Outbreak News Today

The Tennessee Department of Health today has received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the first person in the state to test positive for Zika virus disease. The individual had recently traveled to South America before returning to east Tennessee. “We have been expecting an imported case of Zika virus disease […]

With tenacity befitting their subject, an international team of nearly 100 researchers toiled for a decade and overcame tough technical challenges to decipher the genome of the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, contributed primary support to the research, which appears […]

Ohio health officials have reported the state’s first case of Zika virus in a returning traveler from Haiti, a 30-year-old Cuyahoga County woman, city of Cleveland. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 50 laboratory-confirmed cases among U.S. travelers from December 2015- February 5, 2016. There has been no local transmission of Zika in the […]

Brazilian health authorities have notified the PAHO/WHO of an increase of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) recorded at the national level. Data from the hospital-based surveillance system reveal that, between January and November 2015, 1,708 cases of GBS were registered nationwide. While a number of states reported significant increases in reported cases – especially, Alagoas (516.7%), Bahia […]

French health officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of two cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in the Caribbean island of Martinique. Both cases tested positive for Zika virus. Details of the two cases are as follows: The first case is a 19-year-old with onset of symptoms (paraesthesia of hands and feet) on 26 December. Urine […]

With the dengue fever case count now at 251 on Hawaii Island since October last year, the mayor of Hawaii’s Big Island Billy Kenoi declared a state of emergency. The move is an effort get the mosquito borne outbreak under control. The call for a state of emergency from Governor David Ige has been heard from […]

Vaccinations, long recognized as an excellent investment that saves lives and prevents illness, could have significant economic value that far exceeds their original cost, a new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found. In what is believed to be among the first studies to examine the potential return […]

In a follow-up story on the monkeypox outbreak in the Central African Republic (CAR), health officials say that no new monkeypox cases have been reported in Bangassou, according to a Journal De Bangui report (computer translated). “All the patients we have received and which were isolated at the hospital here, are healed and have already returned to their families. […]

Following the confirmation of three meningococcal meningitis B infections in students at Santa Clara University last week, The Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced administering approximately 1,500 vaccinations last Thursday. In addition, drug store chain, Walgreens announced they will be offering vaccinations that provide protection against Meningitis B at all of its pharmacies throughout the Santa Clara area. Vaccinations […]

In a White House statement today: The Pan American Health Organization reports 26 countries and territories in the Americas with local Zika transmission. While we have not yet seen transmission of the Zika virus by mosquitoes within the continental United States, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories in warmer areas with Aedes aegpyti mosquito populations […]

Columbia University Medical Center and Mailman School of Public Health experts offer insight into the arrival of the Zika virus in South America and the Caribbean. Experts Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Physicians & Surgeons Ian Lipkin, MD, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology (Mailman School of Public […]

The Federal Government has been monitoring the Zika virus and working with our domestic and international public health partners to alert healthcare providers and the public about Zika; provide public health laboratories with diagnostic tests; and detect and report cases both domestically and internationally. The Administration is taking every appropriate measure to protect the American […]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic and health officials from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, report the discovery of a new species of bacteria (Borrelia mayonii) that causes Lyme disease in people. Until now, Borrelia burgdorferi was the only species believed to cause Lyme disease in North America. Scientists […]

I continued the discussion on Lyme disease on the Feb. 7 airing of the Outbreak News This Week Radio show with an interview with Associate Professor of Microbiology at SUNY Adirondack, Holly Ahern. We discussed the tick vectors, why Borrelia burgdorferi is so complex, problems with Lyme diagnosis and chronic Lyme. With 14 imported Zika virus cases reported in […]

Queensland will boost measures to combat mosquito breeds responsible for the spread of Zika virus and Dengue fever. Minister for Health and Ambulance Service Cameron Dick announced the measures following a specially convened roundtable of public health and infectious disease experts last week.. “Expert advice is that Zika virus is not currently circulating in Queensland,” […]

After reporting 27 confirmed leprosy, or Hansen’s disease cases in 2015, significantly higher than the average of 10 cases seen most years, the start of 2016 appears to be a continuation of last year as Florida health officials report seeing five confirmed cases during the first five weeks of the year. From the beginning of […]

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday said that the current Zika virus case count in the country now stands at more than 25,600, 3,177 pregnant women affected by the mosquito borne virus, according to a Reuters report (computer translated). However, it is also mentioned that no microcephaly cases have been reported. The president said that in […]

