viral diseases

Five patients (aged from 71 to 79) in a male psychogeriatric ward of CPH have presented with respiratory symptoms since March 14. Appropriate tests were arranged for the patients. All the test results were positive for human Metapneumovirus.  

People travelling to the Southern Hemisphere, including the World Cup in South Africa, should be vaccinated against swine 'flu to prevent them from catching the virus, and from bringing it back. The Southern Hemisphere 'flu season is expected to start shortly and vaccination will reduce the risk to travellers. New cases of pandemic H1N1 (2009) influenza in communities in England remain at around their lowest level since the disease first appeared in the United Kingdom.  

Nicodemus Manyala knows he is HIV-positive and needs life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART) to remain healthy, but fear of treatment interruptions has made him reluctant to start on the drugs. "Every time you listen to the radio or even read a newspaper, you hear there are no drugs for people like me... you hear they are not enough," the cobbler told IRIN/PlusNews at his home in the sprawling slum of Kibera in Nairobi. "I am told if you decide to take these drugs, you can't stop. What happens when  

Malawi's government has set itself a major challenge this year, announcing plans to more than double the number of people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to half a million by the end of 2010. The country recently adopted new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that raise the threshold for starting antiretroviral (ARV) therapy from a CD4 count (a measure of immune system strength) of less than 200, to a CD4 count of 350, regardless of whether the patient is displaying symptoms. Although imp  

A dengue fever outbreak in Malang regency, East Java, has killed five people over the past three months, local health authorities said Friday. The five fatalities were part of the 550 people infected by the dengue virus during that period, said the head of the Malang Health Office for communicable disease prevention, Mulyatim Koeswo. Out of the 550 infected people, 382 were infected in January, he said.  

By 2009, NSPs had been implemented in 82 countries and OST in 70 countries; both interventions were available in 66 countries. Regional and national coverage varied substantially. Australasia (202 needle—syringes per IDU per year) had by far the greatest rate of needle—syringe distribution; Latin America and the Caribbean (0·3 needle—syringes per IDU per year), Middle East and north Africa (0·5 needle—syringes per IDU per year), and sub-Saharan Africa (0·1 needle—syringes per IDU per year) had the lowest  

Seven more human cases of Rift Valley Fever have been confirmed by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the department of health said on Friday. This brings the number of people in South Africa with Rift Valley Fever (RVF) to 39 since the outbreak of the sickness last month. Deputy Minister of Health Molefi Sefularo said of the 39 cases, 34 were in the Free State, three in the Eastern Cape and two in the Northern Cape. The department said most of the cases followed after direct contact w  

The Czech Republic ranks among the five EU countries with the highest swine flu-related death rate per 100,000 inhabitants as 102 people have died of it in the country so far, chief sanitary officer Michael Vit told CTK yesterday, referring to EU statistics. The death rate in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Portugal oscillates around one person per 100,000 people, in Malta it is slightly higher, according to statistics from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. A total of 6  

I have cared for young children with HIV infection in South Africa since 1995. Looking back, it strikes me how positive clinical developments in HIV/AIDS care have transformed the demeanour and optimism of parents and the general mood in our outpatient waiting room. In the 1990s, it was a quiet, sad space, punctuated by the persistent cough of patients with bronchiectasis, and filled with desperately ill, emaciated, and dying children and adults.