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(CIDRAP News) – A grocery chain based in Arizona removed Mexican-grown jalapeno peppers from its produce departments after some of the peppers from one of its distributors tested positive for the Salmonella outbreak strain, as the number of sick linked to the outbreak today climbed to 1,330.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from Indonesia's health ministry recently confirmed that a 19-year-old man died from an H5N1 avian influenza infection.

Nyoman Kandun, director general of communicable diseases at the health ministry, said the man died last week in a hospital west of Jakarta, according to an Aug 2 report from the Associated Press (AP).

(CIDRAP News) – Two pharmaceutical companies that are developing a second-generation version of the inhaled antiviral drug zanamivir (Relenza) reported promising phase 2 results showing that one dose was as effective against influenza as a course of oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

(CIDRAP News) – Experts and industry leaders speaking at congressional hearings this week on the nationwide Salmonella outbreak said federal agencies should take cues from state programs if they want to improve the traceability of fresh produce and the success of foodborne disease outbreak investigations.

Editor's note: In a statement released late on Jul 30, the FDA said that the Mexican farm where the contaminated jalapeno pepper found in Texas last week was grown is not the same one where the contaminated irrigation water and Serrano pepper were found, contrary to the report below.

(CIDRAP News) – Despite a wide range of pandemic planning guidance documents from federal and private groups, states say they still need more information from federal officials, particularly on community mitigation measures, fatality management, and supporting medical surge efforts, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported recently.

(CIDRAP News) – Emergent BioSolutions Inc. recently announced it had secured two federal grants totaling $4.5 million for development of its botulism and next-generation anthrax vaccine candidates.

Emergent, maker of the nation's only licensed anthrax vaccine, announced the grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in a Jul 24 news release.

(CIDRAP News) – After more than 1,300 cases of Salmonella infection in 43 states over 3 months, investigators have finally found a smoking gun: a contaminated jalapeno pepper from the home of a Colorado resident who was sickened in the outbreak.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently said jalapeno peppers grown in the United States are safe to eat, in view of findings that suggest the contaminated peppers responsible for many illnesses in the nationwide Salmonella outbreak came only from Mexican sources.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Nigeria today reported finding the H5N1 avian influenza virus at two live bird markets, as officials in Hong Kong announced they would go ahead with a buyout of poultry farmers and merchants to reduce the risk of H5N1 outbreaks in the city.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent survey of nursing homes in two states found that fewer than half had a plan for coping with pandemic influenza, according to a report in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CIDRAP News) – New details emerged today about breaks in the Salmonella investigation that led to the identification of the outbreak strain in a jalapeno pepper, as the number of cases in the nationwide outbreak rose to 1,284.

(CIDRAP News) – The president of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) complained to Congress last week that the federal program that monitors the air for dangerous pathogens in major cities is a heavy burden on state and local laboratories.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today released their official guidance on allocating vaccine during an influenza pandemic, with few changes from a previous draft that put military personnel, critical health and emergency workers, pregnant women, and small children at the head of the line.

(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to adopt new automated equipment that will be able to detect dangerous airborne pathogens in major US cities in as little as 4 hours, with a goal of starting deployment in the fall of 2010, DHS officials told Congress last week.

(CIDRAP News) – In the history of infectious diseases, coincidence plays an extraordinary role. In 1706, Cotton Mather purchased a slave named Onesimus who happened to come from a tribe that practiced variolation, and so smallpox prevention was introduced to North America.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal authorities announced today that investigators working at a Texas produce facility found Salmonella that genetically matches the nationwide outbreak strain on a jalapeno pepper.

(CIDRAP News) – Texas and North Carolina officials yesterday announced recalls of avocadoes and jalapeno and Serrano peppers after some samples tested positive for Salmonella. But Texas officials said they did not find the Salmonella strain involved in the current nationwide outbreak, while the strain in the North Carolina produce was not yet known.

(CIDRAP News) – A 38-year-old Indonesian man from a town near Jakarta recently died of H5N1 avian influenza, according to an Associated Press (AP) report citing his family and health workers.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials today lifted warnings against eating certain tomatoes and said new clues in the ongoing nationwide Salmonella outbreak have led investigators from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore a Mexican packinghouse that handles jalapeno and Serrano peppers.