Thailand faces growing outbreak ahead of New Year travel

Thai authorities struggled to contain a growing coronavirus outbreak just days before the country’s traditional Songkran New Year’s holiday, when millions of people travel. Health officials reported 559 new infections on Friday, following increases over the previous two days. The government response has so far centered on closures of nightlife venues in 41 provinces for […]

Illinois Bar Opening Leads to COVID-19 Community Outbreak

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A February event at a rural Illinois bar has led to an outbreak of 46 COVID-19 cases — a testament to how easily and quickly the virus can spread, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, said at a press briefing Monday. “As we […]

DR Congo starts countdown to end of Ebola outbreak in east

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where the deadly Ebola virus first emerged in 1976, has begun a countdown to the official end of its latest outbreak, this time in the east of the country, health authorities said Tuesday. The last patient to be treated for Ebola tested negative for a second time on Sunday, triggering […]

FDA: Real Water-brand alkaline water may be linked to hepatitis outbreak

Real Water brand alkaline water may be the cause of five cases of acute nonviral hepatitis (resulting in acute liver failure) in infants and children that occurred in November 2020 in the Southern Nevada Health District, and it should not be consumed, served, sold, or used for cooking, health officials say. All five patients were […]

WHO Sees Ebola Risk as ‘Very High’ for Guinea’s Neighbours

GENEVA (Reuters) – World Health Organization officials said on Friday the risk of an Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbours was “very high” and that some neighbouring countries were not prepared for outbreaks or for future vaccination campaigns. WHO’s Guinea representative, Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, told a virtual briefing that 18 cases had been […]

Risk of Human Spread of H5N8 Bird Flu Deemed Low: WHO

GENEVA (Reuters) – The risk of human-to-human spread of the H5N8 strain of bird flu appears low after it was identified for the first time worldwide in farm workers in Russia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Russia registered the first case of influenza A(H5N8) being passed to humans from birds and has […]

White House: COVID-19 Numbers Take a ‘Concerning Shift’

Feb. 26, 2021 — After several weeks of declining, COVID-19 numbers are back on the rise and new variants continue to emerge, according to White House officials — just as states begin to lift restrictions and open doors to restaurants and businesses. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, reported during a Friday COVID-19 briefing that coronavirus cases and […]

US Nursing Home Deaths Decline Sharply

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. When the U.S. coronavirus vaccination program began in December, residents and employees of long-term care facilities were put at the top of the priority list. That made sense, since those facilities accounted for more than one-third of all virus-related deaths while […]

Ebola Vaccination Campaign Begins in Democratic Republic of Congo

KINSHASA (Reuters) – An Ebola vaccination campaign has begun in the city of Butembo, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a tweet on Monday. Health workers at Matanda health centre, where the first Ebola patient was treated, were the first to be vaccinated, the WHO said. Congo has […]

Just how many people could be infected as part of the Trump COVID-19 outbreak?

U.S. president Donald Trump has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Just how many people could he have passed the virus on to? Normally, contact tracers try to tally up a person’s close contacts starting around two days before they first start showing symptoms. But when the person in question is the President of the […]