A World Health Organization (WHO) working group recently updated its Zika vaccine target profile, a document used to inform vaccine developers, regulators, and other stakeholders. The group published the first version of the profile in July 2016, and the revision takes into account new data from the past 6 months.
China today reported two more H7N9 avian influenza infections in humans, and the country's top health officials have announced an update to treatment recommendations for patients.
The latest cases are both from Sichuan province in southwestern China, according to a state news agency report translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Five more babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are now 43 babies in the country with documented defects from the mosquito-borne illness.
China reported two more H7N9 avian influenza cases, including the season's second case detected in Beijing, according to official sources and state media.
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the yellow fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is over, based on an announcement from the DRC. The declaration follows Angola's Dec 23 announcement that the outbreak had ended in that country. The DRC reported its last case on Jul 12, 2016.
A worrisome spike of more than 300 yellow fever cases in the past week has boosted Brazil's outbreak to 1,060 cases and 166 deaths, the country's health ministry said in an update yesterday.
A fivefold increase in less than a month—to more than 700 cases—is unusual for sylvatic (jungle) yellow fever, one expert points out.
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.
The number of suspected yellow fever cases in Brazil is climbing quickly, with 421 suspected infections and two more states reporting cases, the health ministry said yesterday in a statement. The case total reflects an increase of 215 cases from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) update on Jan 18.
In the latest avian flu developments, two European countries confirmed more highly pathogenic H5N8 in wild birds, as India and Niger reported poultry outbreaks from the H5N1 subtype, according to reports to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Also, Chile's agriculture ministry yesterday reported a second low-pathogenic H7 outbreak in turkeys.
