The Latest Breaking News from Influenza

The Food and Drug Administration has approved an at-home test that can detect and discern between COVID-19 infection and two strains of the flu, Influenza A and B, continuing the shift from clinical to home-diagnostic care that blossomed during the height of the pandemic.

ATLANTA -- As of Feb. 24, Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 25 million illnesses, 280,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths from the flu this season. With that in mind, the CDC also reported that influenza activity is low nationwide as of Feb. 18. The virus certainly made an…

February 28 marks three years since COVID was first reported in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then there have been major advances in our understanding of this infection and the tools and strategies to combat it.

The viruses that infected two people in Cambodia with H5N1 avian influenza have been identified as an endemic clade of bird flu circulating in the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The at-home nasal swab kit simultaneously tests for COVID-19 and two strains of the flu.

The current epidemic of avian influenza has killed over 58 million birds in the U.S. as of February 2023. Following on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, large outbreaks of viruses like bird flu raise the specter of another disease jumping from animals into humans. This process is called spillover.

The world's leading experts on influenza met this week to discuss the threat posed to humans by a strain of H5N1 avian flu that has caused record numbers of bird deaths around the world in recent months.

The bird flu, which is known as avian influenza, spreads in poultry but was only deemed a threat after a 1997 outbreak among customers of a live poultry market in Hong Kong - with most cases involving direct contact with infected birds

Hong Kong has extended its mask mandate till March 8, with an expert saying the rule should remain for a while as the population is vulnerable to influenza.