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(CIDRAP News) – The number of patients sickened in a multistate Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to prepackaged Nestle cookie dough has grown to 70 from 30 states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday.

Jun 23, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – Responding to lobbying by the Obama administration and public health advocates, Congress last week approved $7.65 billion for battling pandemic influenza, more than three times what the House and Senate had earlier proposed.

Jun 22, 2009

Jun 19, 2009

(CIDRAP News) –The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers today not to eatNestle Toll House refrigerated raw cookie dough, as state and federal officialsinvestigate 66 Escherichia coliO157:H7 illnesses, many of them children, across 28 states that they suspectare linked to the product.

Jun 18, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – An analysis of novel H1N1 influenza cases in healthcare workers in the early weeks of the epidemic shows that half of them were probably infected on the job, and most of those weren't using respiratory protection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

By Craig Hedberg, PhD

(CIDRAP News) – The foodborne disease surveillance system seems to be under siege. A nearly continuous series of large, multistate outbreaks of Salmonella have been associated with unexpected food vehicles over the past 3 years. Several of these investigations stretched on for weeks under the glare of increasing public anxiety over uncertain identification of the source.

Jun 17, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other experts have rejected a report that a new strain of the novel H1N1 influenza virus has been identified in a Brazilian patient.

Feds eye schools as potential flu vaccination sites
US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that schoolchildren may be a top priority if federal officials decide to use novel H1N1 flu vaccines and that children might be immunized at school, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. Sebelius is meeting with school superintendents to ask them to collaborate on plans for possibly using schools for mass vaccination sites.

(CIDRAP News) – One byproduct of the pandemic of novel H1N1 influenza is increased evidence of the extent to which "seasonal" flu viruses stick around in the summertime.

(CIDRAP News) – As the school year winds down for most students, and with it the threat of school-related illness clusters, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has its sights set on preventing the spread of the novel H1N1 virus at another setting where kids congregate: summer camps.

World novel flu count exceeds 35,000

(CIDRAP News) – A well-known risk-communication expert said the World Health Organization (WHO) acted wisely in delaying its declaration of an influenza pandemic until yesterday, but he simultaneously expressed concern that the move may lead to complacency about the situation.

(CIDRAP News) – On the heels of yesterday's pandemic declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today urged businesses to review their pandemic plans to make sure they're flexible enough to respond to a moderate or severe pandemic.

Global H1N1 flu count closes in on 30,000

(CIDRAP News) – After delaying action for weeks as the novel H1N1 influenza virus took hold in far-flung parts of the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) today declared a full-fledged pandemic, formally recognizing that the virus is becoming a global contagion.