News & Perspective

Editor's Note: The fourth paragraph was revised on Jan 2 to clarify the current situation regarding H3N2 dominance.

(CIDRAP News) – US influenza activity continued its ascent last week, judging from the high volumes of patients seeking care for the disease at doctors' offices, while flu indicators in Europe showed a clear spike, according to the latest surveillance reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Complete genetic sequencing of a novel coronavrius isolated from a Saudi Arabian man who died in June supports earlier findings that the virus is most closely related to coronaviruses found in bats, according to a report published today in mBio.

(CIDRAP News) – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today confirmed a link between narcolepsy and pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccination in children in Finland and Sweden, the two countries that originally reported a problem with the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has endorsed the recommendations of its biosecurity advisory committee to publish the full versions of two studies describing lab-modified, mammalian-transmissible H5N1 flu viruses, NIH officials announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Dutch flu researcher Ron Fouchier, PhD, said he intends to submit a revised manuscript of his controversial mutated-H5N1 study to Science without applying for an export permit, according to a Nature News story today.