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.
Findings hint that pregnancy losses from Zika may be underestimated and that damage can take place, even without symptoms.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday noted four new suspected cases of Ebola virus, two each in Bikoro and Iboko health zones, yet the number of cases overall remained steady. Four previously suspected cases tested negative for the virus, so the current total now stands at 61 cases, including 38 confirmed, 14 probable, and 9 suspected.
The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released new data showing that national efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions, including adverse drug events and infections, helped prevent an estimated 8,000 deaths and save $2.9 billion from 2014 through 2016.
In an update to its Influenza Risk Assessment Tool (IRAT), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday added 2 more viruses, raising the total on the list to 15.
In the children's study, headache, irritability, and hospitalization rates varied by age.
Authorities in a second Indian state are investigating two suspected Nipah virus infections, both of them in people who had traveled to Kerala state where they had contact with infected patients, Reuters reported today, citing a health official in Karnataka state.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an additional claim for the cobas Zika test, manufactured by Roche Molecular Diagnostics, the company announced today in a news release. The approval allows the test to be used to screen pooled blood and plasma donations for the Zika virus.
According to Roche, the new application will streamline the screening process of multiple individual blood or plasma donations.
