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(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said yesterday it will release $100 million in recently appropriated emergency funds to help states with their smallpox vaccination program and other public health preparedness efforts.

(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory studies have shown that the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus can survive up to 2 days on plastic surfaces and at least that long in human feces, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.

(CIDRAP News) – A total of 103 women in recent months inadvertently received smallpox shots while pregnant or just before becoming pregnant, despite screening to prevent that scenario, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday.

The agency said the screening appears to be effective, but it plans to investigate the situation anyway.

(CIDRAP News) – The worldwide cumulative case count for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) topped 6,000 today with the addition of 207 new cases, including 176 in China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Twenty-six more SARS deaths were reported, bringing the global total to 417.

(CIDRAP News) – Although few states have finished the first stage of their smallpox vaccination programs, half of the states that responded to a recent survey said they are prepared to vaccinate their entire population in 10 days if necessary.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should help states adjust their smallpox vaccination plans and goals to reflect the reality that relatively few health workers have volunteered for the shots so far, the General Accounting Office (GAO) of Congress says in a report released yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials have revised their surveillance case definition for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) to include laboratory findings, but the revised definition should be used only for reporting, not clinical management, officials say.

(CIDRAP News) – With the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in Toronto cooling off, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that it will lift its advisory against travel to the city, effective tomorrow.

April 28, 2003 (CIDRAP News) – Viet Nam has, as of today, been removed from the list of countries with local transmission of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), meaning it has successfully contained the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials today said Vietnam has not had a new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case in 17 days and could soon become the first country to contain the epidemic, even as the cumulative global case count took another sizable jump.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent death of a Dutch veterinarian due to an avian influenza virus was an isolated case and did not involve an unusual form of the virus, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and Dutch government officials.

In a statement issued yesterday, the WHO said, "Based on available evidence, WHO concludes that the death is an isolated case, as no efficient human-to-human transmission has been detected."

(CIDRAP News) – It's time to link science-based food safety standards with specific public health goals, says a report released today by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today warned against unnecessary travel to Toronto, Beijing, and China's Shanxi Province because of the risk of contracting SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The warning extends the WHO's Apr 2 advisory against nonessential travel to China's Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, the birthplace and epicenter of the SARS epidemic.

(CIDRAP News) – The prevalence of Salmonella contamination in raw meat and poultry tested by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) declined overall from 2001 to 2002, the USDA has announced.

(CIDRAP News) – The death last week of a 57-year-old Dutch veterinarian who had worked among chickens infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was apparently due to the same disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cases in China soared in the past 2 days with official revelations that Beijing has 448 cases, more than 10 times the number previously reported.

The increase helped push the worldwide cumulative total to 3,861 cases, with 217 deaths, according to today's figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO reported 495 new cases since the previous report on Apr 19.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning blood-collection agencies not to accept blood from people who have been in places hard-hit by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) until 2 weeks after their return to the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – Preliminary data for 2002 indicate that the nation is making progress against some major foodborne diseases, including Campylobacter and Listeria, but not against others, including Salmonella, one of the most common.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials said today that only 35 people in the United States have "probable" cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a small fraction of the 208 suspected cases under investigation.

(CIDRAP News) – The genetic blueprint of Coxiella burnetii, a category B bioterrorism agent that causes Q fever, has been decoded and analyzed, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced this week.