Zoonotic Infections News

WHO has released a summary of its biggest stories on key health issues in 2017. Among them include major achievements against measles, polio, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis, as well as efforts in combating deadly outbreaks of plague in Madagascar, Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and cholera in Yemen, which the agency said is the largest epidemic of cholera in recorded history.

A rabies vaccination campaign among dogs successfully interrupted transmission of the disease to humans in a city in Chad, according to a recent study. Researchers said similar campaigns can be effective provided they cover a wide enough area and that local communities are engaged in the programs.

According to the CDC, climate change can increase the risk for the spread of numerous infections like Lyme disease, West Nile virus, diarrheal diseases and more.

Clinician suspicion had minimal accuracy in differentiating between children with and without Lyme disease who presented to the ED, according to findings published in Pediatrics.

An emerging MRSA clone that has mostly been linked to contact with pig farms was isolated in several nursing home residents in Spain, underscoring their role as a potential reservoir, according to researchers.

Global progress against malaria has slowed in recent years, leaving officials unsure of whether countries will achieve goals for significant reductions in cases, according a WHO report.

A novel portable three-dimensional scanning device quickly and accurately measured limb enlargement and disfigurement among patients with lymphatic filariasis, researchers reported in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

On a Monday in late August 1999, an infectious disease physician in Queens, Deborah Asnis, MD, notified the New York City health department about two hospital patients with encephalitis. Responding to her tip, investigators identified a local cluster of six more patients with similar symptoms, including five with “profound muscle weakness,” as their condition was later described in an MMWR report.

An outbreak of plague in Madagascar has started to decline in recent weeks, with 12 previously affected districts reporting no new confirmed or probable cases, according to WHO.

Fecal carriage of mcr-1-positive Enterobacteriaceae has increased substantially in Guangzhou, China in recent years, study data showed.