Outbreak News Today

At least 20 suspected monkeypox cases have been reported since the beginning of the week in Tshuapa district, Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a Radio Okapi report today (computer translated). Sources say that 18 of the suspect cases are hospitalized at a hospital in the town of Ikela. Despite not being laboratory confirmed, the […]

The State Mosquito Management Program announced Thursday that two Connecticut residents have tested positive for West Nile virus (WNV) infection. These are the first human cases of WNV associated illness identified in Connecticut this season. Both are residents of Bridgeport. One patient, between 40-49 years of age, became ill during the third week of August […]

For decades there has been a demonstrable connection between dams in Africa and an increase in the parasitic disease, schistosomiasis. Now, South African and Australian researchers correlate the location of large dams with the incidence of malaria in a newly published study in the Malaria Journal this month. In addition, the study finds that construction of […]

The Jordanian Ministry of Health reported three additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection yesterday, adding to the ongoing investigation into the cluster of cases. Jordan has reported 11 MERS cases during the past 16 days, all apparently linked to a returning traveler to Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, new cases have been reported […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported today a new cholera outbreak in the east African nation of Tanzania where the case count has reached nearly 1,000 since August. According to the UN health agency, on 25 August, new foci of cholera were identified in Dar es Salaam, Pwani (Coast), Iringa and Morogoro. The cholera outbreak in […]

Health officials in the country’s 6th most populous city has confirmed the presence of chikungunya in the population. Zamboanga Today reports that Zamboanga City Health Officer (CHO) Dr. Rodel Agbulos has revealed that they recorded four positive cases of Chikungunya in the city. Agbulos said, “We are expecting some cases and we have seen some cases […]

The dengue fever outbreak in southern Taiwan has got so bad, growing by another 607 indigenous cases Thursday, that mosquito repellents are currently out of stock in some areas. Tainan City saw 554 news cases alone. Since this summer, a cumulative total of 8,060 indigenous dengue cases confirmed in 20 cities and counties have been reported. […]

We have a significant lack of transparency in the United States and worldwide concerning MRSA. “MRSA must immediately become a top political priority”, Jeanine Thomas, founder of MRSA Survivors Network and World MRSA Day said today. Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA), the antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus is rampant and an ongoing epidemic in U.S. […]

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has announced today at the 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) in Basel, Switzerland, the successful completion of Phase I human clinical trials for SCYX-7158 (AN5568), the first oral drug candidate specifically developed from the earliest drug discovery stage to combat human African trypanosomiasis, […]

Just a few weeks after 100 employees and customers at a Simi Valley, CA Chipotle restaurant were sickened with norovirus, Minnesota health officials are reporting a Salmonella Newport outbreak affecting dozens who ate at some 17 restaurants state-wide. Forty-five (45) cases of Salmonella Newport infection have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) since […]

Philippines Bureau of Animal Industry officials announced today that macaque exports have been suspended after reports of 11 monkeys dying, with at least one of the dead monkeys confirmed positive for Ebola Reston Virus (ERV). Last weekend, Department of Health (DOH) officials announced that monkeys in at least one facility tested positive for the virus, […]

The Taiwan CDC reported an additional 581 dengue fever cases Wednesday putting the country’s total to 7,453, according to recently released data. Tainan City reported more than 87 percent (507) of the new cases yesterday. As dengue activity continues to peak, the number of cases in Tainan City is increasing rapidly and the number of […]

A study published this week in Cell Host and Microbe from a research team out of China and the US has shown that in children, telltale oral microorganisms can be prognosticators for progression of dental caries, or cavities. Dental caries are the most common form of oral infection in children. Once established, the infection is […]

Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to change both anatomically and functionally in response to changes in the body or in the environment. For many years, researchers believed that the brain did not suffer major changes after childhood. Although brain plasticity predominates in the first years of life, research done in the last […]

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a neurodegenerative disorder with similarities to Parkinson’s disease, is caused by a newly discovered type of prion, akin to the misfolded proteins involved in incurable progressive brain diseases such Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), according to two new research papers led by scientists at UC San Francisco. The findings suggest new approaches to […]

A man who died from rabies last May has now been laboratory confirmed, according to the Rospotrebnadzor, or the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing. The 49-year-old man from Lipetsk Oblast is believed to have contracted the lethal virus from his pet cat, according to a Medik Forum report (computer translated). He was […]

