News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – New York's governor has declared a health emergency to funnel more resources to battle high levels of flu activity, including an executive order that temporarily allows pharmacists to vaccinate children younger than 18 years old.

(CIDRAP News) – Signs of an increasingly severe flu season prompted city officials to declare a public health emergency in Boston, where infections have increased tenfold compared with last season.

(CIDRAP News) – Many Northern Hemisphere countries, from North America to temperate Asia, have seen rising flu activity in recent weeks, while cases ebbed or remained scarce in most of the rest of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity continued its sharp rise through the last week of 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

"Reports of influenza-like-illness (ILI) are nearing what have been peak levels during moderately severe seasons," said Joe Bresee, MD, chief of epidemiology and prevention in the CDC's flu division, in a CDC statement today.