A recent study in the Journal of Human Lactation showed that pasteurizing breast milk kills both Ebola and Marburg viruses. The research was done at the Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas (MMBNT), and was conducted in the wake of the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak.
Today China reported two more cases of H7N9 avian flu in Sichuan province, according to FluTrackers, an infectious disease tracking message board. The patients are in critical condition. According to translated news reports, no close family contacts have tested positive for the highly pathogenic strain.
Yesterday Brazil's health ministry reported 129 new suspected cases of yellow fever this week, with two more states, Goias and Matto Grosso do Sul, reporting infections. The country now has 550 suspected or confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease.
A study yesterday in PLoS Medicine shows that the larvicide pyriproxyfen (PPF) greatly reduces the number of adult Aedes mosquitoes, the vector that transmits Zika, yellow fever, and dengue.
New report recommends how to move forward with vaccines and position global health for the next outbreak.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported one new case of MERS today and the death of a previously reported patient.
A 59-year-old Saudi woman is in critical condition after presenting with symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection. The woman is from Riyadh, and is listed as having primary exposure to the virus, meaning she did not contract the disease from another person.
Two more babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects, raising the total to 36, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update. The number of Zika-related pregnancy losses remained at 5.
The fourth wave of H7N9 avian flu infections in China (from September 2015 through August 2016) saw continued geographic spread of the virus, a longer epidemic period, and a higher proportion of case-patients living in rural areas compared with the first three waves, a report today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) noted.
An international group reporting in Clinical Infectious Diseases said a 9-month-old who died of Ebola in Guinea after her parents showed no signs of the illness likely contracted the virus through her mother's breastmilk. Both the mother's milk and the father's semen tested positive for Ebola virus.
Pigs and llamas appear prone to infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to researchers who experimentally infected four animal species and reported their findings yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
