Zoonotic Infections News

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a rapidly evolving crisis that poses numerous challenges to health care workers, government officials and the public.

At agricultural fairs in Ohio during 2012, influenza A viruses circulated widely among exhibition swine, and genome testing confirmed that some of these viruses were zoonotically transmitted to humans, according to recent findings.

The Minister of Health of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has reported three confirmed cases of Ebola virus, according to WHO, and additional suspected cases are being investigated.

New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that health care workers in lower-income countries lack adequate personal protective equipment to guard against HIV and other bloodborne infections during surgical procedures.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, reinforced the need for global cooperation and resources in combating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, just 1 day after returning from the affected countries.

WHO has confirmed a case of Ebola virus in Senegal in a 21-year-old native of Guinea who arrived Aug. 20.

Rabies postexposure prophylaxis was given to 200 US Air Force trainees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas after an investigation identified the presence of bats in seven dormitories housed in an older building on the base, according to a report in MMWR.

New Zealand researchers have developed a novel, hand-held DNA assay capable of detecting suspected viruses and bacteria, as well as the severity of infection, according to a news release.

Human testing of an investigational bivalent Ebola vaccine will commence next week, according to the NIH. Its development has been expedited in response to the outbreak currently spreading in West Africa.

Rapid sequencing and analysis of 99 genomes have enabled researchers to identify more than 300 genetic changes in the Ebola virus genome, according to results published in Science.