News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of recent killings of polio vaccinators in Pakistan, some questions are being raised about the all-out push to eradicate polio, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says the world can't afford to back off on the eradication drive now.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of reported H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in poultry and wild birds has decreased since mid 2011 and was down sharply in the second quarter of this year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a quarterly update on the ongoing situation.

(CIDRAP News) – The world has the tools to eradicate polio, but it's unclear if countries have the political and social will to fully implement and finance emergency plans, a spokesman for the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said yesterday to mark World Polio Day.

The observance is held on Oct 24, the birth date of Jonas Salk, the US virologist who invented the polio vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Saying recent major gains in the fight against polio are at risk, global health groups yesterday announced an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to try to eradicate the disease by driving it out of its last three strongholds: Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials are working on guidance to help local institutions implement the government's new policy on the oversight of life-sciences dual-use research of concern (DURC), an official from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Global health officials are making headway with driving down the number of measles deaths, but there are signs that progress is stalling, a pattern that has kept nations from meeting a global mortality benchmark, researchers reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Polio cases in Africa were almost halved in 2011, but the disease shows worrisome trends in some countries, health officials reported today as the continent geared up to vaccinate 111 million children against the disease.