News & Perspective

Oct 16

(CIDRAP News) – The first wave of H1N1 vaccine will probably consist of 3.4 million doses of MedImmune's nasal-spray product and is likely to reach providers the first week in October, federal health officials said today.

Twenty countries were reporting a total of 985 confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 (swine flu) as of early today, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. Mexico has reported 590 cases with 25 deaths. The WHO total includes yesterday's US report of 226 cases in 30 states, with one death. Other countries with more than 10 cases were Canada, 85; Spain, 40; and the United Kingdom, 15. [WHO statement]

— Update #2

Editor's note: Today we are launching a daily digest of the latest developments concerning the swine influenza H1N1 virus. This digest will be updated more than once a day as news developments dictate.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed yesterday to delay by another 2 months a long-planned ban on the use of certain cattle materials in any animal feed, a measure designed to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The ban would take effect Jun 26 instead of Apr 27.