The World Health Organization (WHO) said that Ebola virus infection in West Africa continues to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), largely due to the potential for transmission of the virus from survivors and convalescent populations, according to a Dec 18 statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now investigating two separate Escherichia coli outbreaks tied to Chipotle restaurants, one involving 53 cases and the other 5, the agency said today in an update.
The criteria that Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) use in triaging West Africa Ebola patients resulted in more than a third of patients falsely testing positive, and the guidance needs to be revised, a study yesterday in Eurosurveillance concluded.
One study notes that US survivors were plagued with multiple, long-lasting symptoms.
The WHO also confirmed that Liberia's recent cluster was sparked by virus that emerged again in a family member who had been infected earlier.
The number of locally acquired dengue fever cases on the big island of Hawaii has risen by 10 in a week, to 149 cases, the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) said in an update yesterday.
Of the confirmed cases, 132 are in Hawaii residents and 17 involve visitors. Most of the total cases (116, or 78%) have occurred in adults, while 33 cases (22%) involve children. Illness onset occurred from Sep 11 to Dec 7.
The first report from a surveillance system launched by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2009 to examine the acute gastroenteritis outbreak patterns that aren't part of foodborne or waterborne outbreaks found that noroviruses was by far the most frequently reported cause, with Shigella and Salmonella also making up a portion of the illnesses.
The use of antimicrobial drugs in farm animals raised for food increased 4% from 2013 to 2014 and a dramatic 22% from 2009 to 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday in its annual report on such drug use.
Arizona residents are experiencing the first known outbreak of concurrent West Nile virus (WNV) and St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) infections in the United States, and most cases involve neurologic disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Most cases arose from a single introduction that sprouted multiple transmission chains.
