India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks of H5 N1 influenza in December. During the same period, four new human cases - in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia - were reported to the World Health Organization. A 16-year-old girl in Egypt and a 2-year-old girl in Indonesia have died.
Ciguatera poisoning is caused by the consumption of tropical reef fish that have assimilated ciguatoxins through the marine food chain from toxic microscopic algae.
There is seemingly consistent and compelling evidence that there is no association between breastfeeding and breast cancer. We challenge the assumption follows that milk borne viruses cannot be associated with human breast cancer.
The vast majority of women do not know that most cervical cancer is caused by a sexually transmitted infection. In a survey of 1,600 women only 2.5% cited human papillomavirus as a risk factor for cervical cancer.
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. As of 26 December, WHO is aware of 34 suspected cases including 9 deaths associated with the ongoing event.
Scientists announce that they had been able to pass on human rhinovirus to a special strain of genetically modified mice – the first time a non-primate has caught a cold.
In the UK 164 people have died of variant CJD, which originally came from cows infected with BSE, and all cases to date shared the same version of the prion gene (MM). A new case has a different varian tof the gene (MV). Estimates are that up to 350 people could be affected in this new wave.
A woman whose husband died after receiving a liver transplant infected with a rodent virus is suing PetSmart claiming the chain should have warned customers that hamsters can carry lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.