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(CIDRAP News) The creators of the fictional ABC-TV movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" blended medical facts from the 1918 influenza pandemic with current predictions from flu experts to portray a contemporary flu pandemic, but they added a liberal dash of sensationalism.
(CIDRAP News) – Combining vaccination with 14 days of antibiotic therapy after exposure to airborne anthrax may be an alternative to the current recommendation of 60 days of antibiotics alone, according to an animal study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(CIDRAP News) US officials have closed the investigation into the nation's latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, without finding the infected cow's origins.
John Clifford, the US Department of Agriculture's chief veterinary officer, announced the end of the investigation into the Alabama case on May 2.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that a 30-year-old man who died in late April was Indonesia's 25th avian influenza fatality.
(CIDRAP News) The latest human infected with H5N1 avian influenza died of the infection yesterday in Egypt, while a leading influenza expert called H5N1 the worst flu virus he has seen.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is adding 5 million doses of anthrax vaccine to its stockpile for civilian biodefense, which will double its store of the vaccine.
HHS announced in a press release that it is buying the doses of Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA) for $120 million from BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich. The purchase augments the 5 million AVA doses that HHS bought from BioPort a year ago.
(CIDRAP News) The Ivory Coast government this week confirmed the presence of H5N1 avian influenza in birds, making it at least the sixth African country confronting the virus, according to news services.
(CIDRAP News) A new study suggests that the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) can prevent deaths in ferrets infected with H5N1 avian influenza, according to reports today from an avian flu conference in Singapore.
News of the study's findings came as the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Egypt's 13th human case of H5N1 illness.
(CIDRAP News) In an effort to modernize vaccine production while preparing for an influenza pandemic, the US government today awarded five contracts totaling more than $1 billion to develop cell-based technologies for making flu vaccines.
(CIDRAP News) – The White House today released a lengthy new plan describing how the government intends to cope with an influenza pandemic, but officials continued to stress their standard message that states and communities will have to rely mainly on themselves in that situation, with the federal government in an advisory role.
(CIDRAP News) – The first published report of a phase 1 clinical trial of a West Nile virus vaccine shows promise, with 41 of 42 inoculated volunteers (98%) developing antibodies to the virus.
(CIDRAP News) An experimental vaccine protected monkeys from the deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus even though they weren't vaccinated until after exposure, according to a report published in the April 29 issue of The Lancet.
(CIDRAP News) An Indonesian man whose death was attributed to H5N1 avian influenza will bring Indonesia's death toll from the virus to 25, if his case is confirmed outside the country.
The man reportedly had come into contact with his neighbor's infected chickens in Tangerang, 25 miles west of Jakarta, according to a CNN.com story on Apr 28.
(CIDRAP News) A mild form of avian influenza virus found on three poultry farms in Britain has infected one farm worker and prompted culls on the farms.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is hunting for 14 cattle that might have shared feed with Canada's latest cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
(CIDRAP News) – There is no practical way to clean disposable medical masks and N95 respirators to allow them to safely be reused if supplies run short in an influenza pandemic, a panel of experts at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has concluded.
(CIDRAP News) After close to 2 years of expanded testing, the US government is estimating that there are between four and seven cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) among the nation's 42 million adult cattle.
"The data shows that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is extraordinarily low," US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Mike Johanns said at a teleconference this morning.
(CIDRAP News) China reported its 18th human case of H5N1 avian influenza today as Ivory Coast awaited the results of tests that will tell whether it is Africa's latest country faced with outbreaks in poultry.
(CIDRAP News) An agreement between US security and health agencies to share more data about travelers in order to keep infectious diseases out of the country has drawn criticism.
(CIDRAP News) Food stores may soon be able to offer ground beef and other meat products treated with a mixture of harmless bacteria that reportedly can reduce common pathogens by 99% or more.
