Outbreak News Today

According to the latest information from UN authorities dated June 19, seventeen cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type-2 (cVDPV2) have now been confirmed in Syria—16 cases are from Mayadeen district, Deir Ez-Zor governorate, and 1 case from Raqqa district, Raqqa governorate. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on May 23. The total number of acute […]The post Syria polio update: 17 cases of cVDPV2 have now been confirmed including one in Raqqa appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Researchers have identified mutations in a gene called CARD11 that lead to atopic dermatitis, or eczema, an allergic skin disease. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and other institutions discovered the mutations in four unrelated families with severe atopic dermatitis and studied the […]The post Eczema: Single-gene mutations identified that lead to skin condition appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Taiwanese health officials this year’s first case of Japanese encephalitis confirmed in Pingtung County. The case is a 53-year-old female housewife. According to the epidemiological investigation, the case had not recently traveled overseas, had not been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis, and spent most of her time at home. Within approximately 2 km distance of the case’s […]The post Japanese encephalitis confirmed in Pingtung County appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

With the cholera epidemic now 172,286 suspected cases, including 1,170 deaths in Yemen, United Nations agencies said a “race” is under way to contain it. “We see that the numbers are going up, it’s really trying to race against the spread and try to get treatment and water and sanitation measures to every corner, especially to those corners […]The post The race to contain cholera epidemic, King Salman Centre to support response appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Indiana State Department of Health (IDSH) reported the first human West Nile virus (WNV) cases of 2017, prompting calls to protect yourself from mosquito bites. As of June 14, two human cases of West Nile virus have been documented in Hamilton and Lake counties, and mosquitoes in Morgan and Tippecanoe counties have tested positive […]The post Indiana report first human West Nile virus cases appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Florida Department of Health in Duval County has confirmed one case of mumps, and the Florida Department of Health in St. Johns County has identified two probable cases of mumps. The three individuals are young adults with close contact with each other. Local health officials are working to limit potential exposure. Public health officials are […]The post Florida: Mumps case confirmed in Duval County appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

I was joined on the June 11 show with expert guests to discuss two important topics–canine influenza and travel health. In the first half, Maddie’s® Clinical Assistant Professor of Shelter Medicine at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Cynda Crawford, DVM, PhD joined me for an interview on the latest about canine influenza, or “dog […]The post Outbreak News This Week: Dog flu, Travel health appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

In an update on the hepatitis E outbreak in Diffa, Niger, the international, independent, medical humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports the outbreak declared two months ago in southeastern Niger is particularly affecting pregnant women with 34 dying of severe complications related to the disease. The overall case tally has risen to 876 cases of hepatitis E […]The post Hepatitis E outbreak update in Diffa, Niger appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

In a follow-up on a report of a “pink eye” outbreak in the Dominican Republic, conjunctivitis outbreaks have been documented in five countries and territories of the Americas. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in addition to the Dominican Republic, outbreaks are reported in the Bahamas, Brazil, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. The Dominican Republic […]The post Conjunctivitis outbreaks reported in five countries in the Americas appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Melinta Therapeutics announced Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Baxdela™ (delafloxacin), indicated in adults for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) caused by susceptible bacteria. Baxdela is a fluoroquinolone that exhibits activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens, including MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), and is […]The post FDA approves new fluoroquinolone antibiotic, Baxdela appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) has confirmed the first human case of West Nile Virus (WNV) for the 2017 season. The case is from Fort Worth and is the mild form of the disease — not the severe form of West Nile Neuroinvasive Disease. Additional details are not being released to protect the identity of […]The post Fort Worth: 1st human West Nile virus case reported in Tarrant County appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Officials with the Air Force Medical Service announced the results of a review yesterday which found that endoscopes used for upper and lower gastrointestinal procedures at Al Udeid Air Base, outside of Doha, Qatar, were cleaned in a manner inconsistent with sterilization guidelines from April 2008 to April 2016. The review determined 135 patients had procedures during […]The post HIV and hepatitis risk linked to endoscopes at Qatar air base appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

