The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a case of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow" disease) in a 6-year-old beef cow in Florida.
In another new development, the NIH today announced the start of the first human trial of a live attenuated vaccine against Zika.
Also, the CDC says to wait 3 months before trying to conceive rather than 6 after possible Zika exposure.
Yesterday Emergent BioSolutions announced the start of a phase 1 clinical trial for ZIKV-IG, the company's anti-Zika virus immune globulin. The double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled clinical study will enroll about 30 healthy volunteers at a single site.
Norovirus and Salmonella cause the most outbreaks and illnesses in food outbreaks in the United States, but Listeria, Salmonella, and Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) lead to the most serious illnesses and deaths, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists reporting in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Zika RNA was present in semen for a median of 40 days and in vaginal fluid for a median of 14 days.
A phase 3 study of the novel antiviral baloxavir marboxil suggests that it reduces symptoms in people at high risk of flu complications, Roche announced today.
Researchers today reported a case series of four babies with congenital Zika infections who were born with right unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis, suggesting that the virus can cause additional damage in the peripheral nervous system. A team from the Mayo Clinic and Brazil published its findings in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
A new report from the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Eastern Mediterranean regional office shows four more MERS- CoV cases reported by Saudi Arabia in June, one of them fatal.
The WHO said none of the four cases of appears to be in a cluster. In late May, Saudi officials identified clusters of cases in Najran and Jeddah linked to household outbreaks.
The FDA said it will continue to monitor the situation closely and that a new mosquito-borne threat would trigger individual donation testing in affected areas.
