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According to a recent update by the World Health Organization (WHO), a hospital worker in France has contracted a laboratory-confirmed case of novel coronavirus (nCoV) after treating a patient with the infection. This news came shortly after the WHO’s announcement that two health care workers in Saudi Arabia who treated nCoV patients have also been infected with the virus.

This is the first time healthcare workers have been positively diagnosed with nCoV after direct exposure to patients. Infectious disease experts find this worrisome—when SARS arose 10 years ago, hospitals unknowingly amplified its first rapid spread. On Monday, the WHO published a multi-page infection-prevention guide for any hospitals that might take in patients with nCoV…

On April 24th, it was discovered that a Taiwanese man contracted H7N9 after travelling to China’s Jiangsu province, where the bird flu has sickened at least 24 people and killed four. The man claimed that he had not been exposed to birds and poultry during his stay in Jiangsu, and that had not consumed undercooked poultry or eggs…

The Meaningful Use Stage 2 “Final Rules” require local and state Public Health Agencies to ramp up their Meaningful Use capabilities and establish new processes to receive the relevant public health data from Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals. Meaningful Use Stage 2 begins on October 1st, 2013 for Eligible Hospitals, and on January 1st, 2014 for Eligible Professionals. This week, the Meaningful Use Stage 2 Public Health Reporting Task Force released their official Guidance and Recommendations for Meaningful Use Stage 2 Public Health Agency Readiness.

In Meaningful Use Stage 2, ongoing submission of electronic data for immunizations is mandatory for Eligible Professionals, and ongoing submission of electronic data for immunizations, reportable laboratory results, and syndromic surveillance are mandatory for Eligible Hospitals. In addition, Eligible Professionals have optional objectives for reporting syndromic surveillance data, and for reporting to cancer registries and other specialized registries (birth defects registries, chronic disease registries, traumatic injury registries, etc.)…

While the world has watched the number of confirmed cases of H7N9 in China steadily increase this week, two groups of scientists who once fell under scrutiny for performing highly controversial research on the H5N1 virus are feeling vindicated.

The big question being asked about H7N9 right now is whether it’s transmissible between humans. (So far, it doesn’t appear to be.) The teams of scientific researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands know precisely what it takes for a bird flu to mutate into a potential human pandemic strain—because they’ve created these mutant viruses in the laboratory…

CVS Pharmacy recently sent out a memo to employees that has public health professionals—and the media—discussing just how far an employer can go to mandate employee health management. CVS employees will now be required to submit their weight, body fat, glucose levels, and other vital statistics to the company. If they don’t, they’ll be subject […]