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) – Mail carriers reached about 95% of targeted Twin Cities addresses in a recent test of a plan to deliver antibiotics to people's homes in response to a bioterrorism attack, and some confusion about lines of authority was the main glitch, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

(CIDRAP News) – Without any major hitches, mail carriers delivered empty pill bottles and fliers to about 37,000 Twin Cities area homes yesterday to rehearse part of the planned response to an anthrax attack or widespread disease outbreak, according to officials involved in the exercise.

Editor's note: This story was revised on Mar 28, 2012, to correct the list of other cities that are working on medication-delivery programs similar to the one in the Twin Cities.

(CIDRAP News) – Early diagnosis and treatment were crucial in helping a Florida man beat the odds by recovering from inhalational anthrax, a rare and often deadly disease, according to a Minneapolis physician who treated him.

(CIDRAP News) – A person hospitalized in Minnesota has contracted inhalational anthrax after traveling in western states, officials from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced today.

In a release, the MDH said that the agency and its partners at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating the infection, which apparently stemmed from environmental exposure.

(CIDRAP News) – Mail carriers in Minneapolis and St. Paul are prepared to deliver antibiotics to some of the population in the event of an anthrax attack, putting the Twin Cities at the forefront of a program to use the US Postal Service (USPS) to help blunt bioterrorist assaults, according to federal and state officials.

(CIDRAP News) – Experts and industry leaders speaking at congressional hearings this week on the nationwide Salmonella outbreak said federal agencies should take cues from state programs if they want to improve the traceability of fresh produce and the success of foodborne disease outbreak investigations.

(CIDRAP News) – This year's round of federal grants to states to help healthcare facilities prepare for public health emergencies totals $430 million, down from $450 million last year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced recently.