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(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's (WHO's) emergency committee of experts yesterday recommended holding at the current pandemic alert level based on evidence of new community spread of the virus in West Africa and the possibility of a second wave of illnesses as the Southern Hemisphere enters its winter months.

WHO gains scientists' support for H1N1 response

Feb 23, 2010

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnam's health ministry announced the country's first H5N1 avian influenza case of the year, a 3-year-old girl who is recovering in the hospital, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Human seasonal flu strains that reassort with avian H5 influenza can produce a more pathogenic avian flu strain, highlighting the importance of virus genetic surveillance and the need to protect people who have close contact with birds, researchers reported today.

Feb 22, 2010

(CIDRAP News) – At least 63 million Americans, 21% of the population, may have been infected by pandemic H1N1 influenza, Pittsburgh researchers estimate—creating enough population-wide immunity to potentially explain the lack of a third wave of H1N1 so far.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) vaccines committee voted today to follow the World Health Organization's advice and fold the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine into the seasonal flu vaccine for next season.

(CIDRAP News) – An overwhelming majority of Americans would probably follow public health advice to pick up antibiotics after an anthrax attack, but a sizable minority wouldn't take them right away, according to a poll by the Harvard School of Public Health.

(CIDRAP News) – Pandemic flu activity in the United States stayed level for the fourth week in a row, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported slight increases in the number of outpatient visits for flu-like illnesses and deaths from pneumonia and influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – Given signs that the pandemic H1N1 virus will continue its dominance over other flu strains, the World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended adding the pandemic strain as the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine for the Northern Hemisphere's next flu season.

(CIDRAP News) – In an updated analysis of scores of studies spanning four decades, researchers at the Cochrane Collaboration in Rome say reliable evidence on the effectiveness of influenza vaccination in elderly people is very sparse and shows only a modest benefit.

Report details outbreak on Navy ship

Feb 18, 2010

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two H5N1 avian influenza cases from Egypt, one of them fatal, and reported that two previously announced Egyptian patients have died from their infections.

(CIDRAP News) – As pandemic flu activity across the nation wanes, federal health officials are already reviewing the government's response and lessons learned to help blunt the impact of the next national public health emergency, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said yesterday.

Feb 17, 2010