News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Tuberculosis (TB) experts who met in Geneva this week said the global TB community needs to step up the fight against drug resistance and increase appropriate care and treatment "to avoid a scenario where TB becomes incurable," the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The tuberculosis toll in Europe continued a slow overall decline in 2010, but the treatment success rate for the disease is slipping as drug-resistant strains of TB grow more common, according to a report released today by the European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – Flu activity in many Northern Hemisphere countries continued its late-season rise last week, with areas such as the United States, Canada, and Europe reporting steady increases.

Though flu activity overall is low, notable increases are occurring in North America, western Europe, and northern China, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The European Union today ordered the recall and ban of certain types of seeds from Egypt after a new report from its food safety agency further detailed a link between the products and Escherichia coli outbreaks in Germany and France.

(CIDRAP News) – An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.

(CIDRAP News) – Though pandemic flu activity continues to fall across much of the Northern Hemisphere, some parts of the world are hot spots for the virus, including parts of Europe, North Africa, and South Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – In the history of infectious diseases, coincidence plays an extraordinary role. In 1706, Cotton Mather purchased a slave named Onesimus who happened to come from a tribe that practiced variolation, and so smallpox prevention was introduced to North America.

(CIDRAP News) – Outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in 15 countries since December 2007 are a potent reminder that the virus is still a global threat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today, as officials in Thailand announced they found the disease in poultry again after a 6-month lapse.