epidemiology

Africa CDC warns Congo Ebola dip may mask spread

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned Thursday that a recent dip in reported Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo may reflect gaps in surveillance rather than a slowdown in transmission. On the same day, Médecins…

Mobile phone data tracks Ebola spread in Congo for first time

Health officials fighting the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have begun using anonymized mobile phone data to map population movements and predict where the virus could appear next — a technique never before deployed in an Ebola…

Dengue surges across Asia and Middle East as cases top 95,000 in Sri Lanka

Dengue fever is surging across South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East as monsoon conditions and weakened health systems create fertile ground for the mosquito-borne virus. Sri Lanka is enduring one of its worst outbreaks in nearly a decade,…

Chilean mummies yield first genetic proof Europeans brought smallpox to Americas

For five centuries, the deadliest epidemic in the history of the Americas lacked molecular proof of its origin. That gap has now been filled. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Chile have recovered variola virus DNA from…

NEJM study finds hemorrhagic symptoms rare in Bundibugyo Ebola patients

A correspondence published in The New England Journal of Medicine on June 24 presents clinical data from 405 confirmed Bundibugyo virus disease patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, finding that hemorrhagic symptoms — long considered a hallmark of Ebola…