A suspected meningitis outbreak in Braşov, Romania has resulted in 18 hospital admissions and one death, according to a News.ro report (computer translated). The patients, classmates with a 17-year-old student from Tarlungeni commune who died recently after being diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, have symptoms resembling meningitis. Some 200 additional students are being seen for consultations at the […]The post Romania: 18 hospitalized with suspected meningitis, one dead appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Pfizer Inc. announced that it has started a Phase 1 trial in healthy volunteers of PF-06760805, an investigational vaccine designed to help protect against Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection. In newborns, GBS manifests as sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis, with potentially fatal outcomes for some, and long-lasting neurological damage in 46 to 50 percent of those infected. […]The post Group B Strep vaccine goes into Phase 1 trials appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

NanoBio Corporation today announced the progression of a novel intranasal anthrax vaccine into a pre-clinical IND-enabling toxicology study funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The vaccine combines NanoBio’s novel intranasal nanoemulsion (NE) adjuvant with recombinant protective antigen (rPA) for anthrax from Porton Biopharma Ltd (PBL). […]The post Intranasal anthrax vaccine approved to advance into a pre-clinical toxicology study appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

In an update on the cholera outbreak in Yemen, as of June 17, 158,960 suspected cholera cases and 1,100 deaths have been reported in 20 of the 23 governorates and 83 percent of the districts. The four most affected governorates are Amanat Al Asimah (Sana’a city), Al Hudaydah, Amran and Hajjah with 49.6 percent of […]The post Cholera update: 1100 deaths in Yemen since late April appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

One of the most common insecticides used in the battle against the Aedes aegypti mosquito has no measurable impact when applied in communities where the mosquito has built up resistance to it, a study led by Emory University finds. The study is the first to show how vital insecticide-resistance monitoring is to control the Aedes […]The post Mutant mosquitoes make insecticide-resistance monitoring key to controlling Zika appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The number of measles cases reported in France during the first five months of 2017 is 295, according to Sante publique France (computer translated). This is six-times the number of cases reported during the same period in 2016 (47). Measles has circulated widely in the general population in metropolitan France this year with 40 percent of […]The post France reports 6-times the measles compared to 2016, Health minister wants compulsory vaccines appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

A phase 1 randomized controlled trial has found an Ebola virus disease (EVD) vaccine, developed in Canada, was well-tolerated with no safety concerns, and high antibodies were present in participants 6 months after immunization. The study, led by Canadian researchers, is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). The research team conducted the clinical trial […]The post Ebola vaccine developed in Canada shows promising results appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Marshall Islands Health Department reports that mumps may have infected up to 3,000 people since March, according to a local media account, making it the largest outbreak reported in decades. According to the Marianas Variety report, the official number of confirmed and probable cases is now 1,033 since March; however, health officials warn the true […]The post Marshall Islands: Mumps outbreak in Majuro appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Professor at Laboure College in Milton, MA and biodefense and bioterrorism researcher, Lawrence Roberge PhD joined me to discuss a number of topics in the area of bioterrorism such as a review of the history, some of the agents and much, much more. Related: Rhodesia’s top secret use […]The post Bioterrorism appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Data released on the Maine Tracking Network Thursday by Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) reveals that adults over the age of 65 years had the highest rates of Lyme disease in the state last year. While the number of reported cases of the disease increased for all ages in 2016, adults […]The post Maine: Older adults had highest rates of Lyme disease in 2016 appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Human Services wishes to advise the public of an increase number of cases of conjunctivitis in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). Conjunctivitis, also called “pink eye”, is defined as an inflammation of the conjunctiva and can be caused by virus, bacteria or allergy. It can affect children and […]The post Turks and Caicos report increase in ‘pink eye’ appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The China National Health and Family Planning Commission reported an additional five human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9), including one death during the week of Jun. 9 through 15. The four male patients and one female, who came from Beijing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and Zhejiang and were aged from 41 to 68, had onset from April 25 to […]The post China reports additional H7N9 avian flu, Health officials meet in Hong Kong appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Philippines, a constituent of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), joins fellow country members in urging the public to strengthen forces in our continuous pursuit to defeat dengue as we commemorate the ASEAN Dengue Day for its 7th year. This is observed every 15th of June per declaration of ASEAN Health Ministers […]The post Philippines dengue: Cases down in 2017, ‘Search and Seek’ strategies intensify appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Since 27 April 2017, more than 151,400 suspected cholera cases and 1,054 associated deaths have been reported in 20 of the 23 governorates in Yemen, according to the World Health Organization country office in Yemen today. The four most affected governorates were Amanat Al Asimah, Al Hudaydah, Amran and Hajjah and the overall case fatality rate […]The post Cholera death toll tops 1000 appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed eight (8) additional cases this week of Oahu residents with the mumps, pushing the total number of cases this year to 104. Three new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, June 13, and involved two (2) adults and one (1) child. None of the cases required hospitalization […]The post Hawaii mumps cases tops 100 appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

