(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in China reported two new H7N9 infections, both from Fujian province, and four more deaths, boosting the outbreak's total to 130 cases, 31 of them (24%) fatal.
May 3, 2013
(CIDRAP News) – Although no new H7N9 influenza cases or deaths were announced in China today, a team that treated severely ill patients in Shanghai raised questions about the benefits of oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and health groups issued updates on preparedness steps.
(CIDRAP News) – Three more people in China have died from severe respiratory infections from the H7N9 virus, pushing the number of deaths so far to 27, according to official and media reports today.
(CIDRAP News) – The most detailed genetic analysis so far of H7N9 viruses that have infected humans in China shed more light on how the virus may have emerged—a complex set of events that could have involved mixing between wild and domestic ducks and reassortment in poultry.
(CIDRAP News) – Chinese scientists report that lab-generated hybrid viruses combining genes from avian H5N1 and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza viruses can achieve airborne spread between guinea pigs, a finding that seems likely to renew the debate about the risks of creating novel viruses that might be able to spark a human pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) – Participants in a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in February agreed that a binding global agreement to govern potentially dangerous life-sciences research is unlikely, but global guidance on the thorny issue could help nations figure out their own policies, according to a WHO report of the meeting.
(CIDRAP News) – The new H7N9 avian flu virus has been detected in one more patient in China, a finding that edges the number of cases in the outbreak to 128, which includes 24 deaths.
(CIDRAP News) – As labs in the United States study how the H7N9 virus behaves in humans and animals, state and local health officials should dust off their pandemic preparedness plans in case the virus becomes a bigger threat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.