News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – With tougher security requirements set to take effect next April, few state public health laboratories plan to maintain stocks of certain pathogens considered most tempting to bioterrorists, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and officials with state labs.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials are inviting the public to weigh in on whether research on H5N1 avian influenza viruses, including strains modified in the lab to make them more transmissible, is risky enough to require new safety regulations and precautions.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised its list of potentially dangerous biological agents and toxins and the regulations covering them, and some of the changes have public health laboratories concerned.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today said the worst of the nation's West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak appears to be over but warned that cases will continue to add up at a pace on track to make 2012 a record year.

(CIDRAP News) – The surge in West Nile virus (WNV) infections in many states over the summer led to a temporary shortage of diagnostic test kits that at one point halted testing at some commercial and local labs and led one state to warn health providers to reserve the tests for the most seriously ill patients.

(CIDRAP News) – In releasing safety guidelines today for workers in medical diagnostic laboratories, a panel of experts convened by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the nation needs a system for "nonpunitive" surveillance and reporting of laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs).