News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of recent killings of polio vaccinators in Pakistan, some questions are being raised about the all-out push to eradicate polio, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says the world can't afford to back off on the eradication drive now.

Jan 12, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – For the first time in its history, India has gone for nearly a year with no new polio cases, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced today.

The country—one of four where polio is still considered endemic—will achieve the 1-year milestone on Jan 13, if no new wild polio virus (WPV) cases are reported before then and all pending samples test negative in the next few weeks, the GPEI said.

(CIDRAP News) – An advisory group of experts to the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed findings from an independent review committee on the agency's 2009 H1N1 pandemic response and expressed concern about findings of narcolepsy in Europe possibly linked to a flu vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.

(CIDRAP News) – At an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) symposium in Washington, DC, today on seasonal and pandemic influenza, a group of experts fielded questions from reporters on some of the new trends and emerging issues, including prepandemic strategies for H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, now that some countries are stockpiling them.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) says nations and vaccine manufacturers agreed yesterday that it may be feasible to set up a world stockpile of H5N1 influenza vaccine and find a way to ensure that developing countries could access pandemic flu vaccine supplies.