In the Press

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today gave the thumbs-up to the emergency use of Pfizer COVID-19 boosters in kids ages 5 through 11, as the country's cases and hospitalizations show more signs of rises.

Portuguese health authorities have confirmed five cases of monkeypox in young men, marking an unusual outbreak in Europe of a disease typically limited to Africa

Brazzaville/Maputo – Health authorities in Mozambique today declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 after confirming that a child in the country’s north-eastern Tete province had contracted the disease. This marks the second imported case of wild poliovirus in southern Africa this year, following an outbreak in Malawi in mid-February.

Health officials in Montreal on Thursday said they were investigating 17 suspected cases of monkeypox in the area, likely adding Canada to the list of countries in the Americas and Europe that are reporting recent infections.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) can confirm an individual has been diagnosed with monkeypox in England. The patient has a recent travel history from Nigeria, which is where they are believed to have contracted the infection, before travelling to the UK.

Women who received prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with estrogen within 6 months of a COVID-19 diagnosis had reduced mortality, according to a new study in Family Practice.

Objective To estimate scent dogs’ diagnostic accuracy in identification of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 in comparison with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We conducted a randomised triple-blinded validation trial, and a real-life study at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, Finland.

The Lancet Commission on pollution and health reported that pollution was responsible for 9 million premature deaths in 2015, making it the world's largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death. We have now updated this estimate using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuriaes, and Risk Factors Study 2019.

In its weekly update on the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said a global decline in cases seen since the end of March has stabilized, with four regions now reporting rising cases, up from two the previous 2 weeks.

On 17 February 2022, the United Kingdom (UK) reported a cluster of cases with monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium sequence type 34 infection. As of 18 May 2022, 324 cases had been reported in 12 EU/EEA countries and the UK, including two distinct strains.