News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Though the United States observed the fifth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks this fall, the nation's public health emergency preparedness has improved slowly and remains inadequate, according to a report last week from the nonprofit organization Trust for America's Health (TFAH).

(CIDRAP News) – Just before adjourning on Dec 9, the US Congress passed a bill to establish a new biodefense research and development agency and tune up the nation's public health emergency preparedness programs in a number of other ways.

(CIDRAP News) – Soon after the terrorist attacks of 2001, Congress approved emergency funds to teach hospital staffs how to recognize and respond to bioterrorism attacks, and today the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its first report on those efforts.

(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a new medical care guide to help community leaders plan for and respond to mass casualty events such as an influenza pandemic or a terrorist nuclear attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The Pentagon announced this week that it will resume, after a 2-year hiatus, mandatory anthrax vaccination for troops and other personnel stationed in the Middle East and South Korea.

Sept 1, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The nation's largest public health organization sounded an alarm this week about the public health workforce, citing a current shortage and projecting that the profession could lose up to half of its workers over the next few years.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is developing a technology that can identify real or fake bioterrorism agents faster and more cheaply than existing methods.

The technique uses mass spectrometry to sort out different species and strains of bacteria and distinguish them from inert substances such as flour and cornstarch, often used in bioterrorism hoaxes, the FDA said in a news release yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – For the seventh year in a row, cases of tularemia are being reported on Martha's Vineyard, where six cases of the rare respiratory form of the disease have occurred so far.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) in a Jul 27 press release said that the patients, ages 33 to 67, became ill between May 13 and Jul 5. All have been successfully treated and are recovering. Four of the six are employed as landscapers.

(CIDRAP News) – A US Senate committee today approved a bill packed with a wide variety of provisions designed to improve the nation's ability to handle public health emergencies, including pandemic influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – The role of state officials in an influenza pandemic has been hazy, but the focus became clearer yesterday when the National Governors Association (NGA) released a guide that spells out key planning issues for top state officials.