News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday that public health must outweigh economic concerns in responding to the highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza crisis in Asia.

The warning came the same day as a report that the Indonesian government had not undertaken a mass slaughter of chickens to stop the outbreaks but was mostly leaving the job to farmers.

(CIDRAP News) – Under a food safety agreement announced today by US officials, the Chinese government pledges to register exporters of food to the United States, inspect shipments before they leave China, and set up a system to trace food products through the production system.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised its list of potentially dangerous biological agents and toxins and the regulations covering them, and some of the changes have public health laboratories concerned.

(CIDRAP News) – A human isolate of the novel H7N9 influenza virus from China—needed for the development of diagnostic test kits and related efforts—is expected to arrive at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within 2 days, a CDC official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – As labs in the United States study how the H7N9 virus behaves in humans and animals, state and local health officials should dust off their pandemic preparedness plans in case the virus becomes a bigger threat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.