News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The CIA has good evidence that four nations—Iraq, North Korea, Russia, and France—have secret stores of smallpox virus, according to a Washington Post report based on comments from officials speaking anonymously.

(CIDRAP News) – Amid the devastation left by hurricane Katrina on the US Gulf Coast, fears of infectious disease outbreaks have added to the distress. Some of those concerns are solidly grounded, while others are less so, disease experts say.

(CIDRAP News) – Tests have shown that floodwaters in hurricane-struck New Orleans are heavily contaminated with sewage and contain dangerous levels of lead as well, federal officials said today.

"The water is full of sewage," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at a Washington news teleconference.

(CIDRAP News) – Five cases of the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever have been confirmed in a 3-month-old disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but another disease may account for some cases in the outbreak, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) annual conference today revealed that contaminated crayfish can cause severe illness and looked at the risk of contracting Salmonella infections from pet frogs, among other findings.

– (CIDRAP News) Global health officials responding to a quickly spreading cholera outbreak in Haiti say cases in the past few days have doubled, to 3,015, while deaths are up by about 100, to 253.

The figures were published yesterday by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which also reported that the disease is reaching new parts of the country.