News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Public health programs that detect and respond to bioterror events and disease outbreaks are at risk from federal and state budget cuts, a threat that could worsen over the next year if automatic across-the-board cuts kick in, according to an annual preparedness report card released today.

(CIDRAP News) – Though much of the nation's ability to detect potentially catastrophic disease outbreaks, manmade or otherwise, is in the hands of state and local agencies, the federal government still lacks a comprehensive view of the role it plays in biosurveillance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has continued to modify its bioterror countermeasure priorities based on current risk assessments, but it hasn't updated formal plans or fleshed out budget priorities, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) yesterday announced it has awarded contracts, which could total $150 million over 5 years, to four companies to develop broad-spectrum therapies that could help the nation respond to a bioterror attack or other public health emergency.

(CIDRAP News) – Though the United States has improved its ability to respond to small-scale bioterror events, it is still unprepared to protect its citizens against large attacks, according to the latest assessment today from a bipartisan commission established to advise Congress.