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(CIDRAP News) – A clinical trial of the decades-old supply of smallpox vaccine held by Aventis Pasteur is in progress, and early signs are that the vaccine is still potent, according to a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it will begin using laboratory testing to ensure that beef products from mechanical "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) systems are free of spinal cord tissue.

June 25, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – Eating tabletop sauces at restaurants in Mexico may be an important risk factor for traveler's diarrhea, a new study suggests.

(CIDRAP News) – Caught between the unknown risk of a smallpox attack and concern about adverse vaccine reactions, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) yesterday recommended that only healthcare workers assigned to deal directly with a smallpox outbreak be vaccinated against smallpox.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it will increase testing of imported shrimp and crayfish to look for traces of the antibiotic chloramphenicol, which some countries have found in imports from China and Vietnam.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers at the University of Texas report that they have engineered antibodies that can protect rats from the effects of the anthrax toxin, possibly pointing the way toward development of similar antibodies that could protect humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The farm bill that was recently passed by Congress creates at least a possibility that irradiated foods eventually will be sold as "pasteurized" and served in government-subsidized school lunches. But it appears that those changes won't happen quickly, if they happen at all.

(CIDRAP News) – President George W. Bush yesterday signed a far-reaching bioterrorism bill designed to strengthen the public health system, tighten controls on dangerous pathogens, and protect the nation’s food and water supplies.

(CIDRAP News) – Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a recent nationwide poll said they would get vaccinated against smallpox if they could, despite the risk of adverse reactions and the decades-old absence of the disease, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jun 10, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – The smallpox virus has a protein that inhibits the human complement system far more effectively than does its counterpart protein in the closely related vaccinia virus, used in smallpox vaccine, according to researchers who compared the two proteins. This difference may be an important reason for the virulence of smallpox and may offer an avenue for research on treatments, they suggest.

(CIDRAP News) – The distribution of $747 million in federal grants to states for bioterrorism preparedness was announced yesterday by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

The funds are being distributed following an HHS review of public health preparedness plans developed by the states, territories, and three major cities (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), Thompson said.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush's proposal to consolidate homeland security programs in a new Cabinet department apparently would take sizable bioterrorism-related programs away from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

(CIDAP News) – Blood serum tests have confirmed the suspected case of cutaneous anthrax in a Texas laboratory worker that was first reported in early April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) Ð A prolonged salmonellosis outbreak that affected 650 people from all 50 states was linked to a Dallas hotel food worker who was infected with Salmonella but had no symptoms, according to the Texas Department of Health (TDH).

(CIDRAP News) – In their initiative to take the public's pulse on smallpox immunization policy, federal health officials have announced the schedule for five upcoming public forums and have set up a Web page to gather comments on policy options.

(CIDRAP News) – The release of $43.4 million in federal funds to help states detect and respond to animal and plant disease emergencies was announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman.

The money is a share of $328 million in homeland security funds that Congress and President Bush approved earlier this year for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), USDA officials said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States' food supply makes an attractive target for terrorists, and people in the food industry need to talk more frankly about the risks, bioterrorism expert Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said in a Minneapolis speech yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – A mathematical model developed by two researchers suggests that six letters used in last fall's anthrax attacks spread anthrax spores to more than 5,000 other pieces of mail and led to the deaths of two women who had no known exposure to the pathogen.

(CIDRAP News) – The US House and Senate this week approved legislation providing for a wide range of bioterrorism preparedness measures, from funds for hospital preparedness to tracking of dangerous pathogens and increased inspections of imported food.

(CIDRAP News) – Data on recent salmonellosis outbreaks indicate that drug-resistant strains of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport are becoming increasingly common in dairy cattle and are causing a growing share of infections in humans, according to a foodborne disease expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).