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By Category: Agents & Toxins

Ebola in Uganda – update

(World Health Organization) There have been no new confirmed cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever reported in Kibaale district, Uganda, since 3 August 2012, indicating that the outbreak is coming to an end. A total of 24 probable and confirmed cases including 17 deaths have been reported since the beginning of the outbreak. Of these, 11 Read More »

September 4, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Public Health
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Anti-HIV drug simulation offers ‘realistic’ tool to predict drug resistance and viral mutation

(EurekAlert) Pooling data from thousands of tests of the antiviral activity of more than 20 commonly used anti-HIV drugs, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities have developed what they say is the first accurate computer simulation to explain drug effects. Already, the model clarifies how and why some treatment regimens fail in some Read More »

September 3, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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What is hantavirus? A short(ish) explainer

(Los Angeles Times) During the Korean War, several thousand United Nations troops were stricken with a severe, mysterious disease called Korean hemorrhagic fever. It was characterized by high fever, internal bleeding, kidney failure and, frequently, death. The source of the illness remained a mystery for a quarter of a century until 1978, when South Korean Read More »

August 31, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Public Health
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New tick-borne virus puts the bite on Missouri farmers

(NBC News) When two Missouri farmers wound up hospitalized with fever, fatigue, low blood cell counts and elevated liver enzymes in 2009, doctors suspected ticks were to blame. Both men recently had reported tick bites, including a 57-year-old whose wife plucked a single critter off his abdomen with tweezers and a 67-year-old man who figured Read More »

August 30, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Public Health
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Anthrax Death Reported in Siberia

(The Daily Disease) Russia declared a state of emergency after an anthrax outbreak caused its first death. The outbreak occurred in the village of Druzhba, in the Altai region of Western Siberia. Local news reports the deceased man became infected after handling the carcass of a sick cow. An additional two confirmed and seven suspected Read More »