a 86-year-old Saudi man from Al Aflaj is in stable condition after having symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). This is the second case since May in Al Aflaj, located in the central part of the country.
In findings that could help other hospitals, patients with the highest risk shared the emergency room.
Neither new case is linked to a Riyadh outbreak, and experts describe priorities for MERS-CoV research and development.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV infection, involving an 80-year-old woman from Jeddah who is a household contact of an earlier confirmed patient, and the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday filled in more details about 13 recently reported cases from the country, 5 linked to a Riyadh hospital outbreak and at least 3 that appear to be linked to small clusters in Jeddah and Najran.
US health officials and their Liberian counterparts today announced the launch of a study to assess if a new antiviral drug can cut lingering Ebola virus RNA levels in the semen of men who survived the disease, a strategy that could decrease the risk of sexual spread.
Yellow fever continues to sweep across border areas between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) weekly yellow fever situation report.
In the study, 4 of 5 pregnancies had poor outcomes, with 2 maternal deaths.
