The recent rise in MERS-CoV activity continues in Saudi Arabia, with two new cases reported by the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) today, along with five deaths and two recoveries in previously reported cases.
The national count of children affected by an unexplained polio-like illness that causes limb weakness has increased by one, to 112 in 34 states since August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in an update yesterday.
Amid a widespread measles outbreak, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) is considering recommending that physicians be compensated for counseling parents about the importance of childhood vaccines, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.
The committee is also looking at a recommendation that would set a minimum vaccination coverage goal for clinicians, the story said.
Tuberculosis cases decreased by 6% during 2012 in 29 European countries, while hot spots in northern Europe and the Baltic states remained, according to a report issued today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
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).
