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(CIDRAP News) – A study involving tens of thousands of children has strengthened the evidence that influenza vaccination is safe for those 6 to 23 months old, an age-group for whom the government began recommending flu immunization 2 years ago.

(CIDRAP News) – Swiss pharmaceutical maker Novartis claimed success last week in a phase 3 clinical trial of a seasonal influenza vaccine produced in cell culture rather than in eggs, the conventional production method.

In a news release, the company said volunteers who received the vaccine had at least as strong an immune response as did volunteers immunized with an egg-based vaccine containing the same flu virus strains.

(CIDRAP News) –Warning that the world is billions of doses short of the amount of vaccine needed to prepare for an influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) today called for an urgent and coordinated international effort to make up the deficit.

(CIDRAP News) – Government researchers reported this week that they have developed a vaccine that protects mice from the deadly 1918 "Spanish flu" virus, demonstrating that immunization against it is possible.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization reported last week that 42 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) died recently of suspected pneumonic plague.

The outbreaks, which include 626 suspected cases, occurred between Jul 31 and Oct 8 in two health zones in the Haut-Uele district, most of them in the Wamba zone of Oriental province in the northern part of the country.

(CIDRAP News) – The Pentagon announced this week that it will resume, after a 2-year hiatus, mandatory anthrax vaccination for troops and other personnel stationed in the Middle East and South Korea.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials announced yesterday that final tests confirmed that a mild strain of H6N2 avian influenza—not the deadly H5N1 type—was found in green-winged teals in Illinois last month. Meanwhile, initial tests on wild ducks in Ohio also suggest a mild strain of avian flu.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued new guidance calling for stronger respiratory protection for healthcare workers in the event of an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today increased its estimate of the flu vaccine supply for this season but said many healthcare providers don't have their full supply yet because of distribution issues.

(CIDRAP News) – Low doses of a cell-based avian flu vaccine triggered a good immune response to the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to preliminary results of a clinical trial by Baxter International of Deerfield, Ill., maker of the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said yesterday that most of this year's supply of seasonal influenza vaccine for children aged 6 months through 3 years will not reach pediatricians until at least November.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed three fatal cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia, involving two women from Java and a boy from South Jakarta, bringing Indonesia's toll to 72 cases with 55 deaths.

(CIDRAP News) – Investigators seeking the contamination source in a nationwide Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak have genetically matched an E coli strain found in manure from a California cattle ranch near spinach fields with the strain isolated from sick patients and their leftover spinach.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to fund eight studies on whether simple measures such as handwashing, "cough etiquette," and face masks could help limit the extent of the next influenza pandemic.

The CDC announced this week it would provide a total of $5.2 million to research institutions, some outside the United States, to assess nonpharmaceutical measures for battling pandemic flu.

(CIDRAP News) – The human immune system may respond better to a vaccine for a new strain of H5N1 avian influenza if it is prepared in advance with a vaccine based on an existing H5N1 strain, the preliminary results of a government-sponsored study suggest.

(CIDRAP News) – To speed emergency responses to avian influenza and other animal and plant diseases, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) inaugurated a new crisis management center (CMC) at its Rome headquarters today.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that a 39-year-old Egyptian woman has H5N1 avian influenza, while officials in Indonesia reported another fatal human case there.

Deer may spread chronic wasting disease (CWD) through their saliva, according to the results of a study published in the Oct. 6 issue of Science.

(CIDRAP News) – Pigs and stray cats have been found infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Indonesia, adding to the few previous reports of such cases, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Two botulism cases in Toronto have been linked to carrot juice from a California company, raising the number of people sickened by the juice to six, according to Canadian news reports.