(CIDRAP News) – The plot of the world's latest pneumonic plague outbreak echoes with history.
Like a 19th-century American gold rush, news of the discovery of diamonds in a remote northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in November 2004 sparked an influx of adventurers hoping to strike it rich.
Editor's note: This story was revised shortly after publication to reflect corrections issued by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on May 10. The corrections pertain to the total monetary amount of the grants and to the project descriptions for XOMA (US) LLC and DVC Dynport LLC.
(CIDRAP News) A bleak picture of the world's ability to cope with an influenza pandemic is painted in an essay by infectious-disease and bioterrorism expert Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.
(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Defense (DoD) has announced plans to collaborate with the defense departments of Canada and the United Kingdom to develop a vaccine for plague, which would fill an empty slot in the nation's current vaccine arsenal.
(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today it has found 130 suspected cases of plague, 57 of them fatal, in its ongoing investigation of an outbreak in the northeastern Congo.
In its previous update on Mar 9, the agency had reported 114 cases, including 54 deaths.
(CIDRAP News) A World Health Organization (WHO) team on a medical mission to contain a plague outbreak in the Congo has found more suspected cases, but the scope of the outbreak remains smaller than initially feared.
(CIDRAP News) An outbreak of pneumonic plague in a lawless part of the Congo appears to be smaller and more geographically limited than was originally feared, according to recent reports.
(CIDRAP News) – An unusual outbreak of pneumonic plague that has killed at least 61 people and potentially sickened hundreds of others is the focus of a World Health Organization (WHO) mission in a war-torn area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
(CIDRAP News) State Public Health Veterinarian Mira Leslie, DVM, MPH, hopes to greatly expand Washington's disease surveillance network Oct 1 when she speaks at a statewide veterinary meeting.
(CIDRAP News) The bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, may have acquired its lethal traits by shedding genes found in a closely related bacterium that is less dangerous, according to a recent study.
