Zoonotic Infections News

An investigation of a disease outbreak among shy albatrosses in Tasmania led to the discovery of a novel tick-borne phlebovirus with zoonotic potential, according to recent findings.

A child in North Dakota acquired cutaneous leishmaniasis from a different etiologic species than the Leishmania mexicana species that has been documented in the 10 cases of the disease in the south-central United States, according to a case report published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The CDC has concluded that the Indiana patient with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, coronavirus did not spread the virus to an Illinois resident during a business meeting that occurred before the patient became ill and hospitalized.

In April 2012, a 60-year-old male citizen of Bisha, located in southeast Saudi Arabia, became seriously ill with pneumonia. After his condition deteriorated, he was transported to a hospital in Jeddah, where he eventually died. He became the index case of a hitherto unknown corona infection, later to be coined Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV.

Ebola virus disease is truly a mysterious disease. It appears from nowhere, causes outbreaks and then disappears. For example, there were virtually no cases from 1980 to 1993, and then subsequently there have been outbreaks most years, albeit often in different locations.

Unprepared and unprotected travelers are at increased risk for acquiring a range of infections. Here, Infectious Disease News presents information on six important infections that pose serious risks to patients who travel in the United States and abroad.

A Guatemalan national being held in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas died of rabies on June 11, 2013, prompting 25 individuals, including other inmates, law enforcement personnel and health care workers, to receive postexposure prophylaxis, according to an MMWR report.

Genetic analyses confirmed that an outbreak of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria among Guatemalan peacekeeping soldiers was imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to recent findings.

The 2013 reappearance of the dengue virus type 3 in the South Pacific islands suggests that birth and immigration rates in this region may promote the recurrence of epidemics every 4 to 5 years, according to recent findings.

The generations after the medieval Black Death benefited from improvements in mortality and health, suggesting that infectious diseases may influence the overall demographic and longevity patterns of a population, researchers reported.