Zika doesn't appear to transmit efficiently through breast milk, but questions still remain. Also, experiments with macaques found a low risk of spread by saliva.
One more H7N9 avian flu infection was reported from China today, a sign of ongoing activity that is within striking distance of the record 319 cases reported during the second wave of activity during the winter of 2013-14.
In a sign of an ongoing steady stream of H7N9 avian flu cases, five new infections have been reported, four from China's mainland plus an imported infection in Taiwan, according to statements yesterday and today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
The vaccine protected macaques from infection 5 weeks later and mice 5 months later.
A study yesterday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 0.2% of US women they screened contracted Zika after traveling to endemic areas while pregnant.
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.
With H7N9 cases in China in January already outpacing December's sudden and steep rise, China reported at least two more cases today, according to the latest official reports.
Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) today acknowledged two cases reported from Hubei province yesterday, a 65 year-old man and a 78 year-old woman from two different cities, both in critical condition.
Over the weekend and through today, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported three new cases of MERS-CoV, two of which were linked to camel exposure.
In its weekly Zika update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday reported only 34 new cases of the mosquito-borne disease in the United States this week, bringing the total to 4,900.
Of those cases, 4,682 are travel-related and 217 were locally acquired. There are 1,347 pregnant women with confirmed Zika in the United States, and 2,885 such women in US territories.
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.
