A study yesterday in Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control reports widespread and arbitrary use of antibiotics on small-scale pig farms in Cambodia.
Three countries—Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Iraq—recently reported more highly pathogenic H5N8 outbreaks, and Cambodia confirmed another H5N1 detection at a farm in Phnom Penh.
A report yesterday from Brazil's Ministry of Health (MOH) said there are now 723 confirmed cases of yellow fever, including 237 deaths, in that country from Jul 1, 2017, to Feb 28 of this year. That number includes 259 new cases detected in February.
The outbreak is centered in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Minas Gerais states, with many cases near big cities.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, today weighed in on steps the FDA it taking to improve the effectiveness of seasonal flu vaccines, which includes collaborating with partners at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to use a large database that includes information on flu vaccines given to 4 million people.
Japan's health ministry has given fast-track approval to a new flu antiviral with a different mechanism of action than neuraminidase inhibitors that offers a one-dose treatment option, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
Brazil has confirmed almost 1,000 human cases since July 2016, and cases in animals have doubled.
An investigation into an outbreak involving Salmonella Heidelberg infections linked to dairy cows is over, according to an announcement today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
China has reported the world's first known novel H7N4 avian flu infection in a human, according to a report today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP), which based its information on a notification from the mainland's National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Cases are now at 353, an increase of 140 cases from the previous week.
