News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) –Wild game meat, especially bear meat, has replaced pork as the leading source of Trichinella infections in humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today lifted its recommendation against travel to Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province, signaling that the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak is declining in its original strongholds.

Both places have fewer than 60 patients who are still infectious, and the average number of new cases per day has hovered at less than five in recent days, WHO officials said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – Recommended infection control precautions apparently failed to protect nine Toronto hospital staff members from contracting SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) while caring for a critically ill SARS patient, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today expressed closely guarded optimism that SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) can be contained.

"Experiences in a growing number of countries indicate that the disease can be contained, thus supporting WHO's overall objective: to prevent SARS from becoming widely established as another new disease in humans," the organization said in its online update.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today estimated the overall fatality rate for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) patients at 14% to 15%, significantly higher than previous estimates. The agency estimated the rate for people older than 64 years to be more than 50%.

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials today said Vietnam has not had a new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case in 17 days and could soon become the first country to contain the epidemic, even as the cumulative global case count took another sizable jump.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official today said the peak of the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has passed in places other than China and Hong Kong, despite the continuing increase in cases.

Apr 2 (CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today took the unusual step of advising against nonessential travel to Hong Kong and the neighboring Guangdong Province of China because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) there.

(CIDRAP News) – In an effort to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Hong Kong health officials have sealed off a large apartment building where 107 people became infected.

(CIDRAP News) – Global cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have continued to climb rapidly in recent days, reaching 1,485 today, as the World Health Organization (WHO) and various cities and countries stepped up efforts to contain the disease.