Global Health

submitted by Luis Kun

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 04/30/2014 02:25 PM EDT

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) released Antimicrobial Resistance: Global Report on Surveillance 2014, the first comprehensive WHO report on surveillance of antibacterial resistance -- when bacteria outsmart the drugs designed to kill them. The report found that rates of resistance for common bacteria causing serious illness are high throughout the world and that there are significant gaps in global surveillance.

The findings in this landmark report are consistent with CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013 published in September 2013. Both reports sound the alarm on this serious threat. Antibiotic resistance is no longer a prediction for the future. It is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone.

In March 2014, the World Health Organization was notified of an outbreak of a communicable disease characterized by fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting, and a high fatality rate in Guinea. Virologic investigation identified Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) as the causative agent. Full-length genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that EBOV from Guinea forms a separate clade in relationship to the known EBOV strains from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. Epidemiologic investigation linked the laboratory-confirmed cases with the presumed first fatality of the outbreak in December 2013. This study demonstrates the emergence of a new EBOV strain in Guinea.

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BAMAKO/CONAKRY, April 4 (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked an Ebola treatment centre in Guinea on Friday, accusing its staff of bringing the deadly disease to the town, Medecins Sans Frontieres said, as Mali identified its first suspected cases.

More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what medical charity MSF, or Doctors without Borders, has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic...

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Africa’s biggest Ebola outbreak in seven years has probably spread from Guinea to neighboring Liberia and also threatens Sierra Leone.

Five people are suspected to have died from the disease in Lofa county in northern Liberia, Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s chief medical officer, said at a briefing yesterday. At least 86 cases and 59 deaths have been recorded across Guinea, the west African country’s health ministry said. The capital, Conakry, hasn’t been affected, government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said.