News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Several air sensors detected traces of the tularemia pathogen on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC, Sep 24 and 25, but no cases of illness have been reported among people who were in the area at the time, according to health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says federal agencies may not be able to reliably rule out the presence of anthrax contamination in a building because their sampling and detection methods have not been adequately tested.

(CIDRAP News) – The causes of this week's anthrax alarms in the Washington, DC, area remained a mystery today as criticisms about communication and coordination by the Department of Defense (DoD) flew.

(CIDRAP News) – The next infectious disease to enter the United States might cross the border taped to a traveler's leg or tucked snugly under a tourist's hat.

Smuggling of wild animals has always posed hazards to human health, but the stakes may be getting higher today, given the role of animal hosts in lethal outbreaks such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday issued a lengthy plan to outline and standardize how the federal government will respond to major emergencies ranging from bioterrorism to natural disasters.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration today released a long catalog of what it considers the nation's biodefense and public health preparedness gains over the last 3 years and promised more improvements to come.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration today proposed a $274 million program to improve the nation's alertness for bioterrorism by measures such as increasing environmental monitoring, analyzing health data, and inspecting crops and livestock.

Environmental tests showed no signs of ricin contamination at an airport mail facility in Greenville, S.C., where an envelope containing the poison was found last week, according to the US Postal Service (USPS).

(CIDRAP News) – Despite progress in the past 2 years, local emergency response agencies in the United States remain dangerously unprepared for major terrorist attacks, according to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank.

Editor's note: This story was updated Jan 30, 2003, with additional information from the Department of Health and Human Services.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush yesterday proposed an initiative, called Project Bioshield, to speed the development and production of vaccines and treatments for smallpox, anthrax, botulism, and other diseases that could be spread by terrorists.