News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Deaths from pneumonia and flu in the United States rose sharply last week, with a rise in hospitalizations that continues to hit older people the hardest, though other disease indicators showed declines, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

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) – Though flu activity is still below epidemic thresholds in most of the Northern Hemisphere, increases in areas such as Spain, northern Africa, and part of Canada suggest that the season is starting, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Flu activity remained low in the Northern Hemisphere last week, with only a few countries, such as Costa Rica and Cameroon, reporting spikes in the number of cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Costa Rica is the only tropical country in the Americas to report increasing numbers of cases, which are primarily influenza A/H3N2, the WHO said.

(CIDRAP News) – Local or regional influenza outbreaks in a handful of countries were the only exceptions to a global pattern of low flu activity in recent weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its biweekly flu update today.

(CIDRAP News) – US health officials today gave a mixed report on influenza activity for last week, saying overall activity decreased slightly but more states reported widespread flu than the week before.

In Europe, meanwhile, flu activity increased in several countries, and the United Kingdom and Denmark reported high flu circulation, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) European Regional Office.