News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity in the United States remains low, with all major indicators below baseline, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed two more novel flu infections, one an H3N2 variant that has been identified in 11 other patients this year and one an H1N1 variant that has never been reported in humans before.

(CIDRAP News) – An analysis of 2009 H1N1 influenza virus isolates from the 2010-11 flu season suggests that low-level community transmission of an oseltamivir-resistant strain took place, a development that bears close watching, researchers reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Novartis's new cell-culture based influenza vaccine factory in North Carolina has begun making a prepandemic H5N1 flu vaccine and is ready to start producing vaccines for a real pandemic when needed, the company and federal health officials announced yesterday.

The facility in Holly Springs, N.C., billed as the first of its kind in the United States, was dedicated yesterday after a long testing process.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed two more infections with novel flu viruses, in children in Minnesota and West Virginia, only one of which involves the novel H3N2 strain found this year in four other states.