Zoonotic Infections News

Uganda will begin vaccinating heath care and other front-line workers against the Ebola virus next week amid concerns that a large outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo will spread across the border.

Sanofi Pasteur said its controversial dengue vaccine, known in other countries as Dengvaxia, has been granted priority review by the FDA. A decision on approval is expected by May 1, 2019.

CureVac AG announced that the first study participant has been enrolled in its phase 1 dose-escalation clinical trial of an mRNA-based rabies vaccine.

Through a combination of host odor, heat and visual stimuli, host decoy traps provide a potential system for monitoring and controlling outdoor-biting mosquitoes, such as Anopheles arabiensis, according to findings published in Parasites & Vectors.

Bartonella bacteria — which can cause several human diseases — were discovered in high rates in vampire bats in Peru and Belize, according to findings published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Experts credited a strong public health response with containing a deadly outbreak of Nipah virus in India in the same month that it began.

A recent outbreak showed that puppies can be a source of Campylobacter infections in humans — including multidrug-resistant infections — and underlined that clinicians should consider this exposure in their patients.

Humans were likely the original source of Staphylococcus aureus, which jumped back and forth between people and livestock over thousands of years, leading to epidemic strains of the bacterium and facilitating its resistance to antibiotics, according to results from a genomic study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Researchers from the University of Texas developed a novel diagnostic tool to easily identify disease-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and detect whether they are carrying Wolbachia, a bacterium being used for mosquito control.

The FDA has announced that companies who submit applications for drug or biological products to prevent or treat Lassa fever, chikungunya virus disease, rabies or cryptococcal meningitis may qualify for a tropical disease priority review voucher.