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By Category: International

Dengue raises alarm in Central America

(MedicalExpress) Authorities have issued dengue alerts in four nations across Central America, where alarm is rising as the mosquito-borne disease has infected 30,000 people and killed 17 this year alone. Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador have issued formal alerts. In Guatemala and Panama, officials say they are monitoring the disease, which normally spreads Read More »

July 5, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, International, and Public Health
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New studies fine-tune H7N9 severity estimates

(CIDRAP) A lull in the number of H7N9 cases in China has given experts a chance to sift the data to fine-tune the clinical picture of the disease, which now suggests that it is less serious than earlier assessments, with more mild infections than previously thought. Some of the obstacles to gauging H7N9’s true severity Read More »

July 5, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Research
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World’s food standard body praised as safety net for consumers

(WHO) As Codex Alimentarius, the world’s top food standard body for consumer protection and fair practices in international food trade, celebrated its 50th anniversary, the FAO and WHO Directors-General and national governments united in their praise for its benefits. “Today, Codex standards are the benchmark standards for food safety. There is no competition,” Dr. Margaret Read More »

July 3, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Biosafety, and International
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Genomes of cholera bacteria from Haiti confirm epidemic originated from single source

(EurekAlert) The strain of cholera that has sickened thousands in Haiti came from a single source and was not repeatedly introduced to the island over the past three years as some have thought, according to a new study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The results of this Read More »

July 2, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, and International
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Pakistan, Nepal want PH’s dengue traps

(InquiererGlobalNation) The ingenious ovicidal/larvicidal (OL) trap devised by Filipino scientists has attracted the interest of two other nations fighting the scourge of the mosquito-borne dengue hemorrhagic fever. An official of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said Pakistan and Nepal had formally communicated their interest to adopt the device to curb the transmission of Read More »