The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) released a new Zika risk assessment today, concluding that, while transmission has slowed in the Americas, the virus is widespread in Asia.
The assessment was conducted, in part, to update travel guidelines for Europeans visiting a country with endemic Zika or experiencing an outbreak.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month quietly downgraded its travel restriction guidelines for pregnant women, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
In updates for epidemiologic weeks 10 and 11, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) announced five new cases of MERS-CoV today and over the weekend, including two in Wadi ad-Dawasir, the site of an ongoing hospital-based outbreak.
Zika infection in early pregnancy raise the risk of microcephaly 17 times, the study says.
Without being able to pinpoint a specific source of contamination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday declared an end to its investigation of an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Infantis infections after confirming 129 cases in 32 states, including 25 hospitalizations and 1 death.
In an ongoing surge of MERS-CoV activity, Saudi Arabia's health ministry today announced nine new cases, including seven that are possibly linked to a hospital outbreak in Wadi ad-Dawasir, according to an update to its epidemiological week 7 report.
Over the weekend and through today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) health ministry reported 16 more lab-confirmed Ebola cases, 13 of them from Katwa, the outbreak's current hot spot. Also, in a Feb 9 update, health officials reported 7 more probable cases, all from Katwa involving people who became ill in November and December and died between November and January.
Partial protection from earlier dengue exposure in the favela population might explain Zika's quick decline there.
Today the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) health ministry reported three more cases and two new deaths in an ongoing Ebola outbreak. The outbreak now stands at 788 cases, including 486 deaths, and 191 suspected cases are still under investigation.
Dengue immunity, however, doesn't seem to generally protect against Zika infection, the researchers find.
