News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The influenza vaccine that was developed to fight the 2009 pandemic saved roughly 300 lives and prevented about 1 million illnesses and 6,000 hospitalizations, or under 3% of the estimated total burden in each category, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The world needs much better influenza vaccines, but the quest for them faces a formidable barrier: overconfidence about the effectiveness of existing influenza vaccines.

(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.

Second in a series marking the 1-year anniversary of novel H1N1 pandemic influenza. The first, on the virus itself, appeared Apr 23.

Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles reviewing the world's experience with pandemic H1N1 influenza and what we've learned in the past year. Look for further installments in the days to come.

(CIDRAP News) – A year's experience with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has underscored the endless unpredictability of flu.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has seen a change in the ethnic distribution of fatal pandemic H1N1 influenza cases, a CDC official reported at a meeting of its vaccine advisory committee today.

(CIDRAP News) – Pregnant women who have pandemic H1N1 influenza infection appear to be at greater risk of complications, but some healthcare providers have been hesitant to treat them early with antivirals despite recommendations to do so, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The immunization advisory group for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meets tomorrow in an emergency session to discuss which groups should be targeted to receive the pandemic H1N1 vaccine and whether some should have priority.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that the nation just saw its largest weekly increase in cases since the beginning of the novel flu outbreak and that the virus has so far been detected at 34 summer camps in 16 states.