Analysis of six European studies on the 2019/2020 influenza season indicate the interim vaccine effectiveness (VE) against laboratory-confirmed influenza in the primary care setting ranged from 29% to 61% and from 35% to 60% in hospitalized older adults. The results appeared today in Eurosurveillance.
Florida Health officials confirmed a case of locally acquired dengue in the Florida Keys, according to the Associated Press (AP), and said the patient is doing well. The Keys saw outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease in 2009 and 2010.
Today Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case in Unayzah, bringing the March tally to two infections, after the ministry reported 18 in February.
The World Health Organization (WHO) flu vaccine strain selection committee met this week to assess what strains to include in the 2020-21 Northern Hemisphere flu season and today recommended swapping out three of the strains.
In their report, they recommend replacing egg-based flu vaccine strains:
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case today. This raises the number of MERS cases recorded this month to 12.
A study today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that egg-based adjuvanted and high-dose (HD) flu vaccines had slightly higher relative vaccine effectiveness (RVE) than egg-based quadrivalent (four-strain) vaccines in nearly 13 million Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older during the 2018-19 flu season.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case today. This raises the number of MERS cases recorded this month to 11.
In the US, the vaccine did not protect against H1N1, which is now circulating more.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported one new confirmed Ebola case over the last 3 days, edging the overall outbreak total to 3,427, according to numbers reflected on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) online Ebola dashboard. The WHO in a recent report said recent trends have been encouraging, with the number of cases in the most recent epidemiologic week the fewest since the outbreak response began.
According to the latest situation report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, the 15 most recent Ebola cases reported from Jan 13 to 19 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) all came from a known transmission chain and were all recorded in Beni (9 cases) and Mabalako (6 cases).