News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Although antiviral drugs were used to treat many seriously sick people during the H1N1 influenza pandemic, experts at a conference today said they could have been used more widely and that some opportunities to learn from their use were missed.

(CIDRAP News) – Two federal officials who frequently appeared on television as top sources during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic provided a rare glimpse behind the curtain at some of the event's pivotal moments today during a panel discussion at an infectious disease conference in Washington, DC.

(CIDRAP News) – A report from Hong Kong says that the use of blood plasma donated by recovered H1N1 influenza patients reduced the death rate in severely ill H1N1 patients.

(CIDRAP News) – Obesity as a risk factor for severe illness and death was one of the clinical surprises that emerged early in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and now California researchers have shown that extreme obesity is an independent risk factor for death from the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza reports presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) annual conference today shed light on a range of topics, including vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers (HCWs) and risk factors for hospitalization in small children.

IDSA members discussed their reports in a press teleconference today from the meeting site in Vancouver, B.C., and the organization also released abstracts online.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued new guidance for preventing flu in healthcare settings that reflects a year's worth of new information about the 2009 H1N1 virus and recommends surgical masks rather than N-95 respirators when providing routine care for flu patients.