News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials painted a rosy picture of the influenza vaccine supply today, saying most states have enough vaccine and the nation as a whole seems to have enough to meet the demand from groups who need the shots the most.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States is pledging 20 million doses of smallpox vaccine to a global stockpile managed by the World Health Organization (WHO), Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government is buying 1.2 million doses of flu vaccine made in Germany to augment the strained US supply, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – About 5 million additional doses of injectable flu vaccine have been identified that will hopefully be added to the US supply, according to an announcement made today by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson. In addition, 300,000 doses are being redirected to high-risk individuals from stores originally planned for military personnel and federal employees.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal government researchers have reported promising results in animal testing of a candidate SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) vaccine that combines a weakened form of vaccinia virus with a gene from the SARS coronavirus.

(CIDRAP News) – Two studies announced by federal health officials today suggest that modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), a weakened form of the conventional smallpox vaccine, could provide a safer way to provide smallpox immunity to people at risk for complications from the standard vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – More birds have died or been sacrificed in the current avian influenza outbreaks in Asia than in the five largest previous outbreaks of avian flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday.

Jul 15 (CIDRAP NEWS) – The United Nations' food standards body announced last week that it would allow higher kiloGray (kGy) doses for irradiating food.

(CIDRAP News) – The devastating outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the Netherlands is showing signs of losing steam, and a smaller outbreak in neighboring Belgium has been halted, according to European officials.

(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory studies have shown that the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus can survive up to 2 days on plastic surfaces and at least that long in human feces, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.