News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The first study in animals to test-drive transmission of the new H7N9 virus found that it can spread by the airborne route in ferrets, but not very efficiently, an international team reported today in Science.

(CIDRAP News) – Another patient in China has died from an H7N9 influenza infection, raising the number of fatal illnesses to 32, though no new cases were reported today, holding the overall case total to 131.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the death today in an update based on information from China's National Health and Family Planning Commission.

(CIDRAP News) – Three provinces in eastern China that have already reported several H7N9 avian flu infections each announced a new case today, bringing the country's total to 64 cases, according to official and media sources.

(CIDRAP News) – As attention shifts to China and a novel H7N9 strain of avian flu, seasonal influenza in the United States continued to ebb, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The world registered fewer human infections with H5N1 avian influenza in 2012, but the fatality rate was a little higher than in previous years, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in a recent review of the year's data.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials yesterday announced three severe respiratory infections, two of them fatal, from H7N9 influenza, a subtype that has not been known to infect humans before.