Spike in Ebola Cases Continues in DRC ( CIDRAP ) According to the World Health Organization's Ebola dashboard, officials today recorded 12 new Ebola cases in the ongoing outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The cases bring the outbreak's total to 980 cases, including 606 deaths. Go to article

Venezuela: PAHO Reports Ten Deaths and over 160 Cases of Diphtheria in 2019 Alone ( H5N1 ) The diphtheria epidemic continues active. The outbreak that began in Bolívar state in mid-2016 persists three years later and keeps taking lives. In its latest epidemiological bulletin, date Monday, March 18, the Pan American Health Organization confirmed ten deaths from this cause in Venezuela as of epidemiological week 8, February 24. Go to article

WHO Sending Urgent Health Assistance after Cyclone Idai Displaces Thousands of People in Southern Africa ( H5N1 ) The World Health Organization is providing urgent assistance to meet the health needs of thousands of people impacted by flooding in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The floods were triggered by Tropical Cyclone Idai, which swept through the region last week. Go to article

Gavi@20: What’s Next for Global Immunization Efforts ( Center for Global Development ) The Board of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, will retreat next week to discuss a new strategy and replenishment. Ahead of its 20-year anniversary next year, the Board will reflect on key questions that will frame Gavi’s mandate, funding, and activities into the next five-year period. On the agenda: questions on Gavi’s role in addressing coverage gaps in immunization, how middle-income countries should be involved, and how the organization will shape vaccine markets and future innovation. Go to article

On the First Day of Spring, A Disease Blogger's Thoughts Turn to … ( Avian Flu Diary ) Spring officially arrived a little over 12 hours ago in the Northern Hemisphere, and while novel influenza activity has been fairly subdued for the past year, this is the time of year when we tend to see the emergence of new flu viruses. Go to article

Anti-vaxxers trolled a Doctor’s Office. Here’s What Scientists Learned from the Attack. ( Washington Post ) Just before school started in the summer of 2017, Kids Plus Pediatrics of Pittsburgh posted a video on its Facebook page urging parents to vaccinate their children against human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause a variety of cancers. Three weeks later, communications director Chad Hermann noticed “something new happening” online.  Go to article

Reworked Nasal Flu Vaccine Looks Good for Kids, Pediatricians' Group Says ( US News & World Report ) Good news for kids: Next flu season, you can avoid a painful needle jab and get the nasal vaccine spray instead, according to a leading US pediatricians' group. Go to article

As Zika Danger Wanes, Travel Warnings Are Eased for Pregnant Women ( Washington Post) US and international health officials are easing warnings against travel to regions with Zika virus because the threat has diminished markedly since the virus began to sweep across the globe four years ago. Go to article

Scientists Rise up Against Statistical Significance ( Nature ) When was the last time you heard a seminar speaker claim there was ‘no difference’ between two groups because the difference was ‘statistically non-significant’? If your experience matches ours, there’s a good chance that this happened at the last talk you attended. We hope that at least someone in the audience was perplexed if, as frequently happens, a plot or table showed that there actually was a difference.  Go to article

Sherlock Biosciences Licenses Wyss Technology to Create Affordable Molecular Diagnostics ( Wyss Institute) Harvard University has granted a worldwide exclusive license to Sherlock Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize technology from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering to create a highly sensitive, nucleic acid-based diagnostic platform that can rapidly deliver accurate and inexpensive results for a vast range of needs in virtually any setting. Named INSPECT, it was created by a team led by Wyss Core Faculty member Jim Collins, PhD, who is also the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and will be incorporated into Sherlock’s platform alongside the Broad Institute’s SHERLOC technology, which is also co-owned and licensed by Harvard University. Go to article



Viziflu - Discussion on the Collaborative Effort between IQT Labs and the CDC Influenza Division ( BioQuest) Viziflu is a visualization tool developed by IQT Labs that displays multiple predictions about the timing of national “Peak Week,” the week with the highest predicted number of flu cases, in the United States. The visualization aims to make interpreting the uncertainty associated with the output of multiple influenza models fast and easy. Go to article

Victims of Chemical Terrorism, a Family of Four Who Were Exposed to Sulfur Mustard. ( Toxicol Lett ) Sulfur mustard was responsible for more than 80% of all documented chemical casualties during the Great War. Recent literature on clinic picture of SM exposure remained so limited with the sporadic cases who were accidentally exposed to SM especially either in Western Europe or China. We reported a Syrian family of four who became victims of chemical terrorism due to SM exposure and we described the detailed clinical course of the family including the medical history, initial symptomatology, clinical examination, hematological data, and initial treatment in the first 48 hours after exposure at Kilis State Hospital, Turkey. Go to article