News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In a new analysis of serologic studies from 19 countries, researchers estimate that about 24% of the population were infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza (pH1N1) virus during the first year of the pandemic, a finding modestly higher than what US health officials estimated in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Many Northern Hemisphere countries, from North America to temperate Asia, have seen rising flu activity in recent weeks, while cases ebbed or remained scarce in most of the rest of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity jumped in the United States last week along with other Northern Hemisphere locations, and an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said it's not yet clear if this season will make its mark as a bad one.

(CIDRAP News) – In its review of summer flu activity in the United States and across the globe today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that patterns, which included a few clusters and sporadic illness, were typical.

(CIDRAP News) – Low levels of flu activity across the United States resemble a summer pattern, while globally only sporadic pandemic flu activity is occurring with the most active areas in parts of the Caribbean and Central America, according to updates today.

WHO: H1N1 activity low in most countriesCirculation of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus persists only in tropical zones of the Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. B strains of seasonal flu are circulating in East Asia, along with sporadic seasonal A/H3N2 flu in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Africa; the most recent H3N2 reports were in Indonesia and Tanzania.

(CIDRAP News) – Though pandemic flu is circulating at low levels in many parts of the world, Thailand and some West African nations are reporting increased activity, and the virus is being edged out by influenza B in China and other Asian regions, with signs of westward spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.