News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – As public health ministers and officials from 13 Asian countries conferred in Bangkok last week on how to prevent the spread of H5N1 avian influenza, experts offered troubling predictions.

(CIDRAP News) – The idea of stopping an emerging influenza pandemic would have seemed ridiculous until a few years ago, but today the world just might have a chance to do that, according to two flu experts who published opinion pieces this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Instead of finding common ground on pandemic influenza planning, World Health Organization (WHO) members this week hit rocky terrain.

(CIDRAP News) – The H5N1 avian influenza virus is evolving and poses "a continuing and potentially growing pandemic threat," say experts who were convened recently by the World Health Organization (WHO) to study the pathogen.

(CIDRAP News) – The world has an unprecedented warning that pandemic influenza may be imminent, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report that urges swift action to prevent global illness and death.

A WHO report, "Strengthening pandemic influenza preparedness and response," is slated for discussion tomorrow at the organization's annual World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva.

(CIDRAP News) – International health agencies are questioning China about a report that the country has used a human antiviral drug in poultry for years, thereby causing the H5N1 influenza virus to become resistant to the drug.

(CIDRAP News) – US officials this week promoted international efforts to prepare for a potential influenza pandemic, announcing an international flu surveillance partnership and promising aid to Vietnam for avian and human flu surveillance.

(CIDRAP News) – The Asian Development Bank estimated this week that an influenza pandemic in Asia could kill 3 million people and possibly trigger a world recession, as the World Health Organization (WHO) geared up for a major conference on global strategy for limiting the pandemic threat.

Jan 6, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – 2005 is likely to go down as the year when avian influenza, powered by a steady rise in human cases and the spread of poultry outbreaks all the way to Eastern Europe, emerged as a high-profile global health issue.

When 2005 dawned, only 45 human cases of H5N1 avian flu, including 32 deaths, had been counted by the World Health Organization (WHO). All of those were in Vietnam and Thailand.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today changed the H5N1 avian influenza strains recommended for candidate vaccines for the first time since 2004, causing some experts to question how far the virus has evolved.

The WHO's new prototype strains, prepared by reverse genetics, include three new H5N1 subclades.