News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has opened the door to voluntary anthrax vaccination for first responders, revising an 8-year-old recommendation against that step.

(CIDRAP News) – An ongoing trickle of vaccinia virus infections in laboratory workers who handle the virus points up the need for them to be immunized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week.

Maryn McKennaContributing Writer

(CIDRAP News) – This in-depth article investigates the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Its seven parts put advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

(CIDRAP News) – Poor policy communication and a lack of clearly defined goals seriously hindered the smallpox preparedness program that the federal government launched in 2003, according to a report released by the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) last week.

(CIDRAP News) – A combination of vaccines that included smallpox and anthrax might have contributed to the death of a young Army reservist last April, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – The consensus of a group of veteran health workers who helped eradicate smallpox in developing countries is that vaccination within 3 days after exposure to smallpox would protect most people from the disease, according to a report in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – Because of the risk of heart inflammation, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended yesterday that the federal smallpox immunization program not expand now beyond smallpox response teams to the larger population of health workers and emergency responders.

(CIDRAP News) – Thirty-three illness cases are under investigation in North America's first outbreak of monkeypox, 14 more than reported 2 days ago, with four cases confirmed so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal agencies have reported four more cases of heart inflammation in military personnel who received smallpox shots, including one severe case. The report came as officials advised the states to suspend smallpox shots for people with three or more major cardiac risk factors as well as for those with known heart disease.

(CIDRAP News) – A 55-year-old National Guard member died of a heart attack Mar 26, 5 days after getting a smallpox shot, a Department of Defense official reported today.