News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Uganda is planning to vaccinate about 2.5 million people in its northern regions against yellow fever, following the recent confirmation that the disease is the cause of a 2-month-old outbreak that has killed more than 40 people, according to press reports.

(CIDRAP News) – E coli O157:H7 was the comparative bright spot today in a federal report that showed little change in the incidence of most foodborne illnesses in 2009.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and a vaccine-maker trade group at a public hearing today defended themselves against allegations from some European politicians that they exaggerated the H1N1 pandemic threat to benefit drug companies.

CIDRAP News – President Barack Obama called today for a "complete review" of the operations of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the wake of the ongoing outbreak of Salmonella in peanuts and peanut butter.

(CIDRAP News) – Brazil's health ministry said this week that it has asked the military to help combat mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, as the number of sick patients with the disease grew to at least 55,000 so far this year.

Though dengue fever is common in Brazil, officials have said this year's outbreak is the worst in recent memory, averaging 1.4 new cases per minute, according to a report today from CNN.