News & Perspective

If the H7N9 influenza virus now circulating in China evolves into a pandemic strain, the world is likely to have great difficulty providing adequate supplies of an effective vaccine in time to blunt its impact, according to a viewpoint article by three experts in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

(CIDRAP News) – A new study suggests that a lab-derived hybrid H5N1 influenza virus that is capable of airborne transmission among ferrets may well be capable of doing the same thing in humans.

(CIDRAP News) – A new analysis of H7N9 genetic sequences from the first Chinese patients infected with the virus and from poultry markets found more signals that the virus can attach and replicate efficiently in the airways of humans and other mammals, raising concerns about the virus's pandemic potential.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) takes a hit of about $270 million in the Obama administration's proposed fiscal year 2014 budget, including significant cuts to biodefense and emergency preparedness programs, officials revealed today.

(CIDRAP News) – A group of scientists acting under the aegis of a vaccine research advocacy organization has asked President Obama's bioethics committee to evaluate the ethics of experiments designed to increase the transmissibility of H5N1 avian influenza viruses.