News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) yesterday shared findings of three public opinion panels on antiviral distribution during a flu pandemic, including a nod for establishing diverse alternative strategies and support for Web and cell-phone information.

(CIDRAP News) – The 2009 H1N1 pandemic brought to light ongoing controversies about the best use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in healthcare settings, and yesterday an expert group released a report that they hope will guide research priorities in the years ahead.

(CIDRAP News) – A panel set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) to review its pandemic response spent the last day of its 3-day meeting yesterday hearing from an expert who denied charged that drug companies swayed response activities and said it may be premature to declare that the pandemic is over, according to media reports.

Editor's note: This story was revised after initial posting to specify which arm of the CDC issued the statement described.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday rejected a contention from several professional groups that its guidance on respiratory protection for healthcare workers caring for H1N1 patients was influenced by a recent controversial study by Australian researchers.

A reanalysis prompted by reviewers has changed the conclusions of a study comparing N-95 respirators with surgical masks, raising questions about earlier findings that the N-95 devices were clearly more effective in protecting healthcare workers from respiratory illness.

(CIDRAP News) – In findings sure to renew the continuing controversy over respiratory protection for healthcare workers, surgical masks appeared to protect hospital nurses from influenza about as well as N-95 respirators did in a randomized trial conducted in Ontario.

(CIDRAP News) – A study in which N95 respirators strongly outperformed surgical masks in shielding hospital workers from influenza viruses and other microbes is being hailed as a landmark in research on respiratory protection for healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – As children return to school and promptly become infected with H1N1 influenza, emergency-room (ER) physicians nationwide are becoming increasingly anxious over their ERs' capacity to deal with an influx of flu patients.