News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization weighed in yesterday on the debate about the potential magnitude of the next influenza pandemic by saying it's impossible to confidently predict how many lives a pandemic might claim.

(CIDRAP News) – Freelance vaccinations and offers of bootleg vaccine are two unusual side effects of the US influenza vaccine shortage.

(CIDRAP News) – Kris Ehresmann, RN, MPH, clearly recalls when she learned the United States had just lost nearly half of its flu vaccine.

At 9:50 a.m. on Oct 5, Ehresmann knew that her job as manager of the immunization, tuberculosis, and international health section for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) had instantly become much harder. That moment marked the beginning of a series of difficult decisions under fast-changing circumstances.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's top influenza expert warned at the end of a 2-day international meeting today that governments need to fund the development of vaccines to combat a feared flu pandemic that could kill millions of people, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has called a Nov 11 "summit" meeting of health officials and vaccine companies to discuss how to confront what is seen as the growing risk that avian influenza will trigger a human flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Few children between the ages of 6 and 23 months received influenza shots in the 2002-03 flu season, which marked the first time federal health officials formally encouraged shots for that age-group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The graying of America is leading to an increase in hospital stays related to influenza, according to a research report in the Sep 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CIDRAP News) – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) says it can find no evidence that thimerosal-containing vaccines or the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism and recommended that the search for the cause of the disorder focus on other possibilities.

(CIDRAP News) – Looking back on the 2003-04 influenza season, federal health officials say it was rougher than the previous three seasons but not unusual for years when the predominant flu virus is A(H3N2).

(CIDRAP News) – Animal disease outbreaks and concerns, including avian influenza and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), are currently reducing global meat and animal exports by about one third, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.