MERS-CoV detection: Cases by week and cumulative average still rising thanks to 2 healthcare clusters

Click on image to enlarge.This chart, cases by week, really tells the story of a super-cluster driven by Jeddah's hospitals. Why this is still rolling along is unclear.Perhaps, just perhaps (and I'm hand waving here), we can say that because MERS-CoV cases are not popping up all over Saudi Arabia, and...

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Watching zoonoses evolve...

Special guest writer: @influenza_bioFor the first time in human history, we are watching diseases jump from animals to humans on a large scale. We've seen diseases appear for the first time in humans before; that's not new. We've seen HIV and several new strains of influenza emerge over the past century or so, for example. What is new is that we can now watch this process as it happens. We are able...

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MERS-CoV cases continue steep climb thanks most to 2 healthcare-related clusters...

Click on image to enlarge.Data are for lab-confirmed cases only, and from FluTrackers, Ministries of Health and the World Health Organisation Disease Outbreak News reports.The Jeddah cluster | Jeddah | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the biggest of any of the clusters of MERS-CoV cases within...

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Understanding the spatial epidemiology of malaria in Western Uganda

The Bugoye Health Center (BHC) is located in the Kasese District of Western Uganda. This health center functions as the highest level of care for residents of the Bugoye sub-county, serving a rural population of approximately 50,000. The closest higher-level facility, Kilembe Mines Hospital, is located...

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Update on Ebola virus disease (EVD) case accumulation chart with new WHO African Regional Office SitRep data for 17-Apr-2014.

A new World Health Organisation (WHO) Situation Report on the Ebola Zaire outbreak in Western Africa has filled in all my whinges from last night (see them here).I've updated my chart and finally worked out how to show negative case number adjustments - just to show that numbers have not always been...

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Because ebolavirus...

Click to enlarge and copy if you want to use. Please just cite Dr Ian M Mackay,newsmedicalnet.blogspot.com.auAn updated version of my earlier rushed graphic now with extra peplomers and proteins and stuff!Feel free to use if you want to. It comes with no restrictions (just a citation please) and...

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Bhutan Epilepsy Project 4/7/2014

April 7, 2014Gasa, Bhutan    Over the last two days, I had the opportunity to travel outside of Thimphu to explore epilepsy care in more remote areas of Bhutan.     We left early in the morning, with our goal destination the town of Gasa, the main city in the Gasa district in the...

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Bhutan Epilepsy Project

April 2nd, 2014Thimphu, BhutanGreetings from Bhutan! Flying into Bhutan, one immediately gains an appreciation for the unique position of the country. Nestled in the Himalayas, the flight into Paro requires a skilled pilot to navigate the beautiful mountains that surround Paro's airport. There are...

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Update on Ebola virus disease (EVD) case accumulation chart with new WHO African Regional Office data for 16-Apr-2014.

Click on image to enlarge.Since the last update [2] there looks to have been a big jump in cases, but that is mostly be because its been a while since that WHO update. You could draw a straight line between the dot from the update on 11-Apr and it would maintain the overall gradual slope. Total...

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MERS-CoV numbers by week...

There is a lot of buzz about the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) right now.Laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV Cases per week (dark green, left y-axis) and the cumulative average of cases (pale green; right y-axis). Note: recent cases have yet to have date of onset reported....

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MERS-CoV case accumulation chart continues to ascend steeply...

Click on image to enlarge.I updated this chart just 3 days ago and we've seen around 2-dozen cases reported since then. Crazy.I do wonder what's happening when I have to adjust the axis scale twice in a week. A case in Yemen (whihc may or may not be locally acquired) and earlier this evening 2...

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2 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases emerge in the Philippines and Malaysia [UPDATED]

In a surprising pair of temporally related announcements, there has been an imported and fatal case of MERS occurring in a 54-year old man (54M) originally from Johor, Malaysia [1] and a distinct case in a  recently returned 45-year old [5] Filipino male nurse working in the...

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Editor's Note #18: VDU on MERS in the media..

Many thanks to Andre Berro, MPH, CPH, SCPM, Public Health Advisor at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for pointing out, on LinkedIn, that VDU got some media mentions of late. These follow on from a Twitter interview on the weekend with the Wall Street Journal's Ellen Knickmeyer. She and Ahmed Al Omran published an article: Deadly Virus's Spread Raises Alarms in Mideast...

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Child Health & Human Rights in the Autonomous, Indigenous Communities of Chiapas, Mexico

Greetings from Altamirano, Chiapas, Mexico!The entrance of Hospital San Carlos on Palm Sunday.Whether providing clinic care on the pediatric ward or outpatient clinic at Hospital San Carlos, conducting neonatal resuscitation training for nursing students and other hospital staff, or working with Dr....

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MERS and camels....urine drinking seems to be a very wide ranging thing...

A video of camel urine being collected by a band of merry (although somewhat coughy) men.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFk0rXkv0xc&feature=youtube_gdata_playerWhile the intended uses for camel urine extend from prolonging life to treating cancer to preventing hair loss...

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