While nearly 400,000 residents of long-term care facilities die as a result of healthcare associated infections (HAIs), these facilities continue to lack the resources, including qualified personnel, necessary to implement adequate infection control programs, according to research presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). More […]The post Significant gaps in infection prevention impact long-term care residents appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Scientists from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the biotechnology company NAICONS Srl., and elsewhere have discovered a new antibiotic effective against drug-resistant bacteria: pseudouridimycin. The new antibiotic is produced by a microbe found in a soil sample collected in Italy and was discovered by screening microbes from soil samples. The new antibiotic kills a broad spectrum of […]The post Pseudouridimycin: A new antibiotic effective against drug-resistant bacteria appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Indonesia has one of the highest burdens of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus, in the world, and children account for many cases. Well over half of all children in urban areas are infected with dengue by the age of 5, and more than 80 percent have been infected with the virus at least once by […]The post Indonesia: 80 percent of children infected with dengue by age 10 appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The substance ciguatoxin is only found in fish from tropical and subtropical seas. For some years now, cases of ciguatera have been reported with increasing frequency in Europe, in particular on the Spanish and Portuguese islands in the Atlantic but also in Germany. New information indicates that these toxins are increasingly prevalent in the Mediterranean. […]The post Ciguatera fish poisoning increases in Europe appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The number of cholera cases reported in Yemen has grown by 16,000 since our last report as the World Health Organization (WHO) puts the number of suspected cholera cases at 140,116 from Apr. 27 through June 14. The death toll in the past seven weeks is nearly 1,000 (989) and cases have been reported in 87 percent […]The post Cholera cases top 140,000 in Yemen in 7 weeks appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Bulletproof 360, Inc. (“Bulletproof”) of Bellevue, Washington is recalling five Collagen Protein Bar and Bite products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer […]The post Bulletproof recalls Collagen Protein Bar and Bite products over Listeria risk appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

NOW Health Group, Inc. (NOW), of Bloomingdale, Illinois, is expanding the voluntary recall of Ellyndale® Nutty Infusions™ Roasted Cashew Butter – Product Code E0540, Lot# 2125155, and Ginger Wasabi Cashew Butter — Product Code E0541, Lot# 2124118, to include Roasted Almond Butter – Product Code E0545, Lot# 2124119, and Mango Chili Cashew Butter – Product […]The post Nutty Infusions spreads recalled due to Listeria monocytogenes potential appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

About a month after the Italian government made childhood vaccines compulsory for the country’s schools, some regions in the country’s north are challenging the decree, according to a Local.it report. The regional government in Veneto said on Tuesday that its lawyers were preparing to challenge the decree in Italy’s Constitutional Court, and that the legal challenge would […]The post Measles in Italy nears 3,000 cases, Compulsory vaccinations law challenged appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

To win the war against antibiotic resistant super bugs, scientists seek to find the origin of resistance genes. Further, they try to identify how the genes are introduced to disease-causing bacteria – so-called pathogens. Identifying where resistance genes come from and how they spread somewhat compares to finding patient zero in an outbreak, which is […]The post Superbugs: Some get their resistance genes in a complex process involving bacterial ‘sex’ appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

One person has died from the bacterial infection, leptospirosis and the Cordillera Administrative Region in northern Luzon, Philippines has seen a 40 percent rise in the disease during the first six months of 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to The Department of Health-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOH-CAR). DOH records showed that Baguio City and […]The post Baguio City reports leptospirosis death as cases increase in Cordillera appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The New York City (NYC) Health Department is investigating a cluster of seven cases of Legionnaires’ disease among persons who reside in the Lenox Hill area of Manhattan in the last 11 days. All persons were hospitalized, and there has been one death in a person in their 90s who had significant underlying medical conditions. There […]The post Legionnaires’ disease cluster investigated in Manhattan: One death reported appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has identified the first case of human West Nile virus (WNV) infection in Los Angeles County for the 2017 season (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena as cases identified in those cities are reported by their local health departments). An elderly resident of the San Gabriel […]The post West Nile virus: LA county reports 1st human case in San Gabriel Valley region resident appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