West Chicago, Illinois company, The Jel Sert Company, issued a voluntary recall Friday for 52 cases of Margaritaville Banana Cream Pie Filling, 4.16 ounce carton that was used for sales samples and gift packages distributed nationwide, because it has the possibility to be contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal […]

Officials with the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangdong Province announced an additional human case of avian influenza A(H7N9) in Shantou. The patient is a 73-year-old man who lives in Shantou, Guangdong. He had poultry contact before onset of symptoms on February 2. He attended a local hospital for management on February 5 and his […]

In October 2014, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made headlines after quarantining Maine nurse who returned from Sierra Leone after treating Ebola-infected patients, Kaci Hickox, who was put in an isolation tent at Newark University Hospital for 2 1/2 days despite having no symptoms of the disease. This move, as experts like Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) […]

To date, laboratory-confirmed Zika virus has been reported in 11 states and Washington, DC, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Feb. 3. All cases in the United States have been classified as travel-associated. The states affected include: Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, […]

In a serendipitous turn of events, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and partners have discovered a malaria parasite, Plasmodium odocoilei, in up to 25 percent of white-tailed deer along the East Coast of the United States. The results, published Feb. 5 in Science Advances, represent the only native malaria parasite found in mammals in […]

The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment has received confirmation of one positive case of norovirus associated with the investigation at Buffalo Wild Wings at the end of January. Additional results are pending lab confirmation. There have been no further reports of illness. Earlier this week, 10 cases of a gastrointestinal illness were linked […]

City officials in Baquba District, Iraq are reporting some 100 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis, or “Baghdad boil”, in recent weeks in the agricultural belt of Baquba, according to a ProMed news posting Friday. Mayor of Baquba District in Diyala governorate, Abdullah Al-Hayali said, “the past few weeks have witnessed more than 100 cases of Baghdad boil in the agricultural belt […]

Health authorities in Chile are reporting the first imported Zika virus infection case in a man who arrived from Colombia, according to a Globo.com report (computer translated). The patient is currently being treated at a medical facility and a second possible case is “being assessed”. According to the Ministry of Health, this imported case does […]

Officials with the Cape Verde Ministry of Health (computer translated) are reporting 7,164 Zika virus cases since first being confirmed in the capital city of Praia last October, while at the same time reporting no occurrences of microcephaly. Health officials do however report a downward trajectory in cases in the country. Most cases were recorded in Praia (4,837), […]

Health officials in Crimea are reporting two human tularemia cases in the territory of the Saksky area near by village of Dobrusina, according to Ukraine media (computer translated). The two individuals reported contracting the bacterial zoonotic infection from contact with a hare during hunting. Also known as rabbit fever and deer fly fever,tularemia is caused by […]

An Englewood, Colorado hospital is notifying nearly 3,000 patients who had surgery between August 17, 2015 and January 22, 2016 in the main operating rooms and in the orthopedic operating rooms on October 28, 2015 over a potential exposure to blood borne pathogens after identifying a potential drug diversion (the stealing of narcotic pain medication intended for […]

Officials with the New Mexico Department of Health are reporting the first case of hantavirus of the year in a woman from Sandoval County. the 37-year-old woman is currently hospitalized with laboratory confirmed Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) and an environmental investigation will be conducted at the home of the patient to help reduce the risk to others. “This case early […]

Parasitology 101 is an educational blog that that can be used as a study guide for microbiology, infectious disease and medical technology students. The “bullet-point” format keeps the information concise and to the point. General Information Fasciola hepatica is a trematode or fluke also known as the “sheep liver fluke” All trematodes are parasitic All trematodes have a […]

The Nigeria Centre for Disease (NCDC) announced that 101 deaths have been reported since August out of the 175 confirmed and suspected cases. The most recent “flare-up” has been reported in the capital city of Abuja. To date, 19 (including Abuja) states are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory […]

A Colombian man has been diagnosed with co-infections of three mosquito borne viruses transmitted by the Aedes vector, dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika, according to a study published in the Journal of Infection and Public Health. The researchers from Sincelejo, Colombia say the 49-year-old man from Sincelejo constantly traveled to different regions of the country and was probably exposed […]

US federal health officials with the Atlanta-based, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued a special travel alert for travelers to Mexico next week to see Pope Francis next week. The Pope is scheduled to visit several areas of Mexico beginning next Friday, Feb. 12 and staying through Feb. 18. A number of stops […]

