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(CIDRAP News) – A new report from Congress' Government Accountability Office (GAO) says key organizations that are the backbone of the US financial industry need to do more to prepare for an influenza pandemic and urges federal regulators to set deadlines for them to complete pandemic plans.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced the creation of a new assistant commissioner position to provide guidance on food safety and defense strategies.

(CIDRAP News) – A hypothetical but not unlikely scenario: Amid an influenza pandemic, a small hospital has three patients who need mechanical ventilation. One has terminal cancer, another has severe chronic lung disease, and a third has a severe case of flu. With only one ventilator available, which patient will get it?

(CIDRAP News) – A committee that reviews medical product applications for the European Union (EU) yesterday recommended approval of a cell-based seasonal influenza vaccine made by Novartis, improving the company's chance of becoming the first to market a flu vaccine grown in cell culture instead of in eggs.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) says nations and vaccine manufacturers agreed yesterday that it may be feasible to set up a world stockpile of H5N1 influenza vaccine and find a way to ensure that developing countries could access pandemic flu vaccine supplies.

(CIDRAP News) – The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche announced today it is scaling back production of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) because of waning demand, and simultaneously questioned whether countries stockpiling the drug are buying enough to protect their citizens in the event of an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently unveiled its plan for developing and buying medical countermeasures against a range of biological, chemical, and other threats, with new anthrax and smallpox vaccines among the near-term priorities.

(CIDRAP News) – Bacteria in a kitchen sponge can best be eliminated by heating the sponge in a microwave oven or running it through an automatic dishwasher, according to a study by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

(CIDRAP News) – In an effort to improve developing countries' access to potential pandemic influenza vaccines, the WHO (World Health Organization) said today it is awarding grants to six countries to help them develop the capacity to make flu vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza vaccine producers have projected they will make 127 million to 132 million doses for the US market for the 2007-08 flu season, a record amount that would top the nearly 121 million doses produced for the 2006-07 season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – US and Russian researchers report that peak death rates from heart disease seemed to coincide with peak influenza activity in a Russian population over an 8-year period, suggesting that flu contributes to heart attacks.

(CIDRAP News) – Two beef producers recently announced recalls of steak and hamburger products because of possible contamination with Escherichia coli O157:H7, following a small number of infections in California and Pennsylvania.

(CIDRAP News) – Faced with the reality that an effective vaccine is not likely to be available for at least the first several months of an influenza pandemic, some corporations are buying antiviral medications for their employees—both to protect them and to improve the chances that the company could keep providing vital products and services through a pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of a clinical conference, the World Health Organization (WHO) has modified its recommendations on treatment for patients with H5N1 avian influenza by strengthening a warning against corticosteroids and suggesting the option of using higher doses of oseltamivir in some cases, among other advice.

(CIDRAP News) – The final epidemiologic report on the United Kingdom's first H5N1 avian influenza outbreak says the source of the virus remains unknown but might have been contaminated turkey meat imported from Hungary.

(CIDRAP News) – Bavarian Nordic, a Danish company, announced this week that the US government plans to buy 20 million doses of the company's Imvamune smallpox vaccine, but a US official said no decision has been made yet.

Imvamune is Bavarian's version of modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), which is considered safer than the conventional smallpox vaccine, particularly for people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women, and children.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the nation's first H5N1 influenza vaccine, made by Sanofi Pasteur, which federal officials hope will buy some time to develop a more precisely targeted vaccine if the virus evolves into a pandemic strain.

(CIDRAP News) – Governmental plans for an influenza pandemic are missing an important opportunity to improve US preparedness, according to two new reports: They are not reaching out to communities and grass-roots groups that could refine plan details and increase public support.

(CIDRAP News) – Bangladesh's livestock ministry said today that H5N1 avian influenza has spread to two more farms, and Cambodian officials have reported poultry outbreaks near where a 13-year-old girl recently died of the disease, according to news services.