Temporary poultry market closures can drop environmental levels of H7N9 and other avian flu viruses, but after stalls reopen, contamination quickly returns to preclosure levels, Chinese researchers reported yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The study took place in Guangzhou, the largest city in southern China's Guangdong province, during the second wave of human illnesses.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that it and partner groups working on earthquake response in Nepal are deploying extra medications and equipment to prevent the spread of diarrheal diseases such as cholera, which can spread when disasters damage and contaminate the clean water supply.
Groups estimate that at least 2.8 million people have been displaced, with many living in 16 makeshift camps.
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.
Two common antibiotics used for serious skin infections—clindamycin and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) —both had about an 80% success rate in curing uncomplicated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) skin infections, according to a study today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
A 72-year-old Saudi woman has died of MERS-CoV in Buraydah, and a previously reported MERS patient has also died, the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) said today as a top official noted more international help with the outbreak.
The median duration of colonization with community-based methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in ambulatory patients is 21 days, shorter than the previously thought duration of 6 to 9 months, and treatment with clindamycin is associated with more rapid clearance of the infection, say findings of a study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Findings presented at a major infectious disease conference in Philadelphia today suggest that hospital antibiotic stewardship programs can pay unexpected benefits in children.
A federal vaccine advisory group yesterday recommended that adults age 65 and older receive the Prevnar 13 pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, according to a press release from Pfizer Inc., the vaccine's maker. Using the vaccine alongside the current 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine is thought to provide broader protection.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved tedizolid phosphate (Sivextro), a new antibacterial drug to treat adults with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI), the agency announced on Jun 20.
The IDSA stressed that many infections heal on their own or don't need antibiotics.