Case counts climb to 109, making it the 3rd-largest E coli outbeak in 20 years.
A multistate Escherichia coli O103 outbreak from a still-unidentified source has sickened 24 more people, with 96 cases reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday. The number of affected states remained at five: Kentucky (46 cases), Tennessee (26), Georgia (17), Ohio (5), and Virginia (2).
Patients range in age from 1 to 74 years, but at least half are children.
A new Ebola species first identified in bats last year in Sierra Leone—named Bombali virus— has now been found in bats in Kenya, pointing to wide distribution, given that the two countries are on opposite coasts of Africa. Researchers from Finland, Kenya, and Sweden reported their findings in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Improperly home-canned peas sickened three women in New York City last summer after they ate potato salad that contained the ingredient, underscoring the importance of safe canning procedures, New York health officials reported today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Today health officials in Saudi Arabia and Oman reported one new case of MERS-CoV each. This is the sixth case recorded in recent weeks in Oman; in Saudi Arabia, the new case is possibly linked to an ongoing hospital outbreak in Wadi ad-Dawasir.
According to the Muscat Daily yesterday, the Omani Ministry of Health tweeted that a new patient had been diagnosed as having MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus).
Because of the federal government shutdown, now in its third week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended all routine inspections of domestic food-processing facilities, a move that alarms some food safety advocates.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 7 new confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) this past week, bringing 2018's total to 165 confirmed cases.
According to the CDC, the 165 cases are among the total of 320 reports that it received regarding patients under investigation). CDC and local health departments are still investigating some of those suspected cases.
As the outbreak grows to 59 cases, officials puzzle over why romaine and not other lettuce was tainted.
In new romaine-linked Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak developments, federal health officials yesterday reported nine more illnesses and said trace-back investigations are focusing on 12 growers.