Pandemic Influenza

(CIDRAP News) – The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) voted overwhelmingly today to endorse its health committee's controversial report that criticizes the handling of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization and European governments.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials today allowed the public health emergency declaration that was prompted by the H1N1 influenza outbreak last year to lapse, signaling an end to emergency authorizations for certain special uses of antiviral drugs and other items.

(CIDRAP News) – Two experts have resigned from the committee reviewing the World Health Organization's (WHO's) pandemic response because their involvement in the response itself may appear to compromise the independence of the review, the WHO said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Two new reports in the medical literature today suggest that secondary transmission of the pandemic H1N1 virus in households is low, which seems to confirm earlier reports that the virus is less contagious than past pandemic viruses and some seasonal flu viruses.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials looked to the relatively new model of school-based immunization clinics as an efficient way to deliver the pandemic vaccine to children, and a report from clinic observers detailed that the process worked well, though most schools would need more resources to hold future clinics.

(CIDRAP News) – Adding more details about a finding announced in February, Chinese researchers said today that a hybrid virus found in Hong Kong pigs contains elements of the 2009 human pandemic flu virus and two swine flu strains, pointing up a need for better surveillance of flu viruses in pigs.

(CIDRAP News) – In a bird's eye view of pandemic H1N1 seroprevalence studies published so far, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today the reports consistently show older people had partial protection and that infection rates were higher in younger people, but it's too soon to estimate a global attack rate.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) replied at greater length today to recent criticism of the way it used science advisors in pandemic planning, defending its response to the H1N1 flu pandemic but allowing that its policies concerning transparency and relations with the pharmaceutical industry need strengthening.

(CIDRAP News) – When the H1N1 pandemic influenza began hitting Singapore's military forces last summer, health officials largely arrested its spread by giving oseltamivir to everyone in the affected units, in combination with other preventive steps, according to a report released today.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), responding today to recent criticism of WHO policies regarding conflicts of interest and transparency, said the agency needs to tighten its rules for relations with industry but insisted that commercial interests never influenced her decisions regarding the H1N1 influenza pandemic.