News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Increased resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the leading influenza drug, has prompted federal health officials to change their advice about flu treatment, saying clinicians for now should consider using zanamivir (Relenza) or a combination of two drugs for patients suspected of having influenza A.

(CIDRAP News) – This year's report card from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) on state and national public health emergency preparedness shows some signs of progress along with major gaps, sagging funding, and worry that the current economic crisis will bring deeper spending cuts.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials from several agencies recently converged on Miami's international airport to take part in a full-scale exercise of the federal government's risk-based strategy to slow the spread of a future pandemic influenza virus across US borders.

See related article posted today: "Experts stress vigilance over emerging, unpredictable diseases"

(CIDRAP News) – Saying Americans are threatened by a rising tide of emerging and resurging infectious diseases, the nonprofit group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) today issued a report calling on the US government to launch a comprehensive campaign to battle the microbes at home and abroad.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health and medical leaders predicted today that this year's influenza vaccine will match up well with circulating flu viruses—unlike last year's vaccine—and that plenty of doses will be available.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released a report detailing the first year of its public health "do not board" (DNB) list, a new tool designed to prohibit those with serious communicable diseases from flying into or out of the country.

Data from the first year of the program, from June 2008 to May 2008, appear today in the Sep 19 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

(CIDRAP News) – Two national nonprofit health groups are offering local public health departments a shot in the arm for fall influenza vaccination efforts by helping them organize immunization clinics at or near polling places.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today released their official guidance on allocating vaccine during an influenza pandemic, with few changes from a previous draft that put military personnel, critical health and emergency workers, pregnant women, and small children at the head of the line.

(CIDRAP News) – Five years after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic spread around the globe via air travel, significant barriers still stand in the way of tracking down and notifying airline passengers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Proposed pandemic preparedness guidance released by the federal government today recommends that people wear face masks if they have to go into crowds during an influenza pandemic and says critical infrastructure businesses should consider stockpiling antiviral drugs, among various other suggestions.