(CIDRAP News) As polio eradication efforts lost ground in 2008, 15 African countries bore the brunt of the spread of the disease with multiple importations of wild poliovirus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its global health partners reported today.
(CIDRAP News) Minnesota health officials said today that they are investigating the death last month of a Minnesotan who was infected with a polio virus strain found in the oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Apr 8, 2009
(CIDRAP News) The world lost some ground last year in its 20-year push to eradicate polio, mainly because the disease has spread to new parts of Nigeria and because conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan have made it difficult to get vaccines to children, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.
Mar 2, 2009
(CIDRAP News) Teams of researchers from several countries today report positive results in the long battle to eradicate polio. At the same time, they acknowledge that the international campaign faces an extraordinary challenge of both biology and economics: While circulation of wild poliovirus may cease, polio vaccination may need to continue for an indefinite period of time.
(CIDRAP News) The international coalition of health agencies dedicated to ending polio yesterday declared a "final push" toward the long-delayed goal of eradicating the disease. But its members coupled the announcement with a plea for millions of dollars in donations to fill shortfalls, and with an admission that the 20-year-old campaign continues to face stubborn challenges.
Editor's note: This is the sixth in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time.
TORONTO (CIDRAP News) Ten years after H5N1 avian influenza first began to raise fears of a potential pandemic, the world has a stronger set of tools to contain that virus and similar threats, but also a fresh awareness of humanity's vulnerability to fast-spreading diseases, experts said yesterday at an international conference on flu.
(CIDRAP News) As expected, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved a resolution on the sharing of influenza viruses and access to pandemic vaccines just before adjourning its annual meeting of member countries today.