News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Flu activity in the United States last week continued its slow retreat, with more areas of the country returning to regional baselines and fewer respiratory samples testing positive for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity in the United States continued to tumble last week, with one key marker—clinic visits for flulike illness—nearly approaching the national baseline, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have found the first evidence of a link between the 2009 pandemic flu vaccine Pandemrix and an increased risk of narcolepsy in English children, echoing previous findings in several other European countries.

(CIDRAP News) – Some of the key markers that US officials use to track flu continued to tumble last week, though activity was still elevated in most parts of the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today.

Nationally, the percentage of doctors visits for flulike illness fell from 3.2% to 2.8% last week, with all parts of the country still above regional baselines.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers in other countries have found evidence that circulating strains of Bordetella pertussis have adapted to the acellular vaccine, and researchers today reported similar findings for the first time in US kids, based on genetic analysis of isolates from hospitalized children.

(CIDRAP News) – A large study of narcolepsy background rates in six European countries before and after 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine campaigns confirmed increases in Finland and Sweden—the two countries that first reported the problem—but also detected a rise in Denmark.