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(CIDRAP News) – Seeking to calm public worries about the influenza vaccine shortage, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced today that Aventis Pasteur will produce another 2.6 million doses for distribution in January.

(CIDRAP News) – In response to an apparent increase in illnesses due to contaminated produce, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released an "action plan" for reducing microbial contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today ruled out using any of Chiron Corporation's influenza vaccine in the United States this year, following the completion of inspections at the company's plant in Liverpool, England.

(CIDRAP News) –The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a new guideline to prevent the use of cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in any animal feed.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal researchers report they have succeeded in infecting monkeys with fatal smallpox, creating the first animal model of the disease for use in testing vaccines and treatments for humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Two billion people around the world get sick from unsafe food each year, but following five simple rules could significantly reduce that toll, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – To cope with the loss of nearly half of the nation's influenza vaccine supply, federal health officials and Aventis Pasteur announced plans today to distribute Aventis's 22.4 million remaining doses to those who need them the most.

(CIDRAP News) – Lettuce has been implicated in an outbreak of Salmonella infection that has involved more than 350 cases in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

(CIDRAP News) – The antiviral drug cidofovir is one of very few agents used to treat serious side effects of smallpox vaccination. In a recent study, a topical form of cidofovir worked better than an intravenous formulation to protect mice from the effects of vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Southeast Asian nations have agreed to band together to coordinate response to the deadly avian influenza outbreak that has caused 31 human deaths and widespread poultry losses.

(CIDRAP News) – Lester Crawford, acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), appearing before the House Committee on Government Reform yesterday, said he was pessimistic about the possiblility that any of the 48 million doses of influenza vaccine expected in the United States from Chiron Corp. can be salvaged for use this flu season, according to new service reports.

(CIDRAP News) – The first US case of Lassa fever since 1989 is a reminder that physicians need to consider exotic diseases when making diagnoses, noted the Oct 1 edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

(CIDRAP News) – The vaccine supply for the soon-to-begin influenza season is suddenly in serious condition with news that Chiron Corp., maker of about half the US supply, has been ordered to stop production by British health authorities and will not be shipping its doses.

(CIDRAP News) – Two vaccine companies have received contracts estimated at about $200 million to produce a modified smallpox vaccine for the US government.

Acambis, based in Cambridge, UK, and Cambridge, Mass., and Denmark's Bavarian Nordic both won contracts on Sep 30 to continue research on a smallpox vaccine made with a modified version of the currently used live vaccinia (Dryvax) vaccine, news services reported.

(CIDRAP News) – A young girl who died Sunday night is Thailand's 11th avian influenza victim, a health ministry spokeswoman told news services on Monday.

The girl's H5N1 infection had just been confirmed on Sunday. She was from the northern Thai province of Phetchabun and had been in the hospital for about a week, Reuters news reported. Reports put her age at 8 or 9 years old.

(CIDRAP News) – Pregnant women and children younger than 3 in California will soon no longer receive vaccines containing more than a trace of mercury, under a law approved this week.

Vaccines for those groups will contain no more than a trace of thimerosal (termed thimerosal-free in the industry)—a preservative in some vaccines that contains ethyl mercury. The law takes effect in July 2006, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $9.5 million grant to a Canadian firm that aims to develop an influenza vaccine that doesn't rely on eggs.

Editor's Note: See Oct 5 CIDRAP News story for important developments regarding the supply of flu vaccine since the story below was published.

(CIDRAP News) – Flu vaccine should be on time for the 2004-2005 influenza season, and it will be safe, according to testimony this week by Howard Pien, President and CEO of Chiron, maker of Fluvirin, before the US Senate Committee on Aging.

(CIDRAP News) – New cases of avian influenza in Southeast Asia this week have heightened surveillance, as key international health organizations ratchet up concerns about the pervasiveness of the disease

A 14-month-old Vietnamese boy who died on Sep 5 has been posthumously confirmed as a victim of H5N1 avian influenza, news reports said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Three federal agencies have signed a cooperative agreement with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) to improve integration of state-federal responses to food and agricultural emergencies.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) signed the agreement on Sep 23.