The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) today recorded a new MERS-CoV case for epidemiologic week 51.
The patient is a 47-year-old man who is in home isolation with a MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection. The man is from Al-Kharj, about 48 miles south of Riyadh. He had camel contact, a known risk factor for MERS transmission.
Despite last week's suggestion that the country's acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) outbreak was at its peak, new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show 24 more cases recorded last week, raising outbreak totals to 158. The outbreak now surpasses 2016's total of 149 confirmed cases, which was the previous high.
According to a survey conducted in the middle of November, only 43% of Americans said they have been vaccinated against flu, 14% plan on being vaccinated, while 41% said they don't plan on being immunized against the disease.
In the latest global polio developments, Pakistan reported two new wild poliovirus type 1 cases and three African countries reported seven more vaccine-derived polio cases in their outbreaks, according to today's weekly update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported one new MERS-CoV case for epidemiologic week 44. The MOH did not note any cases in epidemiologic week 43, which was last week.
The new case of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) occurred in a 74-year-old man from Riyadh who had contact with camels—a known risk factor for MERS transmission. The man is currently hospitalized.
A phase 2 study of an adjuvanted subunit vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in young and middle-aged adults with the latent form of the disease found that it was 54% effective against progression to the active pulmonary form of the disease. An international team led by scientists from GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine's developer, reported its findings today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The new data highlight an especially profound impact on the very young and very old.
An Emirates Airline flight arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at about 9 am this morning was held on the tarmac after 100 people were reportedly ill on the flight. According Eric Phillips, press secretary with the New York mayor's office, there were 521 people on the flight, which stopped in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, after it began in Dubai.
A mumps outbreak centered in Anchorage, Alaska, has chugged along for more than a year and reached nearly 400 cases despite a series of vaccination recommendations that expanded to include the entire state, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) ministry of health confirmed that the new Ebola outbreak in the eastern reaches of the country is caused by the Zaire Ebola virus species, according to Science magazine.
