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(CIDRAP News) A US Senate committee today approved a bill packed with a wide variety of provisions designed to improve the nation's ability to handle public health emergencies, including pandemic influenza.
(CIDRAP News) Novartis, the Swiss-based drug manufacturer, today announced plans to build what it says will be the first US plant to make cell-culture-based influenza vaccines.
The facility will be built in Holly Springs, N.C., at a total cost of about $600 million, the company said in a news release. It will be able to produce about 50 million doses of seasonal trivalent (three-strain) flu vaccine annually.
(CIDRAP News) The federal government on Jun 30 announced a subsidy to help states buy the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to build stockpiles in preparation for a potential influenza pandemic, but so far, few states have said they intend to use the program.
(CIDRAP News) Indonesian health officials are reporting that a 44-year-old man who died last week tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to news services.
If the man's lab results are confirmed by a World Health Organization (WHO) accredited laboratory in Hong Kong, he will be Indonesias 42nd avian flu fatality and 54th confirmed case. Also, Indonesia will be tied with Vietnam for the highest avian flu death toll.
(CIDRAP News) – A man is being treated for cutaneous (skin) anthrax and 36 farms are under quarantine because of livestock deaths in what has been called the largest anthrax outbreak in the history of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
The disease has killed 149 animals on the quarantined farms in northeastern Saskatchewan, according to today's update from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
(CIDRAP News) Canada yesterday confirmed its seventh case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the second case verified this month.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today that a new animal disease crisis management center will begin operating in late July at FAO headquarters in Rome, with an initial focus on H5N1 avian influenza.
(CIDRAP News) A 3-year-old girl who died on Jul 6 near Jakarta had Indonesia's 53rd case of H5N1 avian influenza, according to test results announced today by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Meanwhile, Bloomberg news reported last night that the only survivor of a recent family cluster of avian flu cases in Indonesia is being treated for brain abscesses.
(CIDRAP News) State agriculture and health officials in Michigan are searching Chinese restaurants and Asian grocery stores for frozen poultry products smuggled from China in violation of an import ban sparked by avian influenza.
(CIDRAP News) A chemical sanitizer now used in contact lens solutions and toothpaste may help solve the problem of keeping pathogens like Salmonella and Escherichia coli out of edible sprouts, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Food Protection.
(CIDRAP News) Genetic studies show that the H5N1 avian influenza virus mutated multiple times as it spread through an Indonesia family in May, but the significance of the changes is uncertain, according to a news report today in Nature.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a guide to helps farmers protect crops and animals from security threats.
The guide, titled "Pre-Harvest Security Guidelines and Checklist 2006," offers voluntary, practical measures to help farmers protect crops and animals from natural disasters and naturally or intentionally introduced pathogens.
(CIDRAP News) A blood test detected prions in animals during the asymptomatic phase of infection with scrapie, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), according to a study in the Jul 7 issue of Science.
Editor's note: This story was expanded Jul 13 to include additional information on how the HHS funds can be used and when they will be awarded.
(CIDRAP News) The federal government today announced plans to distribute $225 million to states for pandemic influenza preparedness, the second round of grants for that purpose this year.
(CIDRAP News) Canadian officials announced today they are awaiting the results of confirmatory tests in what could be the country's seventh case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
(CIDRAP News) A 3-year-old Indonesian girl who died yesterday tested positive in a local laboratory for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to news services.
If her case is confirmed by a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory in Hong Kong, she will be recorded as Indonesias 41st avian flu fatality. Only Vietnam, with 42 deaths, has had more fatal cases than Indonesia, which has had a total of 52 confirmed cases.
(CIDRAP News) Physicians miss the diagnosis of influenza in children under age 5 most of the time, according to researchers who tested thousands of sick children for flu in three US counties over several years.
(CIDRAP News) – Spain today became the latest country to join the list of nations responding to outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza, as officials reported finding the virus in a wild bird.
(CIDRAP News) – Dengue fever in US travelers to tropical regions has registered a sharp upsurge, with as many cases in 2005 as in the previous 5 years combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A report in the Jun 30 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report summarizes the 96 cases that were reported in 2005. An accompanying editorial note says that 98 cases were diagnosed in 1999 through 2004.
(CIDRAP News) Nigeria was the first African nation to report H5N1 avian influenza, and now scientists have found evidence that the virus was introduced into the country at least three separate times, possibly by migratory birds.
