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(CIDRAP News) – In a flurry of pre-adjournment activity yesterday, Congress appropriated about $2.5 billion for bioterrorism preparedness, including $1 billion for state and local efforts, according to an aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will continue to test meat for Salmonella to confirm that meat processors' food safety systems are adequate, despite a court ruling that Salmonella tests can't be used to shut down a plant, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Because of a small theoretical risk that anthrax spores can hide in the lungs for up to 100 days and grow after antibiotic treatment is stopped, the anthrax vaccine and an extension of antibiotic treatment will be offered to people who may have been exposed in the recent anthrax attacks, federal health officials announced yesterday afternoon.

(CIDRAP News) – If bioterrorists released smallpox virus today, each person who contracted the disease could infect as many as 10 to 12 more before health authorities would recognize the disease and act to contain it, according to experts writing in the Dec 13 issue of Nature.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) priorities for research on anthrax include development of an antitoxin, aerosolization of anthrax powders sent by mail, and postexposure prophylaxis, CDC officials said this week.

(CIDRAP News) – A federal appeals court has ruled that the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Salmonella performance standard for meat packers is illegal, depriving USDA of authority to shut down packing plants for producing meat with Salmonella levels exceeding the standard.

(CIDRAP News) – The US House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill authorizing about $2.9 billion in spending on preparedness for bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced seven new research grant programs to speed efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases related to bioterrorism.

(CIDRAP News) – The American Medical Association this week declined to support any immediate steps toward vaccinating the whole population against smallpox, but endorsed planning for such a step in case it is needed in the future.

(CIDRAP News) – Rapid tests for detecting anthrax spores on surfaces should not be used alone as the basis for public health or clinical decisions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in today's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

(CIDRAP News) – Eighty-five million pieces of mail were processed at anthrax-contaminated Postal Service plants in New Jersey and Washington, DC, before the plants were closed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevented (CDC) reported today. Although the numbers suggest that cross-contaminated mail may be widespread, officials said the risk of contracting inhalational anthrax from such mail is very low.

(CIDRAP News) – Large-scale quarantine of potentially exposed people is not likely to be the optimal strategy for containing a disease outbreak resulting from bioterrorism in most circumstances, according to public health experts writing in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CIDRAP News) – A new study commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicates that the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurring in the United States is extremely low, but USDA officials who released the study said they are considering taking steps to lower the risk further.

Nov 29, 2001 (CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Acambis Inc. a $428 million contract to produce an additional 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine by the end of 2002, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced Wednesday.

(CIDRAP News) – About 19% of more than 3,000 postal workers who took ciprofloxacin to prevent anthrax from the recent bioterrorist attacks reported having "severe" gastrointestinal side effects, but only 2% sought medical attention for them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Officials described the findings as being in line with other reports on ciprofloxacin.

(CIDRAP News) – If smallpox reappears in the United States, health authorities will strive to trace and vaccinate everyone who has had contact with infected or exposed persons but probably will not mount any mass vaccination campaigns, according to a draft plan released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nov 21, 2001 (CIDRAP News)—A cluster of three unexplained deaths after routine knee surgeries in Minnesota has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to hunt for similar cases nationwide and caused Minnesota health officials to call a 1-week moratorium on elective knee surgeries.

(CIDRAP News) – The nation's fifth recent death due to inhalational anthrax—that of a 94-year-old Connecticut woman—was announced today as public health officials were explaining that they don't know how the patient contracted anthrax but don't think it was from a naturally occurring source.

Nov 16, 2001 (CIDRAP News) – In the current investigation of anthrax cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will try to determine if some parts of the country have a normal background level of anthrax spores that poses no threat to humans and, if so, what that level is, CDC officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Pregnant and lactating women who may have been exposed to anthrax should be treated prophylactically with amoxicillin rather than ciprofloxacin when the anthrax strain is found to be penicillin-sensitive, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends.