News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The revelation that samples of the influenza virus that caused the flu pandemic of 1957-58 were inadvertently sent to thousands of laboratories has raised fears of a new pandemic and triggered an urgent effort to destroy the samples.

(CIDRAP News) – Five years after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic spread around the globe via air travel, significant barriers still stand in the way of tracking down and notifying airline passengers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Though influenza activity is low in most nations, some are seeing active transmission, including Cuba, Bolivia, Cameroon, and parts of Southeast Asia, the World Health Organization said today in an update.

Cuba and El Salvador have reported increasing circulation of influenza A (H3N2), a strain that peaked in Honduras in the middle of August.