Health authorities in Plateau state, Nigeria are stepping up surveillance and response efforts after Jos North Local Government recorded 117 suspected diphtheria cases and 15 deaths as of September 1. The intervention aims to contain the outbreak in the affected area.
Queensland authorities confirmed the state's first case of H5N1 bird flu after a dead migratory petrel found on Moreton Island off Brisbane tested positive for the highly pathogenic virus. Queensland becomes the fourth Australian state to detect the virus as the country's outbreak spreads.
Eight Americans have been released after 42 days in quarantine at Nebraska's National Quarantine Unit following exposure to a hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship that killed three people. More than 120 passengers were evacuated from the ship in Spain's Canary Islands, including 18 Americans sent to Omaha.