According to Sweden’s Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten), the number of gonorrhea cases reported through May 2017 is more than 250 cases higher compared to the same period in 2016. The new figures reveal that a total of 939 gonorrhea infections had been reported so far this year. That’s 254 more than the same period last year, according […]The post Sweden reports increase on gonorrhea in 2017 to date appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

In a follow-up on the pertussis, or whooping cough outbreak that was declared in Alberta’s South Zone last week, public health officials report that additional pertussis cases, not linked to this outbreak, have been confirmed across Alberta. The total confirmed cases province wide is 178 in 2017 to date with Central Zone reporting the most […]The post Alberta pertussis: Cases confirmed throughout the province appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The number of botulism cases reported in Ukraine during the past three months has risen to 62, according to the Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine on European integration Oksana Sivak. Of this total, nine have died. Dried fish, both home prepared and commercially prepared has been linked to most of the botulism cases, while officials […]The post Ukraine botulism outbreak sickens dozens in three months, most linked to dried fish appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Author of the new book, Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare 1975-1980, Glenn Cross, PhD joined me to discuss the book, give some history on the government’s long counterinsurgency against native African nationalists and the top secret use of chemical and biological weapons (CBW). Check out Dirty War below: […]The post Rhodesia’s top secret use of chemical and biological weapons: An interview with Dr Glenn Cross appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Ringworm. Is it a worm at all? No, in fact it is a fungus and a pretty common one at that. Dermatophyte, or tinea infections can affect the skin on almost any area of the body, such as the scalp, legs, arms, feet, groin, and nails. Board-certified dermatologist and founder of the Forman Dermatology and Skin Cancer […]The post Ringworm: Is it a worm? No, it’s a fungus among us appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) is looking for anyone who had direct contact with a rabid kitten found in the area of N.W. 10th and Purdue Street near the Central Oklahoma Winnelson Company on or around June 8. The kitten was orange and white in color and was about 6-8 weeks old. It […]The post Oklahoma City rabies exposure: Health officials seek people who had contact with rabid kitten appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Ukraine has reported an increase in measles cases in 2017, according to the Public Health Center (PHC) of Ukraine Thursday (computer translated). The current case count stands at 735, and the vaccination rates are very poor, according to health officials. In 2016, only 45 percent of children in Ukraine were vaccinated against measles. Over the […]The post Ukraine reports hundreds of measles cases, vaccination rates low appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

The outbreak of dengue fever in Sri Lanka is spreading at epidemic levels with the latest case count at 63,987, including 177 deaths as of today. This compares with the approximately 23,000 cases reported during the same period in 2016. This has prompted the Presidential Task Force on Prevention of Dengue and the Ministry of Health […]The post Dengue fever outbreak: Sri Lanka update appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Maddie’s® Clinical Assistant Professor of Shelter Medicine at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Cynda Crawford, DVM, PhD joined me for a discussion on the ABC’s of canine influenza, or “dog flu”. Related: Rabies: A comprehensive interview with Pamela Wilson Baylisascaris procyonis-the raccoon roundworm Bioterrorism: A history, […]The post Dog flu 101: An interview with Dr Cynda Crawford appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

An initiative led by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reduced Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections by 89 percent over four years in a Veterans community living center (CLC) in North Carolina, according to research presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Active surveillance and decolonization […]The post MRSA: Veterans Health Administration initiative significantly reduces cases appeared first on Outbreak News Today.

Dr. Sherlita Amler, Westchester County’s Health Commissioner, is encouraging people who consumed beverages at Monteverde at Oldstone, a restaurant and event space at 28 Bear Mountain Bridge Road in Cortlandt Manor, to protect themselves against Hepatitis A following confirmation that an employee with the disease worked at the restaurant while infectious. Hepatitis A is a […]The post Hepatitis A warning in Westchester County appeared first on Outbreak News Today.