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June 26 (CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday reported the first probable case of SARS in Japan, involving a 33-year-old Taiwanese man who came to Tokyo on June 21 for sightseeing.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of human monkeypox cases under investigation in the United States continued to decline in the past week as 11 new possible cases were reported but 19 others were ruled out, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday canceled its warning against travel to Beijing, site of the world's largest SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrom) outbreak, signaling that the disease is finally under control in the Chinese capital.

(CIDRAP News) – Experience in the current US military smallpox immunization program makes clear that heart inflammation is a possible complication of vaccination, but the overall record suggests that smallpox vaccination today may be safer than in the past, according to reports published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

June 23, 2003 (CIDRAP News) — The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Hong Kong free of local transmission of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) today, four months after the disease arrived from mainland China and began spreading through the city.

Editor's note: This story was revised from its original form to clarify terminology regarding the DNA chip being offered to researchers.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) today announced it will offer a quartz chip containing the DNA of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus to help researchers quickly detect tiny differences between strains of the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed confidence yesterday that the monkeypox outbreak will be choked off.

(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) – Thousands of food handlers each year have hepatitis A and can potentially pass the disease to diners, a fact that poses tough problems for public health agencies, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The number of suspected cases of human monkeypox in Wisconsin, where the outbreak was discovered, has begun to drop off, according to Herb Bostrom, director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Communicable Diseases.

June 17, 2003 (CIDRAP News) – Taiwan, one of the places hit hardest by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), has been removed from the World Health Organization's list of areas to avoid, the WHO announced today.

June 16, 2003 (CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has canceled its travel warnings for several areas of China in response to the steady waning of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) there.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Postal Service (USPS) is poised to test anthrax detection systems at 14 mail-processing centers around the country once first responders in the local communities feel ready to deal with an anthrax alarm, according to a Postal Service spokesman.

(CIDRAP News) – Donald A. Henderson, MD, MPH, the man who did more than anyone else to eradicate smallpox, sees powerful reasons for both concern and hope in humanity's ancient battle against infectious diseases.

On one hand, with globalization and the threat of bioterrorism, the world now confronts a more dangerous microbial landscape than ever before, Henderson said this week in a lecture at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

(CIDRAP News) – Wisconsin health officials confirmed today that they are investigating two possible cases of person-to-person transmission of monkeypox, but said the cases seem unlikely to be confirmed.

(CIDRAP News) – As expected, federal and state authorities have lifted poultry and bird quarantines in five counties in western Texas and southern New Mexico after concluding that exotic Newcastle disease (END) has been stamped out in the area.

(CIDRAP News) – To contain the emerging monkeypox outbreak, federal health authorities today recommended smallpox vaccination for people potentially exposed to the disease and acted to freeze the movement of pets that may carry it.

(CIDRAP News) – The hunt for additional cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada is winding down after uncovering no evidence of the disease in about 2,700 cattle, Canadian officials announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Nineteen human cases of probable monkeypox have appeared in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, marking the first outbreak of the disease in the Americas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Saturday, Jun 7.

(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.