A research letter in Nature yesterday said that up to 40% of all animal deaths in the Ivory Coast's Tai National Park were caused by an unusual strain of the bacteria that causes anthrax. The strain, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, could even lead to extinction of the park's chimpanzee population, researchers said.
According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) situation report, there are now 43 suspected cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is six more probable cases since the last situation report released yesterday.
Two more babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects, raising the total to 36, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update. The number of Zika-related pregnancy losses remained at 5.
A new botulinum toxin can be blocked using available antitoxins, a new study says.
Potato salad made from home-canned potatoes is probably what triggered a recent botulism outbreak in people who attended a church lunch in Lancaster on Apr 19, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and the Fairfield Department of Health announced yesterday.
Health officials in Ohio have confirmed botulism as the illness that sickened several people and killed one who attended the same church lunch in Lancaster, Ohio, on Apr 19, the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette reported on Apr 25.
Suspected botulism has sickened 24 people and killed 1 after a potluck lunch at a Lancaster, Ohio, church, Reuters reported today.
Fifty to 60 people attended the lunch on April 19 at Cross Pointe Free Will Baptist Church, and outbreak patients started getting sick on Apr 21, said Jennifer Valentine, a spokeswoman for the Fairfield (County) Department of Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today that 141 measles cases have been reported so far this year, an increase of 20 since the agency's previous update on Feb 9.
Most of the cases—113 (80%)—are part of a multistate outbreak that originated with exposures at Disneyland, the CDC said. (The update does not name Disneyland, instead referring to it as an amusement park in California.)
Researchers who analyzed the genome of a new coronavirus (CoV) from a South African bat sample demonstrated that it may be the ancestor of MERS-CoV, that a host switch from bats to camels may have taken place in Africa, and that camels are likely infecting humans rather than vice versa, according to a study yesterday in the Journal of Virology.
The multistate outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg linked to chicken from producer Foster Farms in California has now sickened 416 people in 23 states and Puerto Rico, according to an update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The last-reported case count was 389 on Nov 19.