Babies Born to Zika Patients to Be Monitored Until Age 3: MOH (
Channel News Asia) Babies born to women who were infected with Zika during pregnancy will be monitored until they reach the age of three, said the Ministry of Health on Tuesday (Dec 27). There have not been any reported cases of Zika-linked microcephaly in Singapore yet, although the virus has been linked to the birth defect elsewhere - Colombia reported a spike in microcephaly and about six per cent of Zika pregnancies in the US resulted in babies with birth defects.
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A Zika Vaccine, but for Whom? (
New York Times) The race for a Zika vaccine, one of the most pressing priorities in global health, is at full throttle. More than a dozen companies and government institutions are working to unlock the secrets of the virus, and a vaccine could be available as early as 2018.
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How Dangerous Really Is Zika For Babies? (
NPR: Goats and Soda) This year we've learned an amazing amount about Zika--how it damages developing brains, how it spreads through sexual contact and where in the world (and the US) it's hiding out. But there's been one big question lingering: What risk does Zika pose to pregnant women and their fetuses? How scared should they be of it? More specifically, what's the chance a woman will have a healthy baby if she catches Zika during her pregnancy?
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First Inactivated Zika Vaccine Trial (
JAMA) Testing in humans has begun for the Zika Purified Inactivated Virus vaccine, 1 of 3 candidate vaccine platforms that protected monkeys against the virus in studies conducted earlier this year.
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Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases
Now China's Wuxi to Suspend Poultry Trade Amid Bird Flu Fears (
Reuters) The eastern Chinese city of Wuxi will suspend poultry trade from Thursday amid fears about bird flu, becoming the second city in Jiangsu province to halt live poultry markets, it said. The city will close live poultry wholesale markets, restrict vehicles carrying live poultry from entering Wuxi markets and temporarily ban the entry of outside poultry, the city's information office said on Wednesday on its official microblog.
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Global Health Security
Summary of Poliovirus Circulation in 2016 - Pakistan (
WHO) In Pakistan, a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 has been detected from environmental samples in Quetta, Balochistan. Two isolates with apparent genetic linkages were isolated from environmental samples, collected on 20 October and 28 November 2016. Virus was isolated from environmental samples only and no associated cases of paralysis linked to the isolated strains have been detected in Quetta or anywhere else in the province.
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Medicine & Public Health
Hospitals in Safety Net Brace for Health Care Law's Repeal (
New York Times) Jason Colston Sr. went to the emergency room at Temple University Hospital last month with his calf swollen to twice its normal size. A bacterial infection had entered his bloodstream, requiring him to spend nine days at Temple, where patients are overwhelmingly poor. Mr. Colston, 36, had no insurance through his job at a 7-Eleven, but it turned out he was eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Temple helped him enroll as soon as he was admitted, and Medicaid paid for his stay and continuing treatment.
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Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers in Emergency Services (
Vaccine) Each year worldwide, more than 4 million people have a bout of severe influenza, a disease responsible for 250,000-500,000 deaths. Every year in France, 30,000 consultations in the Emergency Departments and 1,500 hospitalizations in Intensive Care Units are required to treat people with influenza. To prevent the spread of influenza, annual vaccination is recommended for all health professionals, who are potential vectors of viral transmission.
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First Ebola Vaccine Likely to Stop the Next Outbreak (
NPR: Goats and Soda) When Ebola struck West Africa a few years ago, the world was defenseless. There was no cure. No vaccine. And the result was catastrophic: More than 11,000 people died. Nearly 30,000 were infected. Now it looks like such a large outbreak is unlikely to ever happen again. Ever.
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Will 2017 Be the Year We Take Drug-resistant Superbugs Seriously? (
The Guardian) Antimicrobial resistance, the emergence of superbugs resistant to the antibiotics that modern medicine depends on, is not a future threat looming on the horizon but a problem that is already here and likely to have a big impact on business - especially in sectors such as food and pharmaceuticals.
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Beyond Cost-effectiveness: Using Systems Analysis for Infectious Disease Preparedness (
Vaccine) During the recent Ebola outbreak, it became apparent that numerous groups pursued development of Ebola vaccines years ago, but shelved the efforts because of low commercial promise. The most-recent epidemic--and the ensuing panic--made the development of Ebola intervention a high priority for countries and multi-national organizations and. Standard cost-effectiveness analyses--the formal standard of reference around the world for assessing health technology choices--did not capture important aspects of diseases like Ebola.
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Science & Technology
Other 21st Century Threats
