Emerging Infectious Diseases
Waning U.S. federal and state funding for public health over the last 15 years has left many states ill-prepared to respond to acts of bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters, according to a recent report by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH).
The annual report,... Read More »
Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and China’s ZhuJiang Hospital recently led a study that identified an antibody that binds to and kills all four types of dengue virus, which could lead to improved vaccines and drug therapies.
The researchers also exposed the... Read More »
A research study by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that even 40 years after their infection, survivors of the first known Ebola outbreak bear resistances to future infection.
For the purposes of the study--which was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases last... Read More »
A team at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute recently created an alternative model to mimic Zika virus infection, allowing for further steps on the road to a vaccine and treatment.
The virus wreaked havoc in South America over the last couple years, and even Texas has seen its first... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) recently tested a stronger single-dose of a live oral vaccine for cholera and found that it offers faster protection than the standard two-dose regimen of treatment.
UMSOM's Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) developed the... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued new treatment guidelines to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic tropical disease spread by mosquitoes that has infected an estimated 70 million people around the world.
WHO’s new treatment guidelines reflect research from the... Read More »
Thanks to cooperative efforts from Ugandan and Kenyan authorities working with international health organizations, an outbreak of Marburg virus disease has been contained in Uganda just a few weeks after its detection.
The reversal of fortunes has been praised by the World Health Organization,... Read More »
A study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has discovered one of the natural factors aiding the spread of dengue globally: common fungus.
Apparently, the fungus lives in the gut of certain mosquitoes, and its presence there helps dengue virus to survive in the... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of rapidly spreading cases of Diphtheria in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have taken shelter.
Already, six have died and more than 110 suspected cases have been linked to the disease by health partners in-country. A mix... Read More »
Encouraging results have stemmed from human testing of a Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) developed Zika vaccine.
In three separate trials, a Zika purified inactivated virus was introduced into 67 otherwise healthy adults. All were able to tolerate it with no adverse effects, and... Read More »
An investigational vaccine developed by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Technology (WRAIR) successfully triggered an immune response among adult participants of clinical trials, according to a study published on Monday.
The Zika purified inactivated virus (ZPIV)... Read More »
Nigeria, which has been stricken by outbreaks of yellow fever, received aid from the International Coordinating Group (ICC) last week in the form of 1.4 million vaccines.
Distribution of those vaccines will be aided by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is working to support the... Read More »
The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has published a new guidance document to aid hospitals’ response to disease outbreaks.
The new guide, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and titled,... Read More »
A recently published study from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, China, found that viral strains in bats contained all the necessary genetic building blocks of the human SARS coronavirus.
The findings, published in PLOS Pathogens, suggest that genetic recombination... Read More »
A study by researchers at Hokkaido University recently used mathematical models to determine that the risk of the pneumonic plague epidemic in Madagascar spreading elsewhere in the world is limited.
The researchers estimated that the number of exported cases was below 0.1 person in each country... Read More »
The response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone led to a less fragmented health system and the development of more effective mental health care services in the country, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released on Thursday.
Prior to the outbreak, one specialist... Read More »
While no effective vaccine yet exists against malaria, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have taken the world a huge step closer with the discovery of antibodies produced in the wake of malaria infection.
Using mice, they identified long-lived memory cells formed and... Read More »
Public health officials warned that malaria response efforts are at a crossroad following the Wednesday release of a report that found 5 million more malaria cases were reported in 2016 than in 2015.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Malaria Report 2017 concluded that funding... Read More »
More than $6 billion in cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) included in legislation passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month could hinder how the United States responds to public health crises, an infectious disease expert says.
The CHAMPIONING Healthy Kids... Read More »
While there appears to be hope for Madagascar with the slowing of a pneumonic plague outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns it is too early to call off containment measures.
The number of new infections has been in steady decline for several weeks now, according to the Madagascar... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently delivered 1,000 vials of anti-toxins and 17 tons of medical supplies to Sana’a, Yemen, after a three-week delay caused by the closure of sea and air ports.
“It is shocking that in 2017, there are children dying of an ancient disease that is... Read More »
A new study found that outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses Zika and Chikungunya typically occur approximately three weeks after heavy rainfall.
The researchers also discovered that Chikungunya will predominate over Zika when they circulate simultaneously because of Chikungunya’s shorter... Read More »
The first human cases of yellow fever since June have been confirmed in Brazil, and public health officials continue to monitor an epizootic outbreak among primates in São Paulo, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday.
Seventy-one human cases of suspected yellow fever were... Read More »
A congressional proposal to cut the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) by 44 percent would lead to 67 million additional malaria cases in the next four years, according to a recent mathematical model’s estimates.
PMI was launched in 2005 with a goal to reduce malaria by 50 percent in 15... Read More »
At a recent World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Moscow, Russia, 75 ministers committed to increase multisectoral action, progress and build accountability in an effort to end Tuberculosis (TB) by 2030.
The Moscow Declaration to End TB came at the first WHO Global Ministerial... Read More »
The Emergent BioSolutions Inc. facility in Canton, Massachusetts, will soon be manufacturing the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, thanks to approval of a license by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
ACAM2000 is notable for being the only FDA-licensed vaccine for active... Read More »
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and a collaboration of universities have found a biomarker indicator that can identify which patients infected with Ebola are most at risk of death.
The discovery, published in the journal Cell Host &... Read More »
The University of California, Riverside has a team of researchers genetically engineering mosquitoes to insinuate themselves among other, disease-carrying insects and suppress the spread of infectious disease.
The team published a study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of... Read More »
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology recently found that immunity to dengue can defend against the Zika virus and identified cytotoxic T-cells that can protect against both infections.
“In some parts of the world Zika is almost like a secondary infection,” Sujan... Read More »
A team of researchers from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the University of Georgia, and North Carolina A&T State University have attained a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation for computer-driven methods of disease forecasting.
The institutions hope to develop tools,... Read More »
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested a review on Thursday to gauge how federal agencies are using predictive modeling and simulations to prepare for and respond to Zika, Ebola and other infectious disease outbreaks.
A recent Government Accountability (GAO) report found... Read More »
Researchers from the Baylor School of Medicine released a report Tuesday that documents a link between West Nile virus and brain damage years after the original infection, even among those who did not experience any symptoms at the time of infection.
Baylor researchers released a report on... Read More »
Contrary to early theories, high rates of microcephaly and other neurological deficits recorded during a 2015 Zika outbreak in Brazil were not the result of modern mutations of the virus, scientists from the Columbia University Medical Center concluded in a report released this week.
Zika virus... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported recently that the three previously reported cases of Marburg virus disease in the Kween District of Eastern Uganda had died as of November 3, resulting in an overall case-fatality rate of 100 percent for the outbreak.
The Ugandan Ministry of Health... Read More »
The invasive Asian tiger mosquito that is proliferating across the United States and Europe can spread Zika and dengue virus infections three times more effective than previously believed, according to a study presented on Tuesday.
After noting that earlier risk assessments of the Asian tiger... Read More »
