All News

Aug 5, 2009

India flu death spurs crowds, tussles at hospital

(CIDRAP News) – Though infectious disease experts say it is impossible to predict how severe the next wave of the novel H1N1 pandemic will be, experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) observe that it so far resembles the 1957-58 influenza pandemic in several ways. They report that the earlier pandemic caused minimal disruptions, in part because public health officials didn't close schools, cancel public events, or impose travel restrictions.

(CIDRAP News) – A Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) official today rejected a media report that quoted her as saying that antiviral-resistant cases of novel H1N1 influenza had been found along the US-Mexican border.

(CIDRAP News) – In an update on H1N1 influenza activity, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today that 168 countries and territories on all continents have now had cases and that the new virus increasingly dominates the flu landscape.

Aug 4, 2009

Aug 3, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Africa have for the first time isolated Marburg viruses from fruit bats found in a Ugandan cave where humans were infected, a finding that suggests bats may be a natural host of the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today issued a list of warning signs of possible severe disease in H1N1 flu patients, while adding its voice to the recent warnings about the virus's threat to pregnant women.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to gather the public's thoughts in August on how big this fall's H1N1 influenza vaccination drive should be.

Jul 31, 2009

(CIDRAP News) –The US House of Representatives yesterday passed sweeping legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more power and resources to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks.

Canadian officials hold off on flu vaccine priority list

(CIDRAP News) – While most vaccine manufacturers have reaped below-average crops of H1N1 influenza vaccine virus from the eggs in which they're grown, MedImmune Inc. has a different problem: high virus yields, but a potential shortage of the devices used to spray the vaccine into the nose.

Editor's note: This story was revised Jul 31 after Besser contacted CIDRAP to say that the date listed for his start at ABC News was incorrect.

(CIDRAP News) – Richard E. Besser, MD, a long-time employee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who served as the agency's acting director during the beginning of the novel H1N1 virus outbreak, is leaving the agency to work for ABC News.

(CIDRAP News) – Pregnant women who have pandemic H1N1 influenza infection appear to be at greater risk of complications, but some healthcare providers have been hesitant to treat them early with antivirals despite recommendations to do so, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

Jul 28, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The top US advisory panel on immunizations recommended today that groups totaling up to 159 million people be targeted for vaccination against the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus but that a narrower population of about 41 million have priority if initial supplies are short.

Pregnant women bear disproportionate share of flu deaths

(CIDRAP News) – The immunization advisory group for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meets tomorrow in an emergency session to discuss which groups should be targeted to receive the pandemic H1N1 vaccine and whether some should have priority.