News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 cases in Washington state has sickened up to 18 people, most of them children, and triggered renewed warnings about drinking raw milk.

A report in the Portland Oregonian newspaper today said 18 people, including 15 children younger than 13, are believed to have been infected with E coli O157:H7 after drinking raw milk from Dee Creek Farm near Woodland, Wash.

(CIDRAP News) – A test to screen blood and organ donors for West Nile virus (WNV) has won approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after 2 years of trial use.

The FDA yesterday announced approval of the Procleix West Nile virus assay, developed by Gen-Probe Inc., San Diego, and marketed by Chiron Corp., Emeryville, Calif. The test detects West Nile RNA in blood.

(CIDRAP News) – Close to 400 people in Ontario have gotten sick in a Salmonella outbreak blamed on contaminated mung bean sprouts, according to Canadian news reports.

Toronto's health department ordered Toronto Sun Wah Trading on Nov 25 to stop distributing mung bean sprouts because of possible contamination with Salmonella, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced the same day.

(CIDRAP News) – Seasonal influenza shots are not just for high-risk groups anymore, and everyone interested in a shot should go ahead and seek one out, federal health officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche announced today it would build a plant in the United States to make oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and also consider licensing other companies to make the drug in the face of a possible flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Armed with full federal approval for the first time in more than a year, Chiron Corp. says it may start shipping influenza vaccine to US distributors next week.

Chiron's first shipments since contamination problems blocked the company's vaccine shipments last year could help ease vaccine shortages caused by slow deliveries, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week the agency will soon align its rules on animal feed more closely with those in Canada and Europe, signaling a likelihood of new restrictions to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Meat companies are again free to use most of the small intestine of cattle to make sausage casings, following a change in a federal rule intended to protect people from exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Because of continuing uncertainty about the supply of influenza vaccine this winter, federal health officials said today that inactivated flu vaccine should be reserved for high-risk groups until late October.

"Beginning October 24, all persons will be eligible for vaccination," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government ended its investigation of the nation's second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) without finding any more cases or learning exactly how the cow was infected, officials announced yesterday.