All News

(CIDRAP News) – The strain of Salmonella associated with 57 recent illnesses in 18 states has been found in a recalled snack called Veggie Booty, confirming interview-based evidence linking the product to the outbreak.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture announced this week it had found Salmonella Wandsworth, a strain it said has not been implicated in a US foodborne outbreak before, in a sealed package of the snack.

(CIDRAP News) – Only 27% of Americans describe themselves as concerned about avian influenza, down from 35% last year, according to a national survey released this week.

In an Associated Press–Ipsos Public Affairs poll released on Jul 2, 41% of respondents said they were not concerned about avian flu, an increase from 31% last year. Another 34%—the same as last year—said they were moderately concerned.

(CIDRAP News) – Experts have concluded that the Atlanta man whose case of drug-resistant tuberculosis triggered an international health scare in May has a less dangerous form of the disease than was previously believed.

(CIDRAP News) – France's agriculture ministry said today that three swans found dead in Moselle department in the eastern part of the country tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, making France the third European country in recent weeks to report new outbreaks in wild birds.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Jun 30 ordered a biodefense research laboratory at Texas A&M University to stop all work on select agents and toxins while the CDC investigates reports of lab workers infected with the category B bioterror agents Brucella and Coxiella burnetti.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials released their influenza vaccine advisory Friday for the upcoming flu season, and though they did not extend the vaccine recommendations beyond current age groups, they strongly recommended vaccination of all healthcare workers and urged providers to schedule later immunization clinics.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two H5N1 cases from Vietnam dating back to late May and early June.

(CIDRAP News) – An epidemiologic investigation of 52 cases of Salmonella infection in 17 states, most of them in children, has prompted a nationwide recall of a snack called Veggie Booty, federal health agencies reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today banned importation of five types of farmed Chinese seafood because of contamination with outlawed antimicrobial drugs, including one that can spawn antibiotic resistance.

(CIDRAP News) – Blocking proposals stemming from notorious foodborne-disease outbreaks last year, a California State Assembly committee yesterday rejected one bill aimed at reducing contamination in leafy greens and stalled voting on two others, despite the State Senate's earlier approval of all three.

How are you explaining the current risk of an H5N1-related influenza pandemic to your boss, the emergency preparedness committee, or the executive suite today? Is the task daunting? Are you being waved off with the comment that all this attention to pandemic preparedness is just public health's version of Y2K?

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today said H5N1 avian influenza virus is entrenched in some places and will continue to spread, despite improved control efforts.

As if to underscore the message, new poultry outbreaks were reported today in the Czech Republic and Bangladesh, and more wild birds were reported infected in Germany.

(CIDRAP News) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued two reports that address avian and pandemic influenza planning last week, one examining how well the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is prepared to respond to avian flu outbreaks and the other assessing efforts by US and international agencies to help vulnerable countries.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a new software tool to make it easier and quicker for food industry facilities to assess their risk of attacks involving biological, chemical, or radiological weapons.

(CIDRAP News) – Limited supplies of prepandemic influenza vaccine may prevent more illness cases overall if they are administered to more people in lower-than-recommended doses, University of Hong Kong researchers contend in a study published this month in Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two H5N1 avian influenza cases, one in a 4-year-old Egyptian boy and the other in a 3-year-old Indonesian girl.

The boy is from Qena governorate in southern Egypt. He got sick on Jun 20 and was admitted to the hospital the next day, where he is in stable condition, according to a WHO statement.

(CIDRAP News) – Six wild birds in Germany have tested positive for the lethal strain of H5N1 avian influenza in the virus's first appearance in the country since last August, according to news services.

An official in the west African country of Togo confirmed today that poultry have tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, raising the number of African nations hit by the virus to 10.

– TORONTO (CIDRAP News) – Scientists are uncovering naturally occurring resistance in influenza to the antiviral drugs that can prevent or treat it, potentially complicating plans by international authorities and many countries to build large drug stockpiles as a hedge against a pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from the University of Iowa suggests that veterinarians who work with poultry have a significantly higher risk of infection with avian influenza, compared with nonveterinarians.