Zoonotic Infections News

Researchers have detected an Angola-like strain of Marburg virus in West African bats for the first time since it was first identified in humans in 2005, according to a study in Nature Communications.

In response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected 12 individuals in the United States, several airlines have delayed travel to mainland China and the CDC has begun 14-day quarantines of U.S. citizens arriving from Wuhan, leaving some health care providers to question the necessity of these restrictions.

On Tuesday, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization to enable emergency use of the CDC’s diagnostic panel for the 2019 novel coronavirus, according to an agency press release.

During the first scheduled daily WHO briefing on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak centered in Wuhan, China, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, announced the launch of the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to support countries to in preventing, detecting and diagnosing onward transmission of the illness.

WHO called for global solidarity to control the coronavirus outbreak and announced it will send supplies to 24 countries. The agency also asked all member states to report more thorough case data while limiting restrictions that negatively impact international travel and trade.

The United States has declared its own public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and will begin banning the entry of some foreign travelers from China starting this weekend, HHS Secretary Alex Azar II announced.

The first U.S. patient identified as being infected with the novel coronavirus presented at an urgent care clinic with mild symptoms that were indistinguishable clinically from common infections, especially respiratory illnesses seen during the winter, according to a case report published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus has occurred since mid-December among close contacts in China, researchers reported today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

As the novel coronavirus at the center of the ongoing outbreak in China continues to spread, officials have decided to expand heightened health screenings among travelers from China to 20 Unites States airports.

The novel coronavirus at the center of an ongoing outbreak in China continues to pose a “low” risk to the general United States population, according to the CDC.