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By Region: North America

World Health Organization Perspective on Implementation of International Health Regulations

(Emerging Infectious Diseases) In 2005, the International Health Regulations were adopted at the 58th World Health Assembly; in June 2007, they were entered into force for most countries. In 2012, the world is approaching a major 5-year milestone in the global commitment to ensure national capacities to identify, investigate, assess, and respond to public health Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Second of two blocked flu papers released

(Science News) A controversial research paper banned from publication in 2011 because it contained potentially dangerous information is now available for the world to see. The study, appearing in the June 22 Science, details experiments in which researchers in the Netherlands created a version of the H5N1 bird flu virus that can be passed through Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Bird Flu Paper Is Published After Debate

(New York Times) The more controversial of two papers describing how the lethal H5N1 bird flu could be made easier to spread was published Thursday, six months after a scientific advisory board suggested that the papers’ most potentially dangerous data be censored. The paper, by scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, identified five Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Response to Comment on “Seroevidence for H5N1 Influenza Infections in Humans: Meta-Analysis”

(Science Careers Blog) We would like to respond to several points made in the comment by Van Kerkhove et al. regarding our recently published meta-analysis of seroevidence for H5N1 influenza virus infections in humans. Taking into account only four of the countries with documented avian influenza H5N1 infections—Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, and China—there is a cumulative Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Avian flu viruses which are transmissible between humans could evolve in nature

(University of Cambridge) It might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature, new research has found. The findings, from research led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge, were published today, 22 June in the journal Science. Currently, avian H5N1 influenza, also Read More »