Since the pneumococcal meningitis outbreak began in Dec. 2015, Ghana health minister Alex Segbefia said in a statement on the floor of Parliament Thursday that bacterial outbreak has so far claimed 85 lives out of the 456 cases recorded in the country. These numbers are up from a week ago when 246 cases were reported, including 50 deaths. […]

On Friday, the full Senate Democratic Caucus, all 46 Senators, called on President Obama to address the Zika virus outbreak by using a coordinated interagency response plan, according to a letter sent to the President. The letter signed by all Democratic US Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid and Asst. Leader Dick Durbin, calls for the President to […]

Health officials in McLean County, Ill. are reporting an increase in mumps cases connected with the Illinois State University (ISU) campus prompting an alert of state health officials of the outbreak. Melissa Graven, Communicable Disease Program Supervisor with the McLean County Health Department said, “New reports of mumps started coming in at the end of January which prompted […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) released their Zika Situation Report Friday, which is chock full of interesting information, ranging from the incidence of Zika virus to microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) data. Between 2015 and 2016, 33 countries have reported autochthonous transmission- Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, […]

The Florida Department of Health released a Zika case count update on Friday and St. Johns and Osceola counties reported one case each, bringing the total cases in the state to 14. The cases were confirmed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and all 14 cases are considered imported, or travel-associated. In addition, […]

Fiocruz, a body linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, found the presence of active Zika virus (with potential to cause infection) in saliva and urine samples, according to a Oswaldo Cruz Foundation statement Friday (computer translated). The unpublished evidence, which suggests the need to investigate the relevance of these alternative routes of virus transmission was observed […]

The Puerto Rican government declared a public health emergency due to the Zika virus after Governor Alejandro García Padilla signed an executive order Friday, according to a Diario de Puerto Rico report (computer translated). The executive order creates an Integral National Plan intended to prevent, protect, and treat the disease, to be carried out by the State […]

CDC has issued new interim guidance on preventing sexual transmission of Zika virus after confirming through laboratory testing, in collaboration with Dallas County Health and Human Services, the first case of Zika virus infection in a non-traveler in the continental United States during this outbreak. Although sexual transmission of Zika virus infection is possible, mosquito […]

With two weeks remaining until Penn State University has it’s THON weekend, the childhood cancer campaign, University Health Services at the school are warning students and the campus community of what appears to be, a norovirus-like illness spreading on campus. University Health Services has seen an increase in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms in the past […]

In a follow-up to a report earlier this week, Santa Clara County health officials learned of a third confirmed case of meningococcal infection in a Santa Clara University student. Like the first two cases, the third case is also confirmed to have the serogroup B strain of the bacterium, Neisseria meningitidis. According to the Santa Clara County Public Health […]

Bavarian Nordic A/S announced Thursday that it has entered into a joint collaboration with Evaxion Biotech, a Danish biotechnology company, and Technical University of Denmark (DTU), for the development of an MVA-BN-based vaccine against MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) using Evaxion’s computer-based technology to discover novel antigens. The same approach could potentially be used to target […]

In a follow-up report to the chickenpox cluster reported in a Clearwater, FL elementary school, Pinellas County health officials are now reported the number of cases has risen from eight to 14 students. The outbreak at Plumb Elementary school prompted a visit from health officials this week to give faculty and staff a presentation on the virus […]

With the release of 19 notifications of additional human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) with onset of symptoms between December 21, 2015 and January 25 this year by the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission today, this brings the total human cases to 702 on the mainland since 2013. According to reports, the patients comprise 11 […]

Newcastle disease is an infection of domestic poultry and other bird species with virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV). In the region of Central Luzon, Philippines, the virus is being implicated in the death of some 41,000 chickens, according to the regional Department of Agriculture (DA). It is suspected that the spread of the virus was enhanced […]

Women undergo more cesarean sections each year in the United States than any other major surgery, with the procedure carrying a significant rate of infection at the incision site. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis offers strong guidance on the best way to reduce the infection risk. Rather than […]

The University of Georgia announced Wednesday that it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with GeoVax Labs Inc. to develop and test a vaccine to prevent the emerging and virulent Zika virus infection. The collaboration will combine the vaccine development expertise of UGA researchers led by Ted Ross, director of UGA’s Center for Vaccines and […]

Alberta health officials are currently investigating an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 cases in the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS). As of Feb. 2, this outbreak includes 14 lab-confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7. Though the ongoing investigation has not yet confirmed a single source of illness linked to all 14 outbreak cases, recent testing […]