News & Perspective

(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) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that influenza vaccines for the Southern Hemisphere's 2013 flu season should contain the same three strains as the vaccines now being administered to millions in the Northern Hemisphere.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of swine-origin H3N2 (variant H3N2, or H3N2v) influenza cases in the United States has climbed by 9 in the past week, to 305, and another rare swine-origin variant, H1N1v, has cropped up in Missouri, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today reported the first death from the summer outbreak of a new H3N2 flu virus, in an older adult from Ohio who had multiple underlying conditions and had direct exposure to pigs at a fair.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity is widespread across most of Australia and is running above baseline levels in New Zealand, though activity patterns and circulating virus strains vary among Southern Hemisphere countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest global flu update.

(CIDRAP News) – US flu activity is still hanging on, though some indicators show signs of declining, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.