News & Perspective

(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) – The world has the tools to eradicate polio, but it's unclear if countries have the political and social will to fully implement and finance emergency plans, a spokesman for the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said yesterday to mark World Polio Day.

The observance is held on Oct 24, the birth date of Jonas Salk, the US virologist who invented the polio vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of swine-origin H3N2 (variant H3N2, or H3N2v) influenza cases in the United States has climbed by 9 in the past week, to 305, and another rare swine-origin variant, H1N1v, has cropped up in Missouri, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.