News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Thirty-eight of 62 US states, territories, and major urban areas have filed "pre-event" smallpox vaccination plans with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of today. The plans for vaccinating key public health and healthcare personnel were due to the CDC yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Now that the federal government has some licensed smallpox vaccine in its stockpile, a presidential announcement on vaccination recommendations may be coming very soon, bioterrorism expert Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, predicted last week.

"I believe that in the next days you'll be hearing from the president about this vaccine," Osterholm told healthcare workers at a meeting in Minneapolis.

(CIDRAP News) – More than 50 recent cases of E coli O157:H7 infection in Wisconsin and several other states may be linked with ground beef that was recalled last week by a company in Milwaukee, according to state and federal health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to tomatoes affected at least 141 people, including 48 organ transplant recipients, who attended the US Transplant Games in Florida in late June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) Ð A prolonged salmonellosis outbreak that affected 650 people from all 50 states was linked to a Dallas hotel food worker who was infected with Salmonella but had no symptoms, according to the Texas Department of Health (TDH).

(CIDRAP News) – In view of the specter of bioterrorism, it's time to overhaul the hodgepodge of outdated, little-known, inconsistent state laws dealing with public health emergencies in the United States, an expert on the subject told a conference audience in Minneapolis yesterday.