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So far James Sweeney has created 326 blog entries.

UMass Amherst Schedules Additional Meningitis Vaccine Clinics as Outbreak Status Announced by State Health Officials

By |2017-12-04T17:34:22+00:00December 4th, 2017|

AMHERST, Mass. – Following additional, extensive testing of the two student cases of meningococcal disease at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University Health Services (UHS), in concert with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has determined that because the two cases originated from a single [...]

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By |2017-12-04T17:30:58+00:00December 4th, 2017|

Avian influenza A H7N9 viruses that emerged in China in 2013 have reappeared each year, causing more than 1 600 severe human infections. As these viruses have evolved in nature, they have gained some and can gain additional virulence determinants that enhance their risk for humans, underlining the urgent need to control and eradicate H7N9 [...]

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US flu data show season ramping up

By |2017-12-04T16:42:09+00:00December 4th, 2017|

In what many experts predict may be a severe influenza season, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported signs that flu activity is stepping up, about 3 weeks earlier than it did last season. In its weekly FluView report, which includes data through the week that ended Nov 25, the CDC [...]

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Bat cave study finds new clues about SARS virus origin

By |2017-12-04T16:39:11+00:00December 4th, 2017|

Chinese researchers who spent 5 years examining SARS-related viruses collected from horseshoe bats in a Yunnan province cave found 11 new strains that have all the genetic building blocks of the strain that has infected humans, hinting that recombination between the bats' viral strains may have produced the ancestor of the deadly outbreak. Experiments showed [...]

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Sanofi restricts dengue vaccine but downplays antibody enhancement

By |2017-12-04T16:24:13+00:00December 4th, 2017|

Yesterday Sanofi Pasteur, maker of Dengvaxia, a promising dengue vaccine, announced it was changing the labeling on the vaccine to limit its use to people who have had previous exposure to dengue virus. The company said a new analysis shows that, for dengue-naive recipients, the vaccine makes future dengue episodes more severe. According to a [...]

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The Importance of Continued US Investment to Sustain Momentum Toward Global Health Security

By |2017-12-04T16:20:48+00:00December 4th, 2017|

In 2014, the United States launched the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) as a 5-year initiative to increase progress toward “a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats.”1 The initial financial commitment was $1 billion. In the years since, important progress has been made. The GHSA has helped to bring political attention to the need [...]

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‘Unnatural’ microbe can make proteins

By |2017-12-04T16:15:13+00:00December 4th, 2017|

Image captionThe bacteria were made to express a fluorescent protein to confirm that the unnatural code had been incorporated An altered microbe with an "unnatural" genetic code has been shown to assemble proteins - a key step towards designing new drugs and materials. Scientists modified the bacterium's DNA to incorporate six "letters" rather than the [...]

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Hong Kong Holds Novel Flu Pandemic Exercise `Garnet’

By |2017-12-04T16:11:32+00:00December 4th, 2017|

A decade ago, when the concept of an avian flu pandemic was relatively fresh in the minds of the public,  health officials, and all levels of government  . . .  a week scarcely went by without our seeing one or more high profile `pandemic exercise' somewhere around the world. These drills were held by both the public [...]

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Monkeypox: 14 additional cases reported in Nigeria outbreak

By |2017-12-04T16:07:54+00:00December 4th, 2017|

During the week ending Nov 25, Nigerian health officials reported 14 new confirmed monkeypox cases in the outbreak that began in September, bringing the total confirmed cases to 56. Monkeypox/CDC According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the new cases were reported in the following states: Benue (1), Cross River (3), Edo (1), FCT (2), [...]

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Utah’s hepatitis A outbreak grows to 87 cases

By |2017-12-04T16:05:01+00:00December 4th, 2017|

Utah’s hepatitis A outbreak — one of three flare-ups around the country — isn’t slowing down. The Utah Department of Health released new numbers Monday showing 87 outbreak-related cases of the virus since the first case was discovered in May. A total of 95 hepatitis A cases have been reported in Utah since the start [...]

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