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By Category: Public Health

Vietnam Releases Dengue-Blocking Mosquito

(Time) Nguyen Thi Yen rolls up the sleeves of her white lab coat and delicately slips her arms into a box covered by a sheath of mesh netting. Immediately, the feeding frenzy begins. Hundreds of mosquitoes light on her thin forearms and swarm her manicured fingers. They spit, bite and suck until becoming drunk with Read More »

November 5, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Countermeasures, International, and Public Health
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Closer to vaccine against C. difficile

(ScienceDaily) A group of leading scientists from across Europe have launched a three-year project aimed at developing an oral vaccine against Clostridium difficile, an infection that kills around 4,000 people a year (almost four-times more than MRSA) and for which there is currently no effective treatments.

November 5, 2013
| Filed under Europe, North America, Public Health, and Research
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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update

(WorldHealthOrganization) WHO has been informed of an additional laboratory-confirmed case of infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) from Saudi Arabia. The patient is a 56-year-old woman with underlying medical conditions from the Eastern Region. She became ill on 26 October 2013 and died on 30 October 2013. She had no contact with animals, Read More »

November 4, 2013
| Filed under Middle East, North 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.

November 4, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, International, and Public Health
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WHO confirms four more cases of Middle East virus

(Reuters) Three more people in Saudi Arabia have become infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus and one has died, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, and it also confirmed the first MERS case in Oman. In a disease outbreak update, the Geneva-based United Nations health agency said the four new Read More »