News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan, today opened fire on a doctor from Ghana working on a polio vaccination campaign and his Pakistani driver, putting both in the hospital, according to an Al Jazeera report.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Assembly (WHA) wrapped up its annual meeting May 26 in Geneva, with attendees turning their attention to several infectious disease–related topics, including implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHRs) and pandemic flu preparedness.

(CIDRAP News) – Saying recent major gains in the fight against polio are at risk, global health groups yesterday announced an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to try to eradicate the disease by driving it out of its last three strongholds: Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

(CIDRAP News) – Opening the 65th annual World Health Assembly (WHA) today, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, said she sees a bright future for health development, despite financial crises that many countries are facing, which has shrunk support for many initiatives.

(CIDRAP News) – Global cholera incidence has increased since 2000, with Haiti's large outbreak tipping the largest burden away from Africa for the first time since 1995, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – After a second round of committee negotiations today, the World Health Assembly (WHA) agreed to postpone setting a date for destruction of the world's remaining smallpox virus stocks for another 3 years.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Assembly (WHA)committee that took up a resolution to destroy the remaining stocks of smallpox virus failed to reach an agreement today, despite a working group's attempts to find an acceptable solution.

(CIDRAP News) – At the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva today, the full group adopted a review of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) performance during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, while a committee made some last-minute changes to a framework for sharing flu viruses.