News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza is widespread in eight US states, and some other indicators of an early flu season continue to rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

The percentage of patients' respiratory samples testing positive for flu grew to 20.7% in the week ending Dec 1, up from 15.2% the week before. And, as before, the H3N2 strain continues to dominate, which can be a sign of a more severe flu season.

(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) – Several developments are having an impact on reducing tuberculosis (TB) infections and deaths in several countries, but the disease's burden is still enormous, and response to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remains slow, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its latest report on the global TB situation.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that influenza vaccines for the Southern Hemisphere's 2013 flu season should contain the same three strains as the vaccines now being administered to millions in the Northern Hemisphere.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today reported the first death from the summer outbreak of a new H3N2 flu virus, in an older adult from Ohio who had multiple underlying conditions and had direct exposure to pigs at a fair.