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(CIDRAP News) – Amid controversy around the construction of a biodefense laboratory in Boston, a project risk assessment from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is funding the lab, has been condemned as unsound by the National Research Council (NRC).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a toolkit to help community leaders educate their constituents about steps they can take to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

Editor's Note: CIDRAP's Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Tools online database showcases peer-reviewed practices, including useful tools to help others with their planning. This article is one of a biweekly series exploring the development of these practices. We hope that describing the process and context of these practices enhances pandemic planning.

(CIDRAP News) – Lobbying by the maker of the only US-licensed anthrax vaccine was a key factor in causing the federal government to cancel its big contract with VaxGen Inc. for a new anthrax vaccine that was expected to be safer, according to a report published yesterday by the Los Angeles Times.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials reported today that a 24-year-old man from the eastern part of the country died of H5N1 avian influenza.

The man, from Jiangsu province, died yesterday, the provincial health department told Xinhua News, China's state news agency. If the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the man's H5N1 illness he will become China's 26th case-patient and its 17th fatality.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary officials in Poland today said H5N1 avian influenza has struck two turkey farms, the country's first reported outbreak in domestic birds, amid reports that meat contaminated with the virus was sold to consumers.

(CIDRAP News) – Many countries have improved their responses to H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in poultry in the past year, but the disease remains entrenched in six countries, according to a new report from the United Nations and the World Bank.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Uganda involving a new subtype of the virus that officials suspect was responsible for sickening 51 patients, including 16 who died.

(CIDRAP News) – The initial epidemiologic report, released today, on the United Kingdom's recent outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in Suffolk said the source of the virus is unknown but could have been wild birds.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it is returning its inspections and testing of Canadian meat and poultry products to normal levels after finding no problems during expanded monitoring over the past 2½ weeks.

(CIDRAP News) – Tests have detected no tuberculosis in hundreds of people who shared airline flights with an Atlanta man who flew to Europe and back in May despite having a drug-resistant form of TB, health officials from the United States and Canada have told news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Romanian veterinary officials today reported an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in backyard poultry at a town in the Danube delta, while Saudi Arabia's agriculture ministry announced a new outbreak at an egg farm in a town south of Riyadh, the capital.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Pediatric Advisory Committee voted today to recommend stronger label warnings for two antiviral influenza medications—oseltamivir and zanamivir—that have been linked to reports of neuropsychiatric problems in children and teens, mainly in Japan.

Oseltamivir already carries a warning, but zanamivir currently carries no warning about reported neuropsychiatric effects.

(CIDRAP News)

Introductory remarksJohn Barry's commentary

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) group that recently met to work out an agreement to ease the global sharing of H5N1 avian influenza viruses failed to resolve the issue, but signaled that work on the issues would continue.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has modified its program of increased testing and inspection of Canadian meat, after finding no problems in the first week or so, a USDA official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Sick restaurant workers, including one who vomited in the kitchen, and inadequate cleaning products contributed to a norovirus outbreak at a Michigan restaurant in 2006 that sickened at least 364 customers, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) health ministry said today that its recent Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak has been contained and that the number of confirmed cases turned out to be lower than previously reported.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) working group will meet in Geneva over the next 4 days to try to solve an impasse over how countries share their H5N1 avian influenza virus samples, a disagreement that pits developing countries' demand for affordable vaccines against the global need to monitor virus changes and develop pandemic vaccines.

Editor's Note: This article is one of an occasional series exploring the development of public health practices included in the CIDRAP Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Tools online database. We hope that describing the process and context that drove development of these practices serves as a valuable tool for pandemic planning.