CDC report outlines international influenza activities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday released a 268-page annual report that "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 reports. The report also "describes the CDC's collaborations with the World Health Organization (WHO), outlines projects it supports in about 40 countries, ... describes specific studies undertaken in many of those countries," "lists international training conferences it has sponsored, and describes the CDC program for sharing diagnostic test kits and reagents," the news service writes. "Over the past six years the [international] program has undergone remarkable growth and has expanded to provide support to over 40 countries, all WHO regional offices and WHO headquarters," the report notes, according to CIDRAP. "The report, covering 2011, is the third annual account of the agency's global flu activities, which have expanded greatly in the past decade," the news service adds (Roos, 10/30).