News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Though botulism outbreaks in Europe are often traced to home-canned food, three recent outbreaks were linked to commercially distributed food, raising important food safety issues, investigators reported last week.

(CIDRAP News) – A group of health organizations today launched a new international consortium to better prepare the clinical research community to respond to the next pandemic or other emerging health threat.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today they see promising signs of increased flu vaccine uptake in children and healthcare workers so far this year, adding that they hope to boost less impressive numbers in adults and those with chronic medical conditions.

(CIDRAP News) – New surveillance data in Europe show a steep rise in the percentage of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumonia, a drug-resistant issue seen as a growing threat in the United States as well.

(CIDRAP News) – A national biosecurity board that monitors "dual use" research is apparently worried about an as-yet-published study in which a mutant form of H5N1 avian influenza virus was found to be easily transmissible in ferrets, which are considered good models for flu in humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Against a backdrop of state, national, and international efforts to raise awareness about appropriate antibiotic use, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a new tracking system to monitor use of the drugs in hospitals.

(CIDRAP News) – An international group of researchers estimates that seasonal flu worldwide causes 90 million acute lower respiratory infections a year in young children, with 1 million of the cases severe enough to require hospitalization.

(CIDRAP News) – Two medical aid groups in cholera-stricken Haiti are planning a pilot campaign to administer a cholera vaccine to about 1% of the population, but some public health experts are questioning whether the effort is the most cost-effective way to fight the disease, according to press reports.