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.
Five more human H7N9 avian flu illnesses have been reported in China, one from Henan province and four from Anhui province, according to government statements translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Meanwhile, Florida confirms first local case in weeks, and a study explores post-outbreak prevalence.
Also, reports highlighted the first local US case and Zika in a man with a vasectomy.
In other Zika developments, the CDC released new fact sheets for pregnant women about the complexities involved in Zika testing.
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.
