News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – State and local public health departments generally maintained or improved their capabilities for testing and identifying biological agents and coordinating emergency responses in 2011, according to an annual report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on state public health preparedness.

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.

(CIDRAP News) – Phone-based flu lines that operated during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic increased public flu knowledge, may have prevented unnecessary 911 calls and visits to health facilities, and eased access to antivirals when appropriate, a recent report found.

(CIDRAP News) – A coalition of 51 medical and health groups is urging congressional leaders to act within the next few months to boost the development of new antibiotics, saying the ongoing loss of effective ones due to bacterial resistance is becoming a crisis.

(CIDRAP News) – The Obama administration today proposed a fiscal year 2013 budget that would use prevention funds to cover some preparedness and public health activities and count on user fees to support more of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) food safety initiatives.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a new planning tool to help hospitals and health systems prepare for medical surges that could result from a bioterror attack, natural disaster, or other public health emergency.

(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) – For many years, public health personnel have cited the estimate of 70% to 90% when talking about the level of protection afforded by seasonal influenza vaccines. But last week's meta-analysis of flu vaccine studies in The Lancet Infectious Diseases—along with several other studies in recent years—has raised the question of whether it's time to change the message about flu vaccines.