News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials and others at the World Health Assembly (WHA) complained today that restrictions on the use of virus samples are delaying the investigation of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to news service reports.

(CIDRAP News) – A new set of journal articles related to the 10th anniversary of the SARS epidemic in 2003 says the episode did much to boost recognition of the need for coordinated international and national responses to emerging infectious diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – Following the recent retrospective confirmation of two fatal infections with a novel coronavirus (CoV) in Jordan, the Jordanian health ministry said no more such cases have surfaced in the country since April, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – More than 15,000 Canadians were hospitalized with pandemic influenza last year, thousands more than in a typical year, which prompted hospitals to cope by employing such steps as reducing the number of planned admissions, according to a report from a government-funded research institute.

(CIDRAP News) – On the second and final day of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) task force meeting on how to protect healthcare workers from the novel H1N1 virus, experts focused on issues surrounding the effectiveness and practical use of masks and respirators in work settings.

The IOM task force's goal is to make recommendations about how to protect healthcare workers during the H1N1 pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Media coverage of infectious diseases such as avian influenza can create the impression that the conditions are more of a threat than they really are, according to a recent study from Canada.

(CIDRAP News) – In the history of infectious diseases, coincidence plays an extraordinary role. In 1706, Cotton Mather purchased a slave named Onesimus who happened to come from a tribe that practiced variolation, and so smallpox prevention was introduced to North America.

(CIDRAP News) – Five years after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic spread around the globe via air travel, significant barriers still stand in the way of tracking down and notifying airline passengers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease.