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(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently provided a shield against damage claims related to the use of the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) in the current H1N1 influenza pandemic.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius signed a notice extending liability protection under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act. It was published in the Federal Register on Jun 19.

Jun 25, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – Against the backdrop of a global struggle to solve a dispute related to H5N1 avian influenza virus sharing and an anxious watch over the novel H1N1 virus sweeping the globe, a new public database for sharing influenza genetic sequences is easing the flow of data and winning the support of a growing community of researchers and health officials, even some from countries that have sparred in the past over intellectual property rights.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting in Atlanta issued updated guidelines for treatment of influenza, including novel H1N1, suggesting basing antiviral selection on laboratory test results when possible.

Jun 24, 2009

(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) – The US government has granted Protein Sciences Corp. (PSC) of Meriden, Conn., a $35 million contract to develop its technique for making influenza vaccines by growing flu virus proteins in insect cells, an approach said to be faster than traditional methods.

(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.

(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.

Jun 18, 2009

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.