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By Category: Public Health

Hendra Virus Outbreak in Queensland

(ABC Online) Queensland Health says eight people may have been exposed in the latest case of hendra virus. Biosecurity officials have quarantined two properties south of Brisbane after a horse died from the disease at the weekend. Authorities say 20 to 30 horses have been quarantined. Hendra virus can be transmitted from horses to humans Read More »

June 29, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agents & Toxins, and Public Health
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Rinderpest eradicated – what next?

(FAO News) FAO’s member countries have officially recognized global freedom from rinderpest, the deadly cattle virus. They called on the world community to ensure that samples of rinderpest viruses and vaccines be kept under safe laboratory conditions and that rigorous standards for disease surveillance and reporting be applied.

June 28, 2011
| Filed under Agriculture, International, and Public Health
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Analysis: Local wisdom key to combating animal diseases

(IRIN News) — NAIROBI – Flush with success over the unprecedented eradication of rinderpest, scientists are setting their sights on the next big livestock disease to rid from the world. Experts are aligning their crosshairs over foot and mouth disease, which affects every continent except Antarctica. “In my opinion foot and mouth disease is by Read More »

June 21, 2011
| Filed under Africa, North America, Agriculture, and Public Health
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Uganda says Ebola outbreak is over

(Reuters) Uganda has successfully prevented the rare and deadly Ebola virus from spreading, nearly two months after a 12 year-old girl bled to death after contracting the disease, officials said on Friday. “Uganda is free of Ebola,” Doctor Anthony Mbonya, chairman of a national task force set up after the girl’s death, told Reuters. “The Read More »

June 20, 2011
| Filed under Africa and Public Health
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CDC director worries about impact of budget cuts

(Washington Post) Thomas R. Frieden took over as the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in June 2009. Before moving to the CDC, Frieden, a physician with extensive experience with both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, served as commissioner of the New York Health Department from 2002 to 2009.