South Korean health officials have confirmed the country's second case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in a patient who nursed her infected husband before he was diagnosed with the disease after a trip to Bahrain. The woman is in stable condition. A 76-year-old man who shared the hospital room with the first confirmed patient had developed a high fever on Wednesday, a statement from the health ministry said.
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian officials are meeting Saturday to discuss how the country’s latest Ebola patient became infected, after weeks with no cases of the disease in the country.
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Eight health workers at a hospital in Liberia’s capital have been sent home for observation after coming into contact with a patient who later tested positive for Ebola, the country’s assistant health minister said Saturday.
By Ludwig Burger FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany is looking to encourage the development of more powerful antibiotics against the growing threat of drug-resistant superbugs, the country’s pharmaceutical industry association said on Wednesday. The health ministry in Berlin is to hold talks later this year with Germany’s pharma lobby VFA, which will propose loosely modeling any new rules for antibiotics on the so-called orphan drug status that is awarded to experimental treatments of rare diseases, VFA’s chairman Hagen Pfundner said.
By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California public health officials have confirmed three more cases of measles in an outbreak that began in late December, bringing to 113 the total number of people believed to have been infected in the state. Health officials in Arizona, where seven cases of measles have been documented, said the outbreak would likely be considered over in that state if no further infections were reported over the weekend. Across the United States, more than 150 people have been diagnosed with measles, many of them linked to an outbreak that authorities believe began when an infected person from out of the country visited Disneyland in late December. The California Department of Public Health said 39 of the 113 people who contracted measles in the state were believed to have been exposed while visiting Disneyland.
China has approved a new polio vaccine, the first of its kind to be produced in the country, a month after local authorities gave the green light for a home-grown Ebola vaccine amid Beijing’s push to become a world leader in producing innovative drugs. The development drew praise from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday who said the vaccine, which will be given to Chinese children as part of routine disease prevention, would help the global fight against the polio virus. China’s private and state-run medical laboratories have been growing in sophistication, helping reduce reliance on imported medicines and competing with global rivals. “This new vaccine is a critically important weapon in the fight against polio as the world nears the eradication of this dreaded disease,” Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO representative in China, said in a statement.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Eight Indian women have died and 20 others were in critical condition Tuesday after undergoing sterilization surgeries in a free government-run program to help slow the country’s population growth.