News & Perspective

In the wake of a newspaper investigation that questioned the value of the federal BioWatch program for detecting dangerous airborne pathogens, some public health officials familiar with the program acknowledge that it's far from perfect, but they say it's not time to scrap it.

Vietnam yesterday received a $7.3 million pledge from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to support two avian influenza projects, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported today. The funds will be used to gather information for a transitional H5N1 vaccination strategy and to help Vietnam prepare for outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – A public health policy group today urged the government to put one person in charge of all food safety efforts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a first step toward preventing the kinds of foodborne disease outbreaks that have plagued the nation in recent years.

(CIDRAP News) – US public health spending is very uneven from state to state and is eroding in the face of the economic recession, the nonprofit group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) said in a report released today.

(CIDRAP News) – Calling the US food safety system antiquated and disjointed, a public health advocacy group today urged a major overhaul to make the system stronger, more coherent, and better attuned to today's major threats.

(CIDRAP News) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says federal agencies may not be able to reliably rule out the presence of anthrax contamination in a building because their sampling and detection methods have not been adequately tested.

(CIDRAP News) – Calling for better prevention from catchment to consumer, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sep 21 issued new guidelines to ensure drinking-water safety worldwide.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration has announced plans to expand and strengthen the Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, the nation's uniformed force of health professionals who can be mobilized to respond to health emergencies around the country.

Editor's Note: The text as originally published on Feb 26 was revised slightly on March 10, 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush's National Strategy for Homeland Security, released this week, lays out a lengthy agenda for defending the country against bioterrorism as well as other kinds of terrorist attacks.