News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – An annual report released yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) profiles a wide range of CDC influenza-related projects around the world, from flu surveillance in Indonesia to vaccine effectiveness studies in El Salvador and epidemiology training in Ghana.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that influenza vaccines for the Southern Hemisphere's 2013 flu season should contain the same three strains as the vaccines now being administered to millions in the Northern Hemisphere.

(CIDRAP News) – Signaling that the current flu strains are likely to persist over the next several months, the World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended sticking with the current trio of vaccine strains for the Northern Hemisphere's next influenza season.

The WHO's vaccine strain advisory committee met on Feb 15 and 16 and released its recommendation on the WHO's Web site. The group recommends the following for next season's vaccine:

Maryn McKennaContributing Writer

(CIDRAP News) – This in-depth article investigates the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Its seven parts put advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today recognized five human H5N1 influenza cases from Vietnam dating back to late May, after publishing formal criteria for accepting positive test results for H5 flu viruses from national laboratories.

The five cases include four fatal ones, which pushes Vietnam's H5N1 toll to 100 cases with 46 deaths. The country has the second highest number of avian flu cases, after Indonesia.

(CIDRAP News) – A 13-year-old boy from south Jakarta who died Jun 14 represented Indonesia's 51st avian influenza case and was the 39th Indonesian to succumb, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) statement today.

His death leaves Indonesia only three fatalities behind Vietnam, which has reported the most H5N1 deaths in the world but hasn't had a human case since late last year, according to WHO information.

(CIDRAP News) – All seven confirmed cases of H5N1 avian influenza in the family cluster in Indonesia involved "close and prolonged exposure" to another infected person, suggesting person-to-person transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Editor's note: This story was revised July 31 to clarify information about previous reports of H5N1 influenza viruses in Russia.

(CIDRAP News) – News services said today the avian influenza outbreak reported last week in Russia involves the dangerous H5N1 strain, while two more fatal human cases of the illness were reported in Vietnam.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand reported its eighth fatal human case of H5N1 avian influenza today, while China announced it was lifting quarantine orders for the last two of 49 areas affected by the disease, according to news service reports.