News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – An annual report released yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) profiles a wide range of CDC influenza-related projects around the world, from flu surveillance in Indonesia to vaccine effectiveness studies in El Salvador and epidemiology training in Ghana.

(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.

The World Health Organization (WHO) listed a global total of 2,500 confirmed cases of swine influenza H1N1 in 25 countries today. That total included 1,204 cases in Mexico, 896 cases in the United States (yesterday's number), 214 in Canada, 88 in Spain, and 34 in the United Kingdom. The death toll remains at 44, including 42 in Mexico and 2 in the United States. [WHO update 22]

Maryn McKennaContributing Writer

(CIDRAP News) – This in-depth article investigates the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Its seven parts put advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.