News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – As a meeting to discuss issues related to federally funded H5N1 avian influenza research wrapped up today, experts anticipated that a voluntary moratorium on work with lab-modified strains that have increased transmissibility might end soon and said they sensed agreement about lab biosecurity levels.

(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 moratorium on research leading to more-transmissible H5N1 avian influenza viruses, originally set for 60 days, has remained in place for 8 months without a clear end in sight, but a series of commentaries in mBio today from experts familiar with the issues offers some clues for possible next steps.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who spent the past 3 years testing pigs for influenza A viruses at county fairs in Ohio found that infected animals commonly appear clinically normal, highlighting one of the challenges health officials faced in preventing the spread of variant influenza to humans at fairs this summer.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of recent human cases of swine-origin variant H3N2 influenza (H3N2v) in recent weeks climbed to 152 today as Illinois reported its first case and Indiana announced more infections.