News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Flu activity remained low in the Northern Hemisphere last week, with only a few countries, such as Costa Rica and Cameroon, reporting spikes in the number of cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Costa Rica is the only tropical country in the Americas to report increasing numbers of cases, which are primarily influenza A/H3N2, the WHO said.

(CIDRAP News) – Beef industry organizations and some US trading partners today urged the US government to delay its planned ban on non-O157 strains of pathogenic Escherichia coli in beef, saying the need is unclear and tests aren't ready, while consumer groups urged the government to forge ahead with the program.

(CIDRAP News) – New seasonal flu viruses can launch from one of many world urban centers, not just from tropical areas in Southeast and East Asia, as previously thought, a research group reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported two more infections with swine-origin H3N2 influenza, including a case first announced by Maine 3 days ago and an additional illness in an Indiana patient.

The CDC also said flu activity in the United States is still at low levels, a pattern the World Health Organization (WHO) is also seeing in most parts of the world.

(CIDRAP News) – Two research groups today reported rare cases of pandemic 2009 H1N1 coinfections with seasonal influenza strains, including a cluster in Cambodia and two patients from Italy's Veneto region.

(CIDRAP News) – A few of the world's tropical countries are reporting active flu transmission, as the flu season continues in Australia and New Zealand, though activity is declining, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who took a detailed look at 2009 H1N1 deaths in Mexico, where the virus was first detected, found that the new flu virus was more deadly than most seasonal flu epidemics and more lethal than in other countries, which confirms impressions early in the pandemic that the disease was worse in Mexico.

(CIDRAP News) – Australian public health officials yesterday reported a cluster of oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-resistant 2009 H1N1 infections, one of the largest to date, centered in one region of New South Wales state.