Recent News

By Region: South America

2009 pandemic flu death toll much higher than official worldwide estimates

(Eurekalert) A research team consisting of more than 60 collaborators in 26 countries has estimated the global death toll from the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 virus to be 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s count, which was based on laboratory-confirmed cases of this flu. The study, which appears online in PLOS Medicine, Read More »

November 27, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, International, and Public Health
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Brazil reports 573 deaths from dengue this year

(AFP) At least 573 people have died from dengue in Brazil so far this year, nearly twice the figure reported in 2012, according to official figures released Wednesday. Last year, 292 deaths were recorded and 473 in 2011, according to the health ministry. The highest death toll was in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais Read More »

November 21, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, International, and Public Health
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Rapid Sequencing Method Can Identify New Viruses Within Hours

(DiscoverMagazine) In 2009, two teenagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo showed up at their village health clinic, vomiting and with blood in their noses and mouths — hemorrhagic symptoms of the notorious Ebola viruses. In three days they were dead. Yet it took three years for researchers to unmask the likely culprit: a brand-new Read More »

November 19, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biotechnology, Public Health, and Research
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Cholera in Mexico – update

(WorldHealthOrganization) The Ministry of Health in Mexico has reported an additional four cases of infection with Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa. Of these, two are from the state of Hidalgo and two from the state of Veracruz. Since the beginning of this outbreak in September 2013 to date, a total of 180 confirmed cases, including one Read More »

November 14, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, International, and Public Health
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Death toll in Nicaragua’s dengue epidemic reaches 16

(InsideCostaRica) A dengue epidemic sweeping Nicaragua has claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy, raising the disease’s death toll there to 16 people, according to officials. The death is the second in less than 24 hours due to dengue, health authorities reported. The disease has infected some 5,795 people in Nicaragua this year.