Illinois health officials reported today two additional deaths in residents of the Illinois Veteran’s Home – Quincy, bringing the total fatalities to nine. The case count stands at 53 since the outbreak began in late August. In California, last week administrators at San Quentin State Prison (SQ) restored visiting and normal showering for inmates last Friday. As of […]

Dozens of additional cases of Salmonella Poona infections have been reported in the past several days in the multistate outbreak linked to cucumbers from Mexico, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports today. The case count has jumped by 56 since Sept. 4 including a second death, this one reported in Texas in a person […]

A deadly parasite that causes Chagas disease is widespread in a common Texas insect, according to a new study by University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) researchers. The finding suggests that the risk of Texans contracting the disease may be higher than previously thought. The parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), which causes Chagas disease […]

Safeway has recalled field cucumbers and various in-store produced products that contain cucumbers purchased from Safeway due to possible Salmonella contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled products described below. This recall applies to fresh field cucumbers sold in bulk, unwrapped and various in-store produced products that contain cucumbers, such as Greek salad, vegetable trays, […]

In the span of 24 hours, Taiwan reported another nearly 600 cases of locally acquired dengue fever cases on Tuesday as the total cases in the country barrels toward 7,000. On Monday, the Taiwan CDC put the case tally at 6,312; however one day later health officials put the count at 6,872, an increase of 560 […]

Health officials from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Public Health encourage residents and visitors to take precautions to prevent mosquito-borne illness following a death from West Nile virus infection. This is North Carolina’s first death and first confirmed case in 2015. Further details regarding the deceased are not available to protect […]

A coalition of Lyme patient advocacy groups will hold rallies and a candlelight vigil on October 9 and 10 during the IDWeek medical conference in San Diego. IDWeek is organized by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). IDSA publishes guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, which are followed by many physicians and […]

The number of pertussis, or whooping cough cases reported during the first eight months of 2015 than during the entire year in 2014, according to a El Diario report (computer translated). The Instituto de Salud Carlos III reports 4822 new pertussis cases since the beginning of the year and this compares with a total of 3,123 cases reported […]

Breaking a nail is one thing. Breaking a nail-biting habit is another, say member dermatologists from the American Academy of Dermatology. Nail biting typically begins in childhood and can continue through adulthood, and the side effects can be more than cosmetic, say dermatologists. “Chronic nail biting can cause serious problems,” said board-certified dermatologist Margaret E. […]

More than half of Asian Americans and nearly half of Hispanic Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their results were published Sept. 8 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Additionally, prevalence of diabetes for all American […]

Hillsborough County, FL has reported it’s fourth Vibrio vulnificus case of the year, according to state health officials. This brings the total in Florida 26 cases and 11 deaths. The first three cases reported from the county were fatal. Legionnaires’ disease has been a big story this year with outbreaks peppered throughout the country. In […]

El Dorado County health officials have been notified by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) that a California ground squirrel in the Tahoe area has tested positive for plague. The dead squirrel was found at the Kiva picnic area (Promenade) adjacent to the Tallac Historic Site in South Lake Tahoe on August 17, 2015. […]

The Vietnamese Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health reported Monday that from Jan. through August of this year, 25,000 dengue fever cases have been reported. Of this total, 16 deaths have occurred. This is an increase of more than double the number of cases seen last summer. Cities in both the north and […]

Two additional cases of measles have been identified in Brisbane, bringing to 10 the total number of cases reported since mid-July. Metro North Public Health Unit (MNPHU) Physician Dr James Smith said that unlike previous cases, neither of the two latest cases was a student at the University of Queensland, but both have links to […]

Since the last week of July, Executive North Regional Health officials have reported up to 16 Legionnaires’ disease cases in the second largest city of Porto, or Oporto, according to a health ministry press release (computer translated). The press release states 12 cases confirmed; however, local media put the case count at 16. According to […]

Indonesia is the second most common destination for Australian travelers, with 1.01 million journeys in the 2013–14 financial year. This is a 266% trend change compared with the 2003–04 financial year. Why is this significant? According to a case report published earlier this year in the Medical Journal of Australia, researchers describe cases of the […]

The oldest data available concerning Legionnaires’ disease (LD) in Hong Kong goes back to 1997 and the most cases reported in any single year was 2014 with 41 cases; however, that has changed with the report of an additional case in 2015 this weekend. Hong Kong health officials Sunday said they were investigating an LD […]

