A novel tick-borne phlebovirus related to the recently discovered Heartland virus that has infected at least eight US residents has been discovered in Tasmania state, Australia, according to a report yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
A measles outbreak in Ohio has reached 73 cases—the largest state outbreak since 1996—and has helped spur US cases to some of their highest levels in recent years, according to data from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Guinea's health ministry has reported two more deaths in the country's Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, raising the fatality number to 157, according to an update today from the World Health Organization (WHO). No other probable or suspected cases have been reported, and the overall EVD illness count is 235.
The rare strain has sickenened 132 people since early 2012.
Saudi Arabian officials today reported four Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases in Riyadh, one of them fatal and the other three severe enough to require intensive care.
Editor's Note: The H5N1 item was corrected on Apr 1 to accurately reflect the date of Laos's previous H5N1 outbreak.
H5N1 avian flu has returned to Laotian poultry after a hiatus of almost 4 years, striking a village flock of more than 5,000 birds, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported today.
In an update today on the Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office said in a statement that two more patients have died, pushing the number of fatalities to 62. The number of suspected cases remained at 86, for a case-fatality ratio of 72%.
The Drexel University student who died last week from serogroup B meningococcal disease had the same strain that has infected Princeton University students, suggesting that the outbreak strain is still present at Princeton, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Drug-resistant Salmonella is associated with more severe clinical illness than drug-susceptible strains are, according to a study yesterday in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.
Officials thought the outbreak was over, but recent cases bring the outbreak total to 481.
