China has reported another H7N9 avian flu infection, marking only the third case of the sixth wave of illness activity that began in October, according to a report today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), resigned today after a report that she bought tobacco stocks while leading the agency.
Anne Schuchat, MD, the CDC's principal deputy director who served as interim CDC director before Fitzgerald began her tenure last year, will resume that role, the Wall Street Journal and other news sources reported.
Yesterday the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new case of MERS-CoV and announced the death of a previously reported MERS patient.
A 40-year-old Saudi woman from Riyadh is in stable condition after presenting with symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). The woman's source of infection is listed as "primary," meaning it's unlikely she contracted the disease from another person.
The United States Senate today confirmed Alex Azar, a pharmaceutical executive, to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to media reports.
With the threat of a US federal government shutdown at midnight today because of expiring temporary appropriations and no Congressional passage of a continuing resolution to fund the government, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a staffing contingency plan.
A growing number of vaccine makers are expressing concerns about their ability to quickly develop new vaccine candidates against emerging disease threat, such as Zika and Ebola viruses, Stat reported today, based on interviews with pharmaceutical executives, government officials, and infectious disease experts.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced that, for now, it won't enforce four rules related to the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a law passed in 2011 that signaled the biggest overhaul in the nation's food safety laws in 70 years.
Federal and state health officials are investigating a multistate Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened 17 people in 13 states, and preliminary tests by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the outbreak strain is closely related to one in Canada that has been associated with romaine lettuce.
Only 19 states reported increasing or maintaining their public health budgets, down from 26 last year.
"Censorship . . . threatens to disrupt a prime goal of government: protecting public safety," the groups write.
