Global Health & Security
Central Africa Republic: Cholera Emergency (
Relief Web) This Operation Update aims to extend the operational timeframe by one month from 23 November to 23 December. The extension will allow for completion of activities that have not been done due to security incidences that hampered implementation according to the original plan and to address mistakes in the approved budget.
Go to article
Government Affairs & National Security
Medicine & Public Health
2014-2015 Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in the US by Vaccine Type (
Clinical Infectious Diseases) Circulating A/H3N2 influenza viruses drifted significantly after strain selection for the 2014-2015 vaccines. Also in 2014-2015, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended preferential use of live attenuated influenza vaccine over inactivated influenza vaccine among children aged 2-8 years.
Go to article
Fractional Dosing of Yellow Fever Vaccine to Extend Supply: a Modelling Study (
The Lancet) The ongoing yellow fever epidemic in Angola strains the global vaccine supply, prompting WHO to adopt dose sparing for its vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in July-August, 2016. Although a 5-fold fractional-dose vaccine is similar to standard-dose vaccine in safety and immunogenicity, efficacy is untested. There is an urgent need to ensure the robustness of fractional-dose vaccination by elucidation of the conditions under which dose fractionation would reduce transmission.
Go to article
Notes from the Field: Investigation of Elizabethkingia anophelis Cluster - Illinois, 2014-2016 (
MMWR)
Elizabethkingia spp., formerly known as
Flavobacterium and
Chryseobacterium, are multidrug-resistant, Gram negative bacilli found in the environment that can cause health care-associated outbreaks.
Elizabethkingia meningoseptica was first identified by Elizabeth King in 1959 as a cause of meningitis outbreaks among hospitalized newborns.
Elizabethkingia anophelis was first identified in 2011 from the midgut of a mosquito; a recent series of cases from Hong Kong indicate that EKA health care-associated infections cause significant morbidity and have a high case-fatality rate (23.5%).
Go to article
Science & Technology
21st Century Threats
Nuclear War Remains a Global Health Threat--Physicians Urged to Lobby for Worldwide Weapons Ban (
Medpage Today) On Oct. 27, the United Nations General Assembly First Committee voted 123 to 38 to commence negotiations next March for a new treaty to prohibit possession of nuclear weapons as the next step towards their complete elimination. The resolution, L.41, specifically cited concerns about "the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons." Health professionals have played a key role in promoting passage of this resolution by sounding an urgent alarm about the growing danger of nuclear war.
Go to article
Chemical Weapons in Syria - National and International Responses (
Relief Web) UNSC Resolution 2118 was adopted after the attack that targeted the Damascus countryside in 2013. However, in regards to the Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons, 80% of all the chemical attacks occurred after that resolution. Various provinces were targeted using chlorine gas, which was not included in the list of substances which would be destroyed.
Go to article
