Yellow Fever

IOM report lists priorities for emerging ID countermeasures

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) this week published a report on a 2-day medical countermeasure workshop it held in late March to discuss how to how better develop and deliver medical countermeasures (MCMs) for emerging infectious disease threats, based on challenges that flared up during West Africa's Ebola outbreak.

Power outages, airflow system failures reported at CDC labs

In 2013 and 2014, high-containment laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged about a dozen power outages and airflow system failures that could have compromised safety, USA Today reported yesterday.

The problems were disclosed in a lab incident summary that the newspaper obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. They occurred between January 2013 and July 2014.

US suspends funding for 'gain-of-function' studies of flu, MERS, SARS

The Obama administration announced today that it is suspending funding of "gain-of-function" (GOF) studies on influenza and other viruses to allow time to assess the risks and benefits of such controversial research and develop a federal policy on it.

Oklahoma reports fatal Heartland virus case

Oklahoma health officials today reported the state's first Heartland virus infection, in a Delaware County resident who died from complications from the illness.

Iowa, Nebraska, Texas report 23 more Cyclospora cases

Iowa and Texas reported nine new Cyclospora cases each, while Nebraska has had five more, adding 23 cases to an outbreak that may involve as many as 258 illnesses.

H5N1 prevalence may surpass 10% in Egyptian backyard, market poultry

An Egyptian surveillance study found that while H5N1 avian flu viruses were uncommon on commercial poultry farms, more than 10% of backyard and live-market birds harbored the virus, according to a report in the Journal of Virology.

Rubella epidemic in Japan traced to past female-only vaccination efforts

Japan had 5,442 rubella cases in the first 4 months of this year, largely because past rubella vaccination programs did not target males, according to an article in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.