The virus seems to group with the betacoronaviruses, the genus that includes the SARS virus and MERS-CoV.
Coronaviruses that can cause serious human disease are on the rise, emphasizing the importance of public health preparedness.
The World Health Organization's (WHO's) online Ebola dashboard shows a case count of 3,392 today, with a single newly confirmed case since yesterday. No new fatalities were recorded, so the death toll remains 2,234.
With two new cases, the total number of Ebola infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) now stands at 3,586, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Ebola dashboard. There is one more fatality, raising the death total to 2,233, with 464 suspected cases still under investigation.
Health officials in China are investigating the cause of a pneumonia outbreak in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province that has sickened 27 people and seems to be linked to a seafood market.
Qatar has reported three more MERS cases to the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO said yesterday. The three cases are related, and all case-patients are from Doha.
The first case-patient is a 67-year-old woman who developed symptoms of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection at the end of November, and died on Dec 12. The source of her illness is still under investigation.
The multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections tied to contaminated romaine lettuce has grown by 36 illnesses, for a total of 138 cases in 25 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update yesterday.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO's) Ebola dashboard, two new cases of the viral disease were recorded today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), raising the outbreak total to 3,351 cases including 2,217 deaths.
Officials are still investigating 519 suspected cases
Today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) British authors offered evidence supporting a long-observed phenomenon of the cold and flu season: Having either a rhinovirus or influenza makes a person less likely to contract the other virus.
Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 35 more people have been sickened in an Escherichia coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce grown near Salinas, California.
The outbreak total now stands at 102 illnesses in 23 states, with 4 states reporting their first cases.
