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(CIDRAP News) – Officials from the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today unveiled a host of actions that the agency hopes will blunt a recent spike in Escherichia coli outbreaks involving ground beef.

(CIDRAP News) – The White House recently issued a lengthy homeland security directive aimed at bolstering the response of federal, state, and local public health systems to national emergencies such as bioterrorist attacks, influenza pandemics, and natural disasters.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists investigating why seasons drive annual influenza epidemics have charted how low humidity and cold temperatures contribute to the spread of the disease in laboratory animals.

The research group, from Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, published their findings yesterday in the October issue of Public Library of Science Pathogens (PLoS Pathogens).

(CIDRAP News) – A study on the effects of the H5N1 avian influenza virus on small land birds suggests it is often lethal in sparrows but has lesser effects on starlings and pigeons and does not readily spread to other birds of the same species.

However, the researchers say their findings also suggest that sparrows and starlings could potentially spread the virus to poultry and mammals.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government's pandemic influenza preparedness plans need to pay more attention to children, especially their need for antiviral drugs and the effects of prolonged school closings, according to a report released today by public health and pediatrics experts.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday released a report on patenting issues related to influenza viruses, following up on a resolution adopted by the World Health Assembly in May to address the concerns of Indonesia and other developing countries about access to pandemic flu vaccines and treatments.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government recently awarded contracts totaling about $34 million to two companies for development of drugs to treat pneumonic plague, tularemia, and anthrax, three of the diseases terrorists are deemed most likely to try to exploit.

(CIDRAP News) – An Illinois company has recalled about 173,500 pounds of frozen ground beef products because of a possible connection with Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections, as the number of cases in other recent foodborne illness outbreaks continued to mount.

(CIDRAP News) – A 12-year-old Indonesian boy who was identified earlier as having H5N1 avian influenza died Oct 13, raising the country's avian flu death toll to 88, according to news services.

An official at Indonesia's avian flu information center said the boy died suddenly, though he had previously been improving, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report published yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – ConAgra yesterday recalled all of its pot pie varieties, including beef, as the number of people sickened in a Salmonella outbreak that health officials say may be linked to some of the products rose to 165 in 31 states.

(CIDRAP News) – Global health officials have noted sharp rises in the number of dengue fever cases in recent months, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Asian countries where the disease is endemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials have reported an H5N1 avian influenza case in a 12-year-old boy in the Jakarta area, raising the country's human case count to 109, according to news services.

The boy is from the Jakarta suburb of Tangerang and is being treated in a Jakarta hospital, said Muhammad Nadirin, a spokesman for the health ministry's avian flu center, according to a Reuters report published today.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials are warning consumers not to eat certain frozen chicken and turkey pot pie products, as federal investigators gather more information on a nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has so far sickened 139 people in 30 states.

(CIDRAP News) – A Wisconsin meat producer recently recalled about 845,000 pounds of frozen ground beef because of possible contamination with Escherichia coli O157:H7, only a day after the Topps Meat Co., a leading producer of frozen hamburgers, announced it was going out of business because it couldn't bear the cost of a recent massive recall.

(CIDRAP News) – In quick succession, the view that influenza shots yield life-saving benefits for elderly people has come under serious attack and received fresh support in recent weeks.

(CIDRAP News) – A 44-year-old Indonesian woman who died Oct 6 had H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country's 108th human H5N1 case and 87th death, Indonesia and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

The woman, from Sumatra's Riau province, fell ill Sep 27 and was hospitalized Oct 2, said I Nyoman Kandun of the Indonesian Health Ministry, as quoted today by Antara, the national news agency.

(CIDRAP News) – An international research team led by the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW-Madison) has identified a key mutation that would arm the H5N1 avian influenza virus with one of the tools it needs to more easily infect and spread among humans.

(CIDRAP News) – A US House of Representatives committee today explored problems at the nation's biodefense labs, including a lack of coordinated federal oversight and even a lack of knowledge of how many high-containment labs exist.

These concerns have been highlighted recently by aggressive efforts from the Sunshine Project, a watchdog group that monitors biodefense research safety, and by other media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Two pharmaceutical companies recently announced they received federal biodefense grants totaling $21.5 million to support the development of products that could be used to counter an anthrax attack.

Elusys Therapeutics, based in Pine Brook, N.J, said in a Sep 25 statement that it had been awarded a $12 million contract to continue developing AnthrimTM, the company's late-stage anthrax treatment.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers from Beijing and New York who conducted pathology studies on tissue samples of a man and a pregnant woman who died of H5N1 avian flu infection found that the virus spread beyond the lungs to other organ systems—even to the fetus.