Officials have reported 4 more confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Equateur province Ebola outbreak, raising the total to 28, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said today on Twitter.
Aerosolized SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remained infectious for as long as 16 hours, according to a study published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Using nebulizers and a custom-built rotating drum, US researchers aerosolized the viruses once each in primate head-only exposure chambers or 30-liter rodent chambers in four aerobiology laboratories.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced over the weekend that it has stopped two randomized clinical trials exploring the use of the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treating and preventing COVID-19.
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) dashboard shows 3 new Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which raise the outbreak total to 3,194 cases, including 2,133 deaths. A total of 346 suspected cases are still under investigation.
Also today the DRC’s multisector Ebola committee (CMRE) said three cases yesterday originated in Kalunguta, Mambasa, and Mandima—all current virus hot spots.
In the latest global polio developments, Pakistan reported five more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases, while two African nations—Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—reported more positive circulating vaccine-derived polio type 2 (cVDPV2) detections. The details appear today in the weekly update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
A multistate Cyclospora outbreak linked to fresh basil imported from Mexico has sickened 73 more people, increasing the total to 205 infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an Aug 15 update.
A 132-case outbreak linked to basil is part of the nation's 580 lab-confirmed infections so far this year.
Results from the world's first phase 1 trial of a vaccine against MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) demonstrated a strong immune response after two doses and a good safety profile. The trial involved 75 US Army volunteers and was published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 41 more measles cases in the past week, raising 2019's total number of cases to 1,022, a record for the post-elimination era.
"This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000," the CDC said today.
The CDC said only one third of the cases were linked to two major outbreaks and that it is exploring if a change in testing practices contributed to more detections.