Zoonotic Infections News

The number of recorded outbreaks and unique diseases around the world seems to have increased since 1980 whereas per capita cases declined, according to recently published data.

Rabies poses a significant concern for health care workers who are treating patients with the infection, and a conservative approach including comprehensive risk screening, counseling and timely post-exposure prophylaxis is required, researchers recently reported.

Clinicians should consider the possibility of novel poxviruses when presented with cutaneous infections, particularly in patients with known exposure to barnyard animals, according to recent findings.

PHILADELPHIA — An IDWeek 2014 symposium titled “Hot Topics in the Tropics” covered a broad range of viral and bacterial infections endemic to tropical regions of the world. Daniel Bausch, MD, MPH, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and of the US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 in Lima, Peru; Yukari Manabe, MD, of Johns Hopkins University; and Beth Kirkpatrick, MD, of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, presented findings and analysis on the management of tropical diseases and larger trends in epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance. Infectious Disease News compiled a list of the 10 most important take-home messages from the session.

The existence of body lice appeared to be positively correlated with male gender, African-American ethnicity and sleeping outdoors among homeless persons in San Francisco, according to recent findings.

Commercially available rapid diagnostic tests for diagnosing chikungunya virus appear to perform poorly in terms of specificity and sensitivity, according to recent findings.

PHILADELPHIA — Bruce S. Ribner, MD, medical director of the serious communicable diseases unit at Emory University Hospital, discusses some of the lessons learned in treating Ebola patients brought to Emory, and how those lessons can be applied in hospitals across the country. Ribner spoke at the plenary session here at IDWeek 2014.

The CDC today confirmed that a man in Texas who recently returned from West Africa was diagnosed in the United States with Ebola virus.

The NIH is expecting to admit a patient exposed to Ebola virus to its clinical center within the coming days.

New research shows that Amblyomma aureolatum ticks that had recently fed on another host needed only minutes to transmit Rickettsia rickettsii, the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever.