The recent pattern of a Saudi MERS-CoV case or two a day changed today, as the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 6 new cases, 3 of them in Taif and 1 of those fatal.
An estimated 9 million people contracted TB globally in 2013, about half a million higher than previous estimates.
An independent audit of MERS-CoV data in Saudi Arabia yesterday identified 16 more infections with illness onsets before Jun 3 and has reclassified a handful of previously reported cases, the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) announced yesterday.
It said the review is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) data are accurate.
Ohio last week reported a case of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) influenza in a person who had had close contact with pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Aug 22, marking what appears to be the first such US case this summer.
The infected person was hospitalized but has recovered completely, the CDC said in its weekly FluView surveillance report.
Researchers who sifted data from 12 recent influenza seasons in Finland concluded that about 42% of influenza B cases involved strains that were not targeted by the vaccine, which they say supports the inclusion of both influenza B lineages in seasonal flu vaccines.
The chikungunya epidemic in the Caribbean is continuing to spill over into the United States, with 300 imported cases identified as of yesterday, an increase of 66 from a week earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Saudi Arabia reported a new MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) case today, in a 55-year-old Saudi national from the city of Wadi Aldwasir, located in the south central part of the country, according to a statement today from the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The woman isn't a healthcare worker and has symptoms, the MOH said. She has an underlying illness and is hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
West Africa's Ebola virus outbreak continues to swell, with 20 new cases and 3 additional deaths, according to an update yesterday from the World Health Organization (WHO), based on new reports the agency received on Jun 2 and 3.
Although early reports during the 2010-11 flu season suggested possible safety concerns over febrile seizures in kids with the trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) Fluzone, just-released epidemiologic findings show no statistically significant association, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Guinea's health officials, during a press briefing today on the country's Ebola outbreak, reported that the number of viral hemorrhagic fever cases has reached 112, 70 of them fatal, up from 88 cases and 66 deaths reported yesterday. An account of the press briefing appeared in a French-language report in the Guinea-based Le Jour newspaper, which was translated and posted by H5N1 Blog, an infectious disease news site.