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are ramping up measures in the battle against dengue fever, particularly in the south of the country, as the case tally continues to rise. Health officials established a forward command post to support the local governments in battling the ongoing dengue outbreaks. The purposes of establishing the forward command […]

The surge of dengue fever cases continue in Delhi as health officials report 430 cases during the first week of September, bringing the tally to 1,259 in the national capital. This includes two dengue-related fatalities. This is a huge increase compared top recent years in Delhi when the number of cases from January 1 to […]

The UK The Food Standards Agency announced that Morrisons supermarket has instituted a product recall of it’s Morrisons Savers Cooked Ham due to the risk of Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The recall applies to 200g packs of Saver Cooked Ham with a ‘Use By’ date of 11 September 2015. The Company has said that no other products or date […]

Writing today about the eco-terrorism threat to the society we live in seems to remind us of environmental activists, right-wing or left-wing extremists, who used to make plots against the government through vandalism for their radical attempt to make public and system to address specific issues as animal rights, pro-life and anti-nuclear policy. Those people are […]

Legionnaires’ disease has been in the headlines frequently of recent with outbreaks reported in the Bronx, Illinois, San Quentin and Ohio among others in just the past month or so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease in the U.S annually. One scholar says […]

Last September, a Liberian man named Thomas Eric Duncan went to the Emergency Department of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas (THD) presenting with several non-specific symptoms and notified staff of his recent arrival from West Africa, where the world’s largest Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak was growing by leaps and bounds. As we know now, Mr […]

The West African country of Mali is on high alert after a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) was detected in a child in the capital city of Bamako, according to health officials. This is the first case in the country since June 2011. Officials not that the case is a 19-month-old child from neighboring Guinea whose […]

In a follow-up to recent reports here on Outbreak News Today concerning the plague outbreak in Madagascar HERE and HERE, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an update Sunday with more details on what’s happening on the world’s 4th largest island. The Ministry of Health of Madagascar has notified WHO of an outbreak of plague. […]

Despite Taiwanese health officials saying they see the “end of the tunnel” with the dengue fever outbreak that has swept the country, particularly the south, the case count continues to climb by the hundreds daily. With an additional 400-plus cases reported yesterday, the total case count is nipping at the 6,000 mark. According to the Taiwan […]

In a follow-up report on a outbreak of pneumonic plague in a village near Moramanga, Madagascar, a ProMED report Saturday (computer translated) reveals there have been 12 cases of the very dangerous disease have now been reported in the village, overwhelming local physicians. During the first two days of diagnosis, eight of the 12 patients have […]

Health officials in the Philippines have seen a significant,in fact a three-fold increase in the number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases reported during the first half of 2015, compared to the same period in 2014. The Epidemiology Bureau of the Department of Health reported 563 HFMD cases through the end of June […]

During the first eight months of 2015, Colombian health officials have reported nearly 650 cases of Chagas disease, more than 330,000 chikungunya cases, more than 60,000 dengue fever cases and nearly 5,000 cases of leishmaniasis. Below is more details on each of these disease categories. Chagas disease The Instituto Nacional de Salud reports that through […]

In a follow-up to a report last week concerning an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness in the Person County Schools in North Carolina, health officials report laboratory testing results on samples analyzed. Since Wednesday, September 2, the Person County Health Department has been working closely with the Person County Schools, the North Carolina Division of Public […]

According to the Instituto Nacional de Salud in Colombia, there were more than 400 suspected meningitis cases reported in week 34 (Aug. 23-29); however, after discarding and ruling out cases, 245 laboratory confirmed (59%) and probable (41%) cases remained. The distribution by the types of bacterial meningitis is as follows: Neisseria meningitidis 59 (24.1%), Streptococcus […]

Fiji health officials are always on a constant watch for three infectious diseases– leptospirosis, dengue fever and typhoid fever, and now the concern is especially on leptospirosis. The Fiji Times says the island has recorded 148 cases of the bacterial disease so far, with most detected in the Western and Central divisions. “Leptospirosis is endemic to […]

Dr. Karen Smith, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Health Officer, is advising health care providers to ‘Think measles’ when encountering patients showing the symptoms of rash and fever as the contagious viral disease is ever present around the world and can be imported into the state via international travel. “Measles continues to circulate […]

In a follow-up to the mumps outbreak in Illinois, state health officials now report 146 cases statewide, with 114 cases associated with the outbreak at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Last week, Robert D. Palinkas, MD, Director of the McKinley Health Center at UI said the number of new cases daily varies between two and four. In addition, two […]