News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Delegates from 193 countries met today in Geneva at the start of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which will address several infectious disease topics, including a report from an independent pandemic review committee, a virus-sharing agreement, and the fate of the world's remaining smallpox virus stocks.

(CIDRAP News) – An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.

(CIDRAP News) – Just days before a Council of Europe hearing to discuss claims that pharmaceutical companies influenced the World Health Organization's (WHO's) pandemic response, the global body said charges by some European officials that the pandemic is "fake" are "wrong and irresponsible."

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) and vaccine makers from Europe today defended themselves against the charges of some European officials that the agency was improperly influenced by vaccine companies and exaggerated the threat of the pandemic H1N1 virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Leading public health officials and experts have sharply rejected charges from some European officials that pharmaceutical companies used exaggerated claims about the H1N1 pandemic threat to scare governments into buying unnecessary stockpiles of vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) –Pandemic activity is showing early signs of peaking in some parts of North America, but is on the rise in several European countries as well as those in Central and Eastern Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) –An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) today said he expects serious cases and deaths as pandemic flu activity picks up in the Northern Hemisphere, and he warned people not to underestimate the virus, even though illnesses are often mild.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has seen a change in the ethnic distribution of fatal pandemic H1N1 influenza cases, a CDC official reported at a meeting of its vaccine advisory committee today.

(CIDRAP News) – A well-known risk-communication expert said the World Health Organization (WHO) acted wisely in delaying its declaration of an influenza pandemic until yesterday, but he simultaneously expressed concern that the move may lead to complacency about the situation.