The hepatitis A outbreak linked to consumption of a frozen berry mix distributed by Oregon company Townsend Farms affected 61 people as of Jun 5, 12 more than reported in an update Jun 4, says a notice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted today. Affected patients come from seven states; there have been no deaths.
The World Health Organization's (WHO's) latest monthly update on human H5N1 avian flu infections reported cases in a Cambodian girl whose illness was already reported by the WHO's Western Pacific regional office on May 17 and in an Egyptian woman who died from her illness.
An outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium cases linked to live baby poultry has grown to 224 cases in 34 states, up by 78 cases and 8 states since May 10, the US Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) said in an update yesterday.
A study from a Wisconsin team indicates that influenza vaccination does not increase the risk of infection with other respiratory viruses, which supports the validity of a common method for assessing flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) in observational studies.
Saudi Arabian officials have deposited in a public database four MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) genetic sequences from the recent hospital cluster of cases in the Al-Ahsa region, increasing the number of available sequences for the virus to nine, according to a blog entry from virologist Andrew Rambaut, PhD, of the University of Edinburgh.
Eight more outbreaks of H7N3 avian flu have struck Mexican chicken farms in recent weeks, prompting the destruction of more than 800,000 birds and the vaccination of 5 million more, Mexican authorities reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) today.
Twelve new cases have been reported in the past 2 days in an outbreak of acute hepatitis A linked to an organic frozen berry mix, bringing the total to 99, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
A serologic study of healthcare workers in China's Zhejiang province, the area that has had the most cases in the H7N9 flu outbreak, found no asymptomatic infections with the new virus, according to a letter from Chinese researchers in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today issued interim policy guidance on the use of bedaquiline, a new tuberculosis (TB) drug, for treating multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).
Inovio, a pharmaceutical company based in Blue Bell, Pa., today announced the first preclinical results from tests in mice on its candidate DNA vaccine against the H7N9 virus, according to a press release.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Japan had 5,442 rubella cases in the first 4 months of this year, largely because past rubella vaccination programs did not target males, according to an article in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Seven more infections have been reported in an acute hepatitis A outbreak connected to an organic frozen berry mix, boosting the total to 106 so far, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. The number of states affected remained at eight, all in the Southwest.
The United States and other countries are seeing a rise in lab-confirmed dengue cases in people who have traveled to Luanda, Angola's capital, and health providers should be aware that the disease in Africa is endemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Jun 14 deactivated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) response to the novel H7N9 flu outbreak in China, the agency said today in a Twitter post. However, the CDC said it would continue to watch the H7N9 virus closely, given that flu is known for its constant changes and evolution.
Federal officials have reduced the case count in a foodborne outbreak of hepatitis
A from 118 to 113, saying they are now counting only confirmed cases.
Indonesia's health ministry today announced that a 2-year-old boy died from an H5N1 avian influenza infection, according to a translated statement posted on FluTrackers, an infectious disease message board.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today used Twitter to acknowledge the seven latest MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) cases in Saudi Arabia.
A federal judge in California has ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration must publish all the regulations required by the Food Safety Modernization Act by Jun 30, 2015, Food Safety News (FSN) reported yesterday.
In a Jun 21 ruling, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of US District Court of Northern California rejected the FDA's proposal for releasing the remaining rules in 2015 and 2016.
A meta-analysis of 34 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) suggests that seasonal influenza vaccines can provide significant protection against flu even if the circulating flu strains don't match those in the vaccine, according to a Canadian team of researchers.
Canadian health officials said an American man hospitalized in Edmonton after getting sick on a plane tested positive for an H7 virus after traveling to China, though he doesn't have an active flu infection, the Canadian Press reported today.
The elderly man was on a flight from Cairo to San Francisco when he got sick and became unconscious, and the airline diverted the plane to Edmonton.
The risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) after flu vaccination was much lower than the risk of GBS after flu infection, according to a study today in Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Canadian researchers used a self-controlled study design and data from universal healthcare systems in Ontario from 1993 through 2011. They determined exposures to flu vaccine and flu illness from physician billing claims.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) yesterday urged its member countries to establish and maintain rapid detection and reporting systems for vancomycin resistance, based on the first isolation of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) in Latin America.
Last week's report of four variant H3N2 (H3N2v) influenza cases linked to a county fair in Indiana "may foreshadow a number of outbreaks this summer," like those last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a Jun 28 update statement.
A multistate outbreak of fungal infections linked to contaminated steroids grew in June by 4 cases and 3 deaths, to 749 cases and 61 deaths, the CDC said today. Its previous update was Jun 3.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) health ministry said today that all contacts of the last confirmed case have completed their 21-day monitoring periods with none showing any signs of illness, marking the beginning of the countdown to the end of the nation's ninth Ebola outbreak.
