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(CIDRAP News) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) asserted this week that weaknesses in the government's systems for handling food recalls increase the risk that consumers will buy and eat unsafe food.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza probably infected at least 1,000 people during a major outbreak in the Netherlands in 2003, many more than originally thought, Dutch researchers say.

Results of antibody tests of poultry workers suggested that at least 1,000 people were infected with the H7N7 avian flu virus, according to research conducted by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

(CIDRAP News) – A government official in Thailand said 23 tigers at a private zoo died of avian influenza after eating the carcasses of chickens believed to have had the disease, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.

Meanwhile, thousands of chickens have died in new outbreaks of avian flu in southern Vietnam this month, despite official statements that the disease was under control, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Seeking to calm public worries about the influenza vaccine shortage, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced today that Aventis Pasteur will produce another 2.6 million doses for distribution in January.

(CIDRAP News) – In response to an apparent increase in illnesses due to contaminated produce, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released an "action plan" for reducing microbial contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables.

(CIDRAP News) –The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a new guideline to prevent the use of cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in any animal feed.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today ruled out using any of Chiron Corporation's influenza vaccine in the United States this year, following the completion of inspections at the company's plant in Liverpool, England.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal researchers report they have succeeded in infecting monkeys with fatal smallpox, creating the first animal model of the disease for use in testing vaccines and treatments for humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Two billion people around the world get sick from unsafe food each year, but following five simple rules could significantly reduce that toll, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – To cope with the loss of nearly half of the nation's influenza vaccine supply, federal health officials and Aventis Pasteur announced plans today to distribute Aventis's 22.4 million remaining doses to those who need them the most.

(CIDRAP News) – Lettuce has been implicated in an outbreak of Salmonella infection that has involved more than 350 cases in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

(CIDRAP News) – The antiviral drug cidofovir is one of very few agents used to treat serious side effects of smallpox vaccination. In a recent study, a topical form of cidofovir worked better than an intravenous formulation to protect mice from the effects of vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Lester Crawford, acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), appearing before the House Committee on Government Reform yesterday, said he was pessimistic about the possiblility that any of the 48 million doses of influenza vaccine expected in the United States from Chiron Corp. can be salvaged for use this flu season, according to new service reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Southeast Asian nations have agreed to band together to coordinate response to the deadly avian influenza outbreak that has caused 31 human deaths and widespread poultry losses.

(CIDRAP News) – The first US case of Lassa fever since 1989 is a reminder that physicians need to consider exotic diseases when making diagnoses, noted the Oct 1 edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

(CIDRAP News) – The vaccine supply for the soon-to-begin influenza season is suddenly in serious condition with news that Chiron Corp., maker of about half the US supply, has been ordered to stop production by British health authorities and will not be shipping its doses.

(CIDRAP News) – A young girl who died Sunday night is Thailand's 11th avian influenza victim, a health ministry spokeswoman told news services on Monday.

The girl's H5N1 infection had just been confirmed on Sunday. She was from the northern Thai province of Phetchabun and had been in the hospital for about a week, Reuters news reported. Reports put her age at 8 or 9 years old.

(CIDRAP News) – Two vaccine companies have received contracts estimated at about $200 million to produce a modified smallpox vaccine for the US government.

Acambis, based in Cambridge, UK, and Cambridge, Mass., and Denmark's Bavarian Nordic both won contracts on Sep 30 to continue research on a smallpox vaccine made with a modified version of the currently used live vaccinia (Dryvax) vaccine, news services reported.

(CIDRAP News) – Pregnant women and children younger than 3 in California will soon no longer receive vaccines containing more than a trace of mercury, under a law approved this week.

Vaccines for those groups will contain no more than a trace of thimerosal (termed thimerosal-free in the industry)—a preservative in some vaccines that contains ethyl mercury. The law takes effect in July 2006, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $9.5 million grant to a Canadian firm that aims to develop an influenza vaccine that doesn't rely on eggs.