Zoonotic Infections News

The CDC announced today that it is assisting state health officials in Illinois and Wisconsin to investigate cases of Seoul virus infection among eight people who worked at rat-breeding facilities in the two states. It is the first outbreak of the virus associated with pet rats in the United States, according to the agency.

Seven states have implemented statutes or regulations that require animal contact exhibits such as petting zoos and agricultural fairs to provide hand sanitation stations as a preventive measure against zoonotic infections, according to CDC researchers.

Data recently published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology indicate that preterm infants can safely receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP.

WHO reported that health officials are currently investigating a suspected outbreak of pneumonic and bubonic plague in the Southeastern region of Madagascar that resulted in 62 illnesses and 26 deaths.

Live-attenuated Japanese encephalitis vaccine provided seroprotection for up to 5 years against Japanese encephalitis wild-type virus after vaccination and 96% to 98% protection against genotype III strains, according to recently published data.

Although child mortality decreased between 2000 and 2015, efforts to reach a two-thirds reduction based on the Millennium Development Goal target failed in high-burden populations, according to recent data.

A half-century of progress fighting schistosomiasis in China is being jeopardized by land-use patterns and landscape connectivity, which are expanding the range of the snails that host Schistosoma japonicum parasites, researchers said.

Experts from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, WHO and the World Organization for Animal Health recently collaborated to contain a Rift Valley fever outbreak on the border of Niger and Mali in West Africa, according to a press release.

Inter-nasal antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was associated with recent symptoms of skin and soft tissue infections in individuals who work on large industrial hog operations, according to recent study findings.

Days after winning the White House, President-elect Donald J. Trump declared during a TV interview that he would try to keep in place parts of the Affordable Care Act guaranteeing coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and allowing children to remain on their parents’ health care plans until age 26 years — comments that seemed at odds with his persistent campaign pledge to “repeal and replace” President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.