News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today announced an update of its risk assessment on novel coronavirus, which takes into account the possibility of human-to-human spread, the wider geographic area where infections occurred, and risks the virus may pose to healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – A surveillance report from the United Kingdom yesterday confirmed earlier anecdotal reports of an increase in invasive bacterial infections in flu patients, noting that the spike was most notable for Streptococcus pyogenes, particularly in young adults.

(CIDRAP News) – A panel of experts assembled by the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a clinical profile of pandemic H1N1 influenza, using data from scores of studies to fill in details of the broad picture that has emerged over the past year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) listed a global total of 2,500 confirmed cases of swine influenza H1N1 in 25 countries today. That total included 1,204 cases in Mexico, 896 cases in the United States (yesterday's number), 214 in Canada, 88 in Spain, and 34 in the United Kingdom. The death toll remains at 44, including 42 in Mexico and 2 in the United States. [WHO update 22]

(CIDRAP News) – As cases in the global outbreak of "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) climbed to 264 today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there is evidence that the illness may be caused by a previously unknown member of the Paramyxovirus family, which causes measles, mumps, and canine distemper.