In the latest development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ebola outbreak, the country's health ministry yesterday reported three new suspected cases in Bikoro, one of the two remote hotspots, according to a daily update.
Officials are investigating norovirus outbreaks involving dozens of cases linked to raw oysters from British Columbia.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals yesterday announced a partnership to support Inovio's development of candidate vaccines against Lassa fever and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
With the Winter Olympics just getting under way in South Korea, a norovirus outbreak has sidelined 32 workers, including 21 from the security staff, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Authorities have called in military personnel to help with security.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new case of MERS yesterday in a man from Riyadh.
The 47-year-old expatriate is in critical condition after presenting with symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). The man is not a healthcare worker, nor did he have contact with camels. The source of his infection is listed as primary, which means it's unlike he contracted it from anyone else.
Spain reported its first highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu outbreaks in poultry, following two earlier detections in wild birds, and Egypt noted poultry outbreaks involving both the H5N8 and H5N1 strains, according to the latest reports from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have identified three new strains of norovirus that have caused an epidemic of gastrointestinal disease in Australia this winter. Officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of Australians— most in nursing homes, hospitals, cruise ships, and daycares—have been infected with these new strains.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 vaccine (Cervarix) is safe and effective when administered to older adult women after 7 years of follow-up. That's the takeaway from the VIVIANE study, which tracked 10,000 women worldwide who received the vaccine after the age of 26.
The global economic burden of a disease that kills 200,000 annually is a staggering $60 billion a year.
The number of bloodstream infections caused by Elizabethkingia anophelis in Wisconsin rose by 5 this week, to 59, bringing the number of US cases to 60.
In a Mar 23 update, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS) reported 52 confirmed, 4 possible, and 3 "under investigation" cases. Last week's Elizabethkingia total in the state was 54 cases.
