In a surprise finding, an analysis of US hospitals today in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology has found that meeting all seven of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) core elements of hospital antibiotic stewardship programs is associated with higher use of certain antibiotics than meetings six or fewer elements.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday announced 10 more cases of Salmonella Typhimurium illness linked to pet hedgehogs, and 6 more states are affected. The new cases raise the outbreak total to 27 cases in 17 states.
It a development that has the potential to replace cold chain antiviral vaccine storage systems that make it difficult to immunize people in remote and low-resource regions of the world, researchers today described a stable, affordable system for storing fragile vaccines for weeks. Researchers based at McMaster University described their findings today in Scientific Reports.
Despite pockets of vaccine resistance that has led to a surge in measles cases in the United States, a new poll found that 87% of Americans believe the measles virus is dangerous and that 87% believe the vaccine against it is safe.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) health ministry said today that Ebola infections have been confirmed in 15 more people, 2 of them health workers.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) today recorded four more MERS-CoV cases for epidemiologic week 8, including three in Wadi ad-Dawasir.
The latest cases raise Saudi Arabia's MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) total since the first of the year to 69, with 44 of those cases recorded in Wadi ad-Dawasir.
Over the weekend and through today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) health ministry reported 16 more lab-confirmed Ebola cases, 13 of them from Katwa, the outbreak's current hot spot. Also, in a Feb 9 update, health officials reported 7 more probable cases, all from Katwa involving people who became ill in November and December and died between November and January.
Partial protection from earlier dengue exposure in the favela population might explain Zika's quick decline there.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed 9 new cases of the polio-like condition known as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), boosting the 2018 numbers to 210. The agency also noted that 7 patients so far this year are under investigation for AFM.
Two Middle East countries reported new MERS-CoV cases today, including four in Oman and one in Saudi Arabia, according to separate health ministry announcements.