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(CIDRAP News) – Chinese authorities reported two more human illnesses caused by the H7N9 avian influenza strain today, one of them fatal, as experts said genetic evidence suggests that the virus may be starting to adapt to mammals.

Apr 3, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – The National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) today forwarded two sets of recommendations to federal departments that oversee emergency preparedness, one focused on enhancing situational awareness in health emergencies and the other on improving the nation's Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) by 2020.

Apr 2, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – The world registered fewer human infections with H5N1 avian influenza in 2012, but the fatality rate was a little higher than in previous years, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in a recent review of the year's data.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials today reported that the H7N9 influenza virus has been detected in four more people, all in critical condition, raising the number of patients infected with the new strain to seven.

Apr 1, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – The auditing office at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is recommending that the agency close certain gaps in its pathogenic Escherhia coli testing program, mainly relating to intact cuts of meat that end up being ground into hamburger or mechanically tenderized.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials yesterday announced three severe respiratory infections, two of them fatal, from H7N9 influenza, a subtype that has not been known to infect humans before.

Mar 29, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – Federal and state health officials are investigating a multistate Escherichia coli O121 outbreak that has so far sickened 24 people in 15 states and sparked a recall of a New York company's frozen chicken quesadillas and other snacks.

(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.

(CIDRAP News) – One of the key markers the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to gauge flu activity returned to baseline last week for the first time since early December, signaling that the season is drawing to a close, the agency said today.

Mar 28, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – Coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, a fungal infection that causes influenza-like symptoms and often leads to hospitalization, has increased "dramatically" in the US Southwest in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Experiments by Hong Kong researchers to gauge the susceptibility of several human and animal cell lines to novel coronavirus (NCoV) found signs that it can infect a broad range of tissues, which might shed light on the disease's seemingly high mortality rate.

Mar 27, 2013

Mar 26, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – A man from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hospitalized in Germany with a novel coronavirus (NCoV) infection died today, according to reports from German health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – The United States still lacks a way to assess the need for high-containment laboratories and national standards for building and maintaining them, despite 2009 recommendations, according to a report yesterday from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).