Significantly fewer adult Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia or bipolar 1 disorders had mental health-related outpatient, emergency department (ED), and hospital visits, as well as fills for antipsychotics and mood-stabilizing drugs in the first 8 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers reporting on two non-peer–reviewed studies published this week on the preprint server medRxiv followed up months after adults' COVID-19 hospitalization and found that 55% to 71% have not fully recovered. Middle age and female sex were associated with a higher likelihood of worse recovery in both studies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ended two separate Escherichia coli O157:H7 investigations on Dec 18. Neither of the outbreaks had a definitive source, although one triggered a food recall on a single brand of romaine lettuce.
Five countries across Asia and Africa report new circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), according to Global Polio Eradication Initiative's weekly report.
Health Canada yesterday announced that a rare variant H1N2 (H1N2v) influenza case has been confirmed in Alberta, marking the province's only flu case reported so far this season.
A new study in Transboundary and Emerging Disease calculated the case-fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 infections in 53 countries or regions that experienced a second wave—or resurgence—of coronavirus activity, and found a significantly lower death rate among all confirmed cases than in the first wave.
This is the first study to compare the CFR in the first and second waves of the pandemic.
Three more Ebola infections were confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Equateur province over the weekend, raising the total to 60 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said on Twitter today. Of the total, 56 are confirmed and 4 are listed as probable.
Two more deaths were reported, raising the total to 24.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there were 303 additional cases of cyclosporiasis in a multistate outbreak linked to bagged salads sold at major grocery stores.
The CDC said 509 people in eight states have been sickened. Thirty-three people have been hospitalized, but there have been no deaths.
More than 10% of swine workers tested had antibodies to the novel influenza strain.
Florida Health officials confirmed a case of locally acquired dengue in the Florida Keys, according to the Associated Press (AP), and said the patient is doing well. The Keys saw outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease in 2009 and 2010.
