News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Australian public health officials yesterday reported a cluster of oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-resistant 2009 H1N1 infections, one of the largest to date, centered in one region of New South Wales state.

Pandemic officially a year old Today marks the passage of a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic of H1N1 influenza. WHO Director Margaret Chan declared phase 6 on Jun 11, 2009, about 7 weeks after the virus had surfaced. The WHO hesitated to take the step because of concern that it would cause undue alarm, given that H5N1 avian flu had led the public to associate "pandemic" with high death rates.

(CIDRAP News) – Low levels of flu activity across the United States resemble a summer pattern, while globally only sporadic pandemic flu activity is occurring with the most active areas in parts of the Caribbean and Central America, according to updates today.