Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases News

• Will a One-Dose Drug Mean the End of Sleeping Sickness? A single oral dose of acoziborole proved effective for human African trypanosomiasis in a clinical trial. The drug has potential to greatly simplify and expand treatment for sleeping sickness.
  Medscape Medical News, November 29, 2022
• Uganda Recording Downward Trend in Ebola Cases: Official Uganda has recorded a drop in the number of new Ebola cases, with some districts going for at least 2 weeks without registering new infections, health ministry officials said.
  Reuters Health Information, November 24, 2022
• WHO Plans to Rename Monkeypox to 'MPOX' The World Health Organization is planning to rename monkeypox, designating it as 'MPOX' in an effort to destigmatize the virus that gained a foothold in the US earlier this year.
  Reuters Health Information, November 23, 2022
• Schools Teaching Mindfulness, Meditation to Help Lower Stress In a calm voice, the teacher says, "For 30 seconds we are going to close our eyes." She tells them to just breathe in, breathe out. Nothing else.
  WebMD Health News, November 21, 2022
• EMA Recommends Restricting Use of JAK Inhibitors The European authorities seek to minimize the risk of serious side effects with which these immune-modulating medicines are associated.
  Medscape Medical News, November 21, 2022
• How the World Health Organization Might Fight Future Pandemics Negotiations on new rules for dealing with pandemics are underway at the World Health Organization, with a target date of May 2024 for a legally binding agreement to be adopted by the UN health agency's 194 member countries.
  Reuters Health Information, November 17, 2022
• Ugandan Doctors Face Fear and Shortages in Ebola Outbreak When Ebola broke out in Uganda in September, 10 doctors immediately stepped forward to work in an isolation unit at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, but now only three are left.
  Reuters Health Information, November 17, 2022
• Canadian Healthcare System Crisis Continues Health ministers meeting 'falls short' on action as systems deteriorate, healthcare workers burn out, patient care is delayed.
  Medscape Medical News, November 17, 2022
• Study Affirms Shorter Regimens for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Two short-course bedaquiline-containing regimens are promising treatment options for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
  Medscape Medical News, November 17, 2022
• Haiti Cholera Outbreak Worsens, COVID-19 Cases Rise in Americas: PAHO The cholera situation in Haiti continues to worsen while COVID-19 cases rose over the past week, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 16, 2022
• FDA Authorizes Roche's Monkeypox Test The FDA on Tuesday issued an emergency use authorization to Roche's test for the detection of DNA from monkeypox virus in swab specimens collected from people suspected of the virus infection.
  Reuters Health Information, November 15, 2022
• Ebola Vaccine Candidates Expected to Be Shipped to Uganda Next Week: WHO Three Ebola vaccine candidates for a planned clinical trial are expected to be shipped to Uganda next week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 16, 2022
• Ugandan Leader Says Anti-Ebola Efforts Starting to Succeed Uganda's efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak were starting to succeed and the country has tightened restrictions in the outbreak's epicentre to further slow the rate of infections, President Yoweri Museveni said on Tuesday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 15, 2022
• Less and Late: UK Gives $1 Billion to Global Disease Fight The British government said on Monday it would contribute 1 billion pounds ($1.18 billion) to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, more than 6 weeks after other countries made their commitments.
  Reuters Health Information, November 14, 2022
• Uganda Confirms Ebola Case in Country's East as Outbreak Expands An Ebola case has been confirmed in Jinja in eastern Uganda, the country's health minister said on Sunday, the first time the outbreak has spread to a new region of the country from central Uganda where cases have been confined so far.
  Reuters Health Information, November 13, 2022
• Israel Detects Cholera in Reservoir in North Israel has detected cholera in a reservoir in the north of the country, likely the result of an outbreak in neighbouring Syria spreading, the health ministry said on Friday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 11, 2022
• Poor Access to Safe Water Fuels Cholera Outbreak in Syria Poor access to safe water has exacerbated a cholera outbreak rampaging across Syria's war-battered provinces, where local authorities are struggling to contain the spread with chlorine tablets and vaccines.
  Reuters Health Information, November 10, 2022
• Monkeypox in Children Appears Rare and Relatively Mild And kids don't appear to be passing it to each other in school or daycare.
  Medscape Medical News, November 10, 2022
• Uganda Shortens School Term by 2 Weeks to Curb Ebola Uganda will shorten the school term by 2 weeks to reduce daily contact amongst students and help curb the spread of Ebola, the education minister said on Tuesday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 08, 2022
• Malawi Gets 2.9 Million Cholera Vaccine Doses as Outbreak Spreads Malawi has received 2.9 million doses of oral cholera vaccine as an outbreak continues to spread across the country, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said on Monday.
  Reuters Health Information, November 07, 2022