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(CIDRAP News) – The US government today announced the award of a $231 million, 5-year contract to an Australian company for advanced development of a single-dose, long-acting influenza drug in the neuraminidase inhibitor class.

The contract was awarded to Biota Scientific Management Pty, Ltd., of Melbourne, according to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mar 30, 2011

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of a massive egg recall in August 2010, an investigation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) into the role of its egg graders recently found that communication breakdowns between producers, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the egg graders led to problems in another egg recall 3 months later.

Mar 29, 2011

(CIDRAP News) – North Carolina health officials have reported a number of influenza B isolates with reduced sensitivity to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), a rare finding, but they say antivirals remain effective and there is no reason for clinicians to change their prescribing practices.

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt's health ministry has announced three more H5N1 avian influenza infections, including a 32-year-old man who died, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

The three new illnesses and death push Egypt's H5N1 burden so far this year to 14 cases, which include 5 deaths. The WHO said investigations into all three illnesses suggest that the patients had been exposed to sick and dead poultry.

(CIDRAP News) – The independent committee reviewing the World Health Organization's (WHO's) performance during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic today at a meeting in Geneva received feedback from countries and organizations on its preliminary report, which was released Mar 10 and generally defended the WHO's actions. The feed back mostly consisted of questions and clarifications.

Mar 28, 2011

Mar 25, 2011

(CIDRAP News) – Most measures of influenza activity in the United States continued their gradual decline last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and similar trends were reported in Europe and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Mar 25, 2011

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported new details about an Indonesian toddler who is recovering from H5N1 avian flu, including that her mother died from the virus a day before the girl got sick.

Mar 24, 2011

(CIDRAP News) – The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States dropped almost 4% last year to its lowest level since 1953, but the nation still fell well short of a long-standing goal of eliminating the disease by 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday said the total number of cases has risen to 26 in a pair of foodborne disease outbreaks, one involving Salmonella possibly tied to cantaloupe and the other involving Escherichia coli O157:H7 thought to come from bologna.

(CIDRAP News) – Foodborne illness investigations in several states have prompted two product recalls, involving cantaloupe suspected as the cause of Salmonella infections and Lebanon bologna that may have ties to Escherichia coli O157:H7 illnesses.

In both outbreaks, epidemiological investigations by state and federal experts identified the suspected foods. So far the pathogens have not been detected in cantaloupe or bologna samples.