News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A new report from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) offers a few predictions on when certain new countermeasures against biological threats will become available, including a forecast for two novel influenza drugs and possibly a next-generation anthrax vaccine within the next 5 years.

(CIDRAP News) – Among kids who died during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the disease was most lethal for those who had neurologic conditions such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who took a detailed look at 2009 H1N1 deaths in Mexico, where the virus was first detected, found that the new flu virus was more deadly than most seasonal flu epidemics and more lethal than in other countries, which confirms impressions early in the pandemic that the disease was worse in Mexico.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who combed through scores of serologic studies estimate that the global cumulative incidence of pandemic H1N1 influenza infection before vaccines became available was probably below 20%, far lower than the 50% that pandemic planners had envisioned as a possible worst case.

(CIDRAP News) – Delegates from 193 countries met today in Geneva at the start of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which will address several infectious disease topics, including a report from an independent pandemic review committee, a virus-sharing agreement, and the fate of the world's remaining smallpox virus stocks.