All News

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the nation's first H5N1 influenza vaccine, made by Sanofi Pasteur, which federal officials hope will buy some time to develop a more precisely targeted vaccine if the virus evolves into a pandemic strain.

(CIDRAP News) – Governmental plans for an influenza pandemic are missing an important opportunity to improve US preparedness, according to two new reports: They are not reaching out to communities and grass-roots groups that could refine plan details and increase public support.

(CIDRAP News) – While Indonesia has drawn the media spotlight for withholding H5N1 virus samples for several months, China has been withholding H5N1 samples from humans for much longer, according to a Canadian Press (CP) report published yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Bangladesh's livestock ministry said today that H5N1 avian influenza has spread to two more farms, and Cambodian officials have reported poultry outbreaks near where a 13-year-old girl recently died of the disease, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Japanese researchers who identified antiviral-resistant strains of influenza B found that they seemed to circulate in communities and families and to make patients just as sick as their nonresistant counterparts did, contrary to a common assumption that resistant flu viruses are likely to be less transmissible and less virulent.

(CIDRAP News) – A scientific advisory panel assembled by Fresh Express, a California produce company, has selected nine research teams to receive awards up to $250,000 each to study how to keep Escherichia coli O157:H7 from contaminating fresh produce.

Business is all about competition. It's about building a better mousetrap and marketing that mousetrap more creatively and effectively than your competitor. But it is also about dependency on other businesses to ensure that you can make, sell, and service that mousetrap.

(CIDRAP News) – Preliminary data from 2006 show that foodborne illnesses caused by Escherichia coli and Vibrio rose, while cases caused by other pathogens leveled off or slowly declined, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – An influenza vaccine grown in insect cells instead of chicken eggs proved safe and yielded a good immune response in a trial in healthy adults, possibly signaling a significant advance in flu vaccine production technology, according to a report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza caused the deaths of two teenage girls, a 15-year-old in Egypt and a 13-year-old in Cambodia.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed rules that would relax some labeling restrictions on irradiated foods and invited the public to comment.

The FDA currently requires all irradiated foods to have the international radura symbol and the statement "treated by irradiation" or "treated with radiation" clearly displayed on the packaging.

(CIDRAP News) – N-95 respirators are regarded as a key tool for protecting people from airborne influenza viruses in the event of a pandemic, but a recent study suggests that without special instruction, most people are likely to wear the devices incorrectly, limiting their effectiveness.

(CIDRAP News) –Indonesia and Egypt each have reported another human case of H5N1 avian influenza, the first in a 29-year-old man who died and the second in a 15-year-old girl, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – ConAgra, the producer of peanut butter linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak in February, announced yesterday that its own investigation found that moisture might have triggered the growth of the bacteria.

(CIDRAP News) – New human cases of H5N1 avian influenza were reported in Cambodia and Egypt today, while Indonesian officials, according to one news service, said they would not resume sharing H5N1 virus samples unless vaccine manufacturers promise to provide the country with free pandemic flu vaccines.

Because most people feel ambivalent about possible future pandemics, communicating effectively with them requires skillful balance on a wide range of communication 'seesaws.'

(CIDRAP News) – A second round of H5N1 avian influenza tests came back negative today on four Bangladeshi men who initially tested positive after helping cull chickens in Kuwait, while tests confirmed the infection in a 15-year-old Indonesian girl, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – CSL Biotherapies, the US branch of an Australian vaccine producer, announced this week it has applied for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market a seasonal influenza vaccine in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada recently released a report on the investigation of its ninth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the first case of 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – In a major effort to track influenza viruses in nature and learn more about how they interact with the human body, the federal government this week announced a $23-million-a-year program to fund research centers at six institutions around the country.