News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Businesses that take steps to protect workers during a pandemic have worried about staying in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and federal officials have responded by issuing new guidance that addresses many of the issues.

(CIDRAP News) – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) today affirmed existing federal guidance that healthcare workers caring for H1N1 influenza patients should wear fit-tested N95 respirators, not just surgical masks, to protect them from the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Responding to lobbying by the Obama administration and public health advocates, Congress last week approved $7.65 billion for battling pandemic influenza, more than three times what the House and Senate had earlier proposed.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in CIDRAP News as a seven-part series running from October 25 through November 2, 2007. It investigates 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